Is Orthodox Judaism today the same as that of ancient Israel?

Answer 1

All forms of modern Judaism evolved from the Judaism of ancient Israel. Orthodox Judaism attempts to preserve the Jewish practice of ancient Israel, as understood through the Talmud, which had not yet been written until the first few hundred years of the first Millennium. The Talmud, however, was written in order to preserve an older oral tradition, and it is full of arguments about what that tradition was. Orthodox (and non-Orthodox) Judaism today uses prayerbooks to guide its liturgy. These prayerbooks were first written about 1000 years ago to systematically codify the rituals described in the Talmud. It is pretty clear that there were a variety of local traditions before the editing of prayerbooks imposed uniformity. Layers of liturgy were added to Jewish practice in response to waves of persecution under Emperor Hadrian, during the Crusades, and during the late 17th century. The mystics of Safed, in then Ottoman Palestine added other new elements to the liturgy.