Editing Jewish principles of faith (section)

===Talmudic period===
The first to attempt to formulate Jewish principles of faith was [[Philo]] of [[Alexandria]] in the 1st century CE. He enumerated five articles: God is and rules; God is one; the world was created by God; Creation is one, and God's providence rules Creation.<ref>[[Harry Austryn Wolfson]], ''Philo: Foundations of Religious Philosophy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam'', part 1, chapter 3</ref>

Many early rabbis were drawn into controversies with both Jews and non-Jews, and had to fortify their faith against the attacks of contemporaneous philosophy as well as against rising Christianity. The [[Mishnah]] ({{circa | 200 CE}}) excludes from the world to come the [[Epicureans]] and those who deny belief in [[Resurrection of the Dead|resurrection]] or in the divine origin of the [[Torah]].<ref>Mishnah, Sanhedrin 11:1</ref> [[Rabbi Akiva]] (died 135&nbsp;CE) labeled as heretical the readers of "external books" ([[Jewish apocrypha|sefarim hitsonim]]) &ndash; certain theological writings that rabbinic tradition did not canonize &ndash; as well as individuals who used magical incantations for healing. [[Abba Saul]] designated as suspected heretics those that pronounce the ineffable name of God.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Articles of Faith |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/articles-of-faith |access-date=2024-01-29 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

Some early rabbis attempted to summarize Judaism via a small number of guiding principles. Rabbi [[Simlai]] (3rd century) traces the development of Jewish religious principles from [[Moses]] with his [[613 commandments]], through [[David]], who (according to Simlai) enumerates eleven; through [[Isaiah]], with six; [[Micah (prophet) |Micah]], with three; to [[Habakkuk]] who sums up all religion in the single phrase, "The pious lives in his faith".<ref>Talmud, Makkot, toward end</ref> Akiva himself declares that the command to love one's neighbor is the fundamental principle of the Torah (''kelal gadol batorah''); while [[Ben Azzai]] assigns this distinction to the Biblical verse "This is the book of the generations of man".<ref>[[Genesis Rabbah]] 24:7</ref> [[Hillel the Elder]] declared to a would-be convert, "That which you find hateful, do not do to others, the rest is commentary."<ref>Talmud, Shabbat 31a</ref>