How Did The Jewish Culture Influence The Hebrew Culture

The Hebrew culture is one of the oldest and still living cultures in our world today. It’s become infamous for its distinct traditions and symbols. It’s among one of the most recognizable cultures in the world. What we may remember most is the stories about the Hebrew people. Of course like in many religions, the stories deeply root values into its beliefs. All the stories also center one divine being, and it’s the relationship of the people with this one god that helped shape the culture into what it is today.
Many of the major stories in the Hebrew bible have Yahweh, the Hebrew god, as the main instigator. The story would usually start with Yahweh making contact with someone. He would tell them his wishes -or rather demands. Then they would of course do as their God commands, because they feared falling out of favor with them. They were afraid of being forsaken by their god, so much so they go to end of the Earth to please them. A strong example of this is the story involving Abraham, who was the first to communicate with God, and is known as
the first Hebrew. He was told to do certain things that are mainstays in the Jewish religion. These think later become known as a covenant with Yahweh. Abraham was told to circumcise himself and his son as a sign of this covenant with God. He had absolute trust in his God. So, when Abraham was first told by God to leave his country behind to search for the promise land he did.
Yahweh seems to like to test the loyalty of his people, and Abraham was the first to be tested.
God demanded that Abraham would sacrifice his youngest son Isaac. His trust was truly being tested. Deciding to go through with it, Abraham must have thought there was a reason or a greater purpose for his god wanted a sacrifice. He had no doubt in his god, so he bounded his son, and took him to an altar on top Mount Moriah. Just as Abraham was about to kill his son, an angel came down to halt this sacrifice. The Angel told Abraham he done well to listen to his god, and that he didn’t need to sacrifice his son. Instead, god has provided a lamb to be killed in Isaac’s place. This story became known as the Binding of Isaac, and from then onward, the lamb has become an important symbol of the convent with god in Judaism. It is present in most of Hebrew stories, may have lead up to the tradition of the Passover sacrifice of the
lamb.
The most important aspect of the Judaism was the idea of Monotheism. This was the idea that there is one true god. The Hebrews were the first understand this concept. Their god as also made it very clear that he is true god, and there is no other. This becomes most clear in the story of the Ten Commandments. In the absence of Moses, the Hebrew begin to worship a golden calf as an idol. When Moses first returned to them and discovered the false idol, he threw down the first set of law given to him by God in anger. Moses then had to leave the Hebrews again, so receive new laws from Yahweh. So, when he returned with new Ten Commandments, the first of the laws was "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”