13 Articles of the Jewish Faith

March 17, 2004 · updated February 15, 2022

The Jewish faith doesn't have an official creed. Jewish beliefs are articulated and observed by followers of the faith through the reading of the sacred texts of Judaism, like the Torah.

However, the great 12th-century Rabbi Maimonides put together "13 Articles of Faith" that he believed every Jew ought to believe. These beliefs have been widely accepted as a proper expression of the Jewish faith and they still appear in Jewish prayer books today.

So while it is not necessary to believe all of these articles to be Jewish - and in fact many Jews would likely question one or more of the articles - they serve as a good general summary of religious Judaism.

The 13 Articles of the Jewish Faith proposed by Maimonides are these:

  1. God exists
  2. God is one and unique
  3. God is incorporeal
  4. God is eternal
  5. Prayer is to God only
  6. The prophets spoke truth
  7. Moses was the greatest of the prophets
  8. The Written and Oral Torah were given to Moses
  9. There will be no other Torah
  10. God knows the thoughts and deeds of men
  11. God will reward the good and punish the wicked
  12. The Messiah will come
  13. The dead will be resurrected