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God as One

Religious Studies A: AQA GCSE Religions, topic 5.1.2

God as One

Jews believe in One God, so Judaism is a monotheistic religion. This belief is expressed 3 times a day in the Shema (Jewish prayer). God is beyond human understanding, however by studying events in history, one can see God’s providence or guiding love.

The Shema

The Shema

  • The Shema is the Jewish prayer and consists of 3 paragraphs taken from the Torah.
  • The texts focus on the Oneness of God, loving and respecting God’s laws and the doctrine of reward and punishment.
Characteristics of God

Characteristics of God

  • As well as being omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, God is both transcendent and immanent.
Loyalty

Loyalty

  • Jews must be totally loyal to God even to the point of giving up their lives for God in extreme situations.
  • God is the only being who should be worshipped, and all other personalities in Jewish traditions are humans who have become spiritual giants.
  • Man can never become God as that would be idolatry, which is strictly forbidden.

Test yourself on God as One

  • What is the Shema?

  • What do the texts in the Shema focus on?

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