Judaism is very unlike its two counterparts that rise from the same region, Islam and Christianity, in that it has a very simple belief system that gives rise to most Jewish tradition. Jewish beliefs are also very diverse. The basic principle of Judaism is good deeds and actions not beliefs and this has given rise to many a Jewish tradition over the centuries.
The 13 articles Although Jewish tradition did not essentially start out with any kind of list for beliefs, the orthodox branch of this community does have a list of Jewish beliefs that they consider official and mandatory. This set of Jewish beliefs was put together by Rabbi Maimonides in the 12th century and today they are known as the '13 articles of Faith'.
While it is not Jewish tradition to follow these articles, it does sum up the essence of what Judaism is all about. The articles can be summed up as the fact that there is only one God and He is unique and eternal; Moses was the greatest of all prophets and both the Oral and Written Torah was given to him; God knows our deeds and thoughts; there will be a day when the Messiah will return and there will be the resurrection of the dead.
God and Jewish Beliefs
The legacy of Judaism has always been that there is only one God. It is this belief that was passes on to the Western world. According to the Jewish beliefs the holy name for God that was passed on to Moses was YHWH. The pronunciation of the word however is unknown since ancient Jewish tradition was that Hebrew was written without the use of vowels. According to scholars however, the pronunciation is 'Yahweh'. This however has not been validated as the Jews do not refer to God with this name while reading the Torah. The word Adonai (meaning Lord) takes its place.
Who is the Messiah?
The 'Messiah' concept seems to be one that was added to Jewish beliefs much later. There is no reference to a Messiah in the Torah although some scholars claim that there is a reference to the 'End of Days' which will be the time when the messiah arrives. What really sets the Jews apart from the Christians is that they believe that the one who will come as messiah will not be divine. Jewish tradition strongly believes that God in his essence is beyond humanity and therefore he can never be or become human.
Human Nature
One of the fundamentals of Jewish beliefs is that we humans have been created in the likeness of God. This simply means that we have been created with a conscience and a free will. If we examine Jewish tradition we will see that there is a lot of emphasis on deeds and the free will to be able to tell the right from wrong and therefore oerform good deeds.
The Afterlife
Despite Jewish tradition showing us that they believe in resurrection, there is very little or nothing said in their sacred texts about the afterlife. Jewish beliefs are focused on the earthly life and how one should observe proper Jewish tradition in order to ensure that he or she is living life in a manner that is pleasing to God. What happens to one after death is not given much importance.
Jewish beliefs and Jewish tradition are the same fundamentally. However different branches may have their own modification to these beliefs.