#yahadut

The term Judaism derives from Iudaismus, a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek Ioudaismos (Ἰουδαϊσμός) (from the verb ἰουδαΐζειν, "to side with or imitate the [Judeans]"). Its ultimate source was the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah", which is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism: יַהֲדוּת, Yahadut.

The term Ἰουδαϊσμός first appears in the Hellenistic Greek book of 2 Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) . 

In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity" and it resembled its antonym hellenismos, a word that signified a people's submission to Hellenic (Greek) cultural norms. The conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind the Maccabean revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos.

For one, he’s our ancestor, so that’s why we look up to him. It’s not because he’s perfect. Secondly, the whole point of Judaism is that people are capable of good and bad, that we are given free choice and that we can always change, and we can always continue to make mistakes, that to err is human.

Finally, what culture has perfect role models? Certainly not Christianity, whose hero canonically refuses to help a Canaanite woman at first, humiliating her for a long period before finally healing her. Certainly not the Greeks or the Romans, whose heroes routinely do immoral things above the ability and inclination of Yisroel. Who then?

-Zack De La Rocha from Rage Against the Machine