The next turning point in a Jew's life is marriage (kiddushin, “sanctification”). Even at the hour of greatest personal joy, Jews recall the sorrows of their people. The seven wedding benedictions include petitionary prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the return of the Jewish people to Zion. Also, at the Jewish funeral the hope for resurrection of the deceased is included in a prayer for the redemption of the Jewish people as a whole. The pious Jewish male is buried in his tallith.

History
The biblical literature and cognate archaeological materials provide the earliest information about the history of Judaism. Earliest Israel was not monotheistic, but henotheistic: Worshiping only one God themselves, the Israelites did not deny the existence of other gods for other nations.
Preexilic Israel, first as a confederation of tribes and then as a kingdom, celebrated as its formative experiences the redemption from Egyptian bondage and, particularly, the conquest and settlement of the land of Canaan (the land of Israel). Its deity was Yahweh, the god of the patriarchs. Yahweh had redeemed the Israelites from Egypt and brought them into the promised land. Israelite religion was intimately bound to the land, its climate, and the agricultural cycle of the year. Yahweh was believed to bring the rainfall that guaranteed a bountiful harvest or famine, drought, and pestilence if the community proved unfaithful and recalcitrant. Israel thus saw itself as dependent on God for its livelihood and obligated to respond with sacrificial offerings of gratitude and propitiation. The sacrificial cult ultimately was centralized in the royal sanctuary in Jerusalem, which later was rivaled by the northern sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan. Opposition to syncretistic cultic practices at both the northern (Israelite) and southern (Judean) sanctuaries and to social injustices under the monarchies was voiced during this period by the prophets, charismatic “men of God.” They did not reject the sacrificial cult per se, but merely what they saw as an exclusive, smug reliance on it that ignored the moral dimension of Israelite society. Their warnings were perceived to have been vindicated when first the northern, then the southern, kingdoms were destroyed by foreign conquerors.

Babylonian Exile
The exile of the Judeans to Babylonia in 586 BC was a major turning point in Israelite religion.