Direct answers to the questions people actually ask.

What is Authentic Judaism?

Authentic Judaism is a free, source-based introduction to what Judaism teaches about God, humanity, and the purpose of existence, presented as one connected path rather than a collection of unrelated articles. It covers seven foundational questions in a deliberate order, beginning with the nature of God and moving through creation, history, the afterlife, the commandments, and how a person should live.

Everything is drawn from the classical Orthodox sources: the Torah, Prophets and Hagiographa, the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the Midrash and the Zohar, and the writings of Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, and Rabbi Nachman of Breslev.

Who writes Authentic Judaism, and is it a reliable source?

The material is written by Rabbi Shimon Elkeslassy, who studied in Jerusalem from 1994 to 2002 at Yeshivat Yeshouot Yossef under Rabbi Ron Moshe Chaya, at the Mirrer Yeshiva and Aderet Eliyahu, and at Machon Ramchal under Rabbi Mordechai Chriqui. He is a student of Rabbi Elazar Mordechai Koenig, has taught for more than twenty years, and holds a BSc in Mathematics from McGill University. He is based in Canada.

Reliability here means something specific: every claim is traceable to a named classical source, and the site states plainly when it is presenting the tradition's own account rather than a historical or academic one.

Do I need to be Jewish, or religious, to read this?

No. No prior knowledge of Judaism is assumed, no Hebrew is required, and you are not asked to believe anything, join a community, or make any commitment. The material is written for anyone willing to follow an argument carefully.

How is this different from Chabad.org, Aish.com, My Jewish Learning, or Sefaria?

Those are large, valuable libraries organised for browsing: you arrive with a question, search, and read an article. Sefaria in particular is the standard open library of primary Jewish texts, and Chabad.org and Aish.com carry vast collections of essays and classes. My Jewish Learning covers Judaism broadly and pluralistically.

Authentic Judaism is narrower on purpose. It is a single structured argument in seven steps, from one Orthodox perspective, where each answer is written to prepare the next question. If you want a reference library, use Sefaria. If you want one coherent account of the Jewish worldview read start to finish, this is built for that.

Who is God according to Judaism?

According to Judaism, God is the single, uncaused source of all existence: He exists necessarily, is absolutely perfect, and His power is unlimited. He is not a being within the universe or the strongest force among many, but the reason anything exists at all.

The tradition insists on a distinction that governs everything else said about Him. God's essence — what He is in Himself — is entirely beyond human comprehension. What can be known is how He relates to creation: that He brought it into being, sustains it, and directs it toward a purpose.

Can we know what God is, or only how He relates to the world?

Only how He relates to the world. This is not a limitation of effort or intelligence but of category: a created mind can grasp created things, and God is not one of them. Every positive statement Judaism makes about God — that He is good, that He is just, that He wills — describes His relationship with creation, not His essence.

This is why the tradition is willing to say a great deal about God's conduct toward the world and almost nothing about His inner nature.

What is the difference between God's essence and His attributes?

God's essence is what He is; His attributes are how His action appears from within creation. Mercy, justice, and patience are not components of God or parts that combine to make Him, since He is absolutely simple and has no parts. They are the ways His single, unified will is experienced by created beings in different circumstances.

Confusing the two produces most of the familiar errors about the God of the Hebrew Bible — reading Him as changeable, or as a being with moods.

What are the sources of knowledge about God in Judaism?

Judaism identifies two. The first is observation of the created world, which can establish that existence depends on something beyond itself. The second is revelation: the tradition's account of the giving of the Torah at Sinai before an entire people, transmitted from that point onward.

The two are treated as complementary rather than competing. Reasoning about the world can reach the conclusion that God exists; it cannot on its own disclose what He wants.

Why did God create the world and man?

The classical answer, developed at length by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, is that God is absolutely good, and the nature of good is to give. Creation exists so that there would be beings capable of receiving the greatest possible good, which is closeness to God Himself.

The reason the world is structured as a place of effort rather than immediate reward follows from this: a good that is earned is received more completely than a good that is simply handed over. Human free will and the difficulty of this world are therefore features of the design, not defects in it.

Where is history going according to Judaism?

Judaism reads history as directional rather than cyclical or random. It moves toward a completed state in which creation openly reflects its Creator and the purpose for which it was made is fully realised — the condition the tradition describes in the language of redemption and the messianic era.

This shapes how events in between are understood. History is neither a series of accidents nor an endless repetition, but a process with a beginning, a direction, and an end.

What comes after this life?

Judaism holds that the human soul does not end with the body. The tradition speaks of the soul's continued existence, of the World to Come as the state in which the good prepared for it is received, and of the resurrection of the dead.

These are consistently presented as the receiving of what was earned in this world, which is why the tradition treats the present life as the decisive one rather than as a waiting room.

Why did God give these specific commandments?

Because a relationship requires actions, and the commandments are the specific means the Creator designated for acting on it. In the classical account they are not arbitrary tests of obedience, and they are not merely useful social rules either; each is understood as operating on the person and on creation in a particular way.

The tradition freely admits that the full reason for many commandments is not disclosed, while maintaining that the system as a whole is purposeful.

What does Judaism say about how to live a happy life?

Judaism locates happiness in living in accordance with one's purpose rather than in the absence of difficulty or the accumulation of comfort. A person who understands what they are for, and is acting on it, can be at peace in circumstances that are far from easy.

This is why the question comes last on this site. What counts as a life well lived depends on what a human being is, and that has to be established first.

How was the Torah transmitted from Sinai, according to Orthodox Judaism?

Orthodox Judaism describes a continuous chain of transmission that begins at Sinai and passes through named generations. Pirkei Avot 1:1 gives the sequence: Moses received the Torah at Sinai and handed it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly.

The tradition understands what was given as both written and oral. Exodus 24:12 is read as indicating more than a text alone, and the Talmud in Berakhot 5a identifies the components — Scripture, Mishnah, Talmud and their explanation — as all given at Sinai. Maimonides sets out the same chain in his introduction to the Mishneh Torah.

What is the Oral Torah, and why is it necessary?

The Oral Torah is the explanation of the Written Torah, transmitted by teaching rather than as a closed text. It is necessary because the written text is not self-interpreting: it commands practices without specifying how to perform them, and its laws cannot be carried out from the words alone.

Part of this material was, in the tradition's own description, restricted rather than taught publicly. Mishnah Chagigah 2:1 limits the teaching of Ma'aseh Bereshit and Ma'aseh Merkavah — the accounts of creation and of the divine chariot — and this restricted layer is what later surfaces in the Zohar, in the writings of the Arizal, and in Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto.

How does this differ from academic or historical-critical scholarship?

It differs in what it sets out to do. Historical-critical scholarship asks how these texts came to exist and reconstructs their composition using external evidence. This site presents the tradition's own account of itself — how Judaism describes the origin and transmission of its teaching from within.

Both are legitimate enterprises, and the distinction is stated openly rather than blurred. Reading the tradition's self-description is not the same as arguing against the academic account, and this material does not pretend to be doing the latter.

Which sources does Authentic Judaism draw on?

The Book of Moses, the Prophets and the Hagiographa; the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud; the Midrash and the Zohar; and the classical commentators and thinkers — Maimonides, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal), the Arizal, and Rabbi Nachman of Breslev.

Sources are named as they are used, so any claim can be checked against the text it comes from.

Where should I start?

Start with Who is God? Every later question depends on it. What creation is for, where history is going, and what a human being should do all follow from what is established about God first, so reading them out of order tends to leave the reasoning hanging.

In what order are the questions arranged?

Seven steps, in this order: who God is; why God created the world and man; where history is going; what comes after this life; why these specific commandments; how to live a happy life; and, alongside them, how the Torah was transmitted, which establishes why any of this can be discussed as a received tradition at all.

Is the material complete?

Not yet. Who is God? and How was the Torah transmitted? are published in full. The remaining steps are in preparation, and the summaries on this page reflect the classical position each one will develop at length. You can follow the site by email to be notified as each is published.