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Judaism

Judaism in all its variations has remained consistent in its religious principles of belief and faith. According to Jewish belief there is only one God or G-d and he is the one that created the world. G-d also created a covenant with the Jewish people and placed his laws and commandments to the Jewish people in the Torah. The Jewish religion is devoted to the study of the commandments as they are written in the Torah. The Torah is simply the five books of Moses and is the entire basis of Jewish law. There are 613 commandments in the Torah. "Less than 300 of these commandments are still applicable today" (Wilkipedia).
Although Jews believe in the Torah they also believe in what they call the Oral Torah. The Oral Torah was transmitted by the Pharisee sect and then later on was written down by the Rabbis. According to the Torah someone is considered to be a Jew if they were born to a Jewish mother or they were converted to Judaism in accord with Jewish law. Once you become a Jew you retain your status forever. Even if you convert to another religion you are still considered to be a Jew but not in good religious standing. In the Jewish religion they base your status in Jewish Law by how religious someone is.
The Jewish community has divided itself into four different denominations. Those are the Orthodox, conservative, reform, and Reconstructionist denomination. Each denomination has its own understanding of the Torah and the beliefs surrounding it. They also believe that Jews have different beliefs that they should hold and live by as Jews. The Orthodox Denomination is considered the original Judaism. They believe that the Oral and Written Torah was created by G-d and taught to Jews. They also believe that changes to the Torah are not necessary because the Torah can be adapted to any and all situations. The Orthodox Denomination does govern their lives by the written word of the Torah and there is to be no exceptions.
The Conservative Jewish Denomination...