The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) has several teachings about Judaism and the House of Israel. The largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, the LDS Church teaches the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and its members (i.e. Mormons) share a common and literal Israelite ancestry with the Jewish people.

A comparison of the Latter Day Saint movement and Judaism

The nature of God

Jewish theology is strictly monotheistic: God is an absolutely singular, indivisible, incorporeal, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence.Maimonides 13 Principles of Faith 2 The Hebrew Bible presents God as the creator of the universe and the power controlling reality. The God of the Israelites commands them to worship no other gods but him: the God who brought them out of Egypt. The Babylonian Talmud references other, "foreign gods" as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality and power.e.g., Megillah 7b–17a

The theology of the largest Latter-day Saint denomination (headquartered in Salt Lake City) maintains that God the Father (Heavenly Father), Jesus (his son), and the Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct beings in personhood and substance, yet one in purpose. James E. Faust expounded the church's doctrine when he said, Together, the three constitute the Mormon conception of the Godhead, understood as distinct beings united in purpose and intent, which differs starkly from the Jewish Godhead. Mormon theology asserts that God the Father and Jesus have tangible, perfected bodies of flesh and bone. In contrast, the God of Judaism and the Hebrew Bible is strictly incorporeal and not anthropomorphic in any way. Humans are thought to be the literal spirit children of the Father in Mormonism, and through the atonement of Jesus, they can return to him upon dying and become gods.Doctrine and Covenants 132; Gospel Principles, chapter 47; LDS 1985 Melchizedek Priesthood study guide, "Search These Commandments", Lesson 21, pp. 151–57. In his King Follet discourse, Joseph Smith said:

God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted Man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens. That is the great secret .... It is the first principle of the Gospel to know for a certainty the character of God and to know ... that he was once a man like us. Here, then, is eternal life—to know that only wise and true God, and you have got to learn how to become Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you. ... God himself, the father of us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ.Joseph Fielding Smith (ed.), Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 342–45.

Furthermore, there are gods in the Mormon pantheon besides the Godhead's members, including the Heavenly Mother. Latter-day Saint theology also holds that, through the process of exaltation, humans can ascend to godhood. Within LDS theology, God the Father and Jesus were once mortal men who became exalted. However, how they came to obtain godhood is poorly characterized and doctrinally different from the process of exaltation humans are believed to undergo. In other words, God the Father and Jesus became divine beings much differently than the path through exaltation LDS members believe they will take to reach the same status. This differs from the Community of Christ's theology, which aligns more closely with Nicaean Christianity—in that it is trinitarian rather than nontrinitarian—than the LDS Church. In addition, there are other Latter Day Saint sects, such as the Church of Christ With the Elijah Message, that hold to the unity of God, expressing a form of modalism. The Book of Mormon also lends itself to modalistic interpretations of the Mormon Godhead.

Jesus

Jesus is not a component of Judaism or a figure in the Hebrew Bible; Jews do not believe Jesus fulfilled the criteria for messiahship. With regard to the divinity of Jesus, a basic tenet of Judaism is that God is one in both substance and personhood; therefore, both the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Mormon doctrine of three separate Gods "united in purpose" are summarily rejected by Judaism. Jews do not believe that God has or can have a body. Therefore, the idea that God might have physical, "begotten" children is not possible and is considered heresy.

According to the LDS Church, Jesus was the only-begotten son of God the Father. Latter-day Saints identify Jesus with the Hebrew Bible's Jehovah, not with God the Father, indicating that the Mosaic covenant with Jehovah was actually with Jesus. Mormons believe that, due to Jesus's suffering, death, and resurrection, humanity is saved from death and will rise again and receive a perfected physical body. Furthermore, they believe that Jesus's crucifixion satisfied the divine justice supposedly required for human sins; salvation is extended to all who accept Jesus as their personal savior and become lifelong disciples of Christianity. Latter-day Saints also believe that there is only one God to whom prayer is offered: God the Father. Latter-day Saints do not pray to Jesus, though historically, this was not always the case.

Latter-day Saints believe that the atonement of Jesus goes so far as to cover everyone who is doing their best to be good (including non-Christians). Eventually, it will even rescue almost all of the spirits of the wicked from the "telestial kingdom". The type of reward they receive, however, depends on the level of their acceptance and obedience of Jesus.

Prophecy

Normative Jewish tradition has held the view that prophecy ceased after the death of Malachi and that prophecy will be restored during the Messianic era.Babylonian Talmud Sotah 48a Latter-day Saints believe that revelation was present during the dispensation of Jesus and that through Joseph Smith, prophecy was restored from the age of apostasy; Mormons believe that Smith and his successors were and are prophets. Additionally, Smith reported that, during the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Jesus, Moses, Elijah, and Elias appeared to him and Oliver Cowdery, giving them authority to gather Israel (i.e., the Jews) from the four parts of the earth, lead the Ten Lost Tribes from the north, administer the keys of the Abrahamic dispensation, and the keys of sealing powers (Doctrine and Covenants 110:3–4, 7).

Temples

Solomon's Temple held the Ark of the Covenant in a room of the temple referred to as the Holy of Holies. The presiding high priest would enter this room, said to contain the Shekhinah (the presence of God), once annually on Yom Kippur.

The LDS Church's Salt Lake Temple contains a Holy of Holies wherein the church's president—acting as the Presiding High Priest—enters to fulfill the relationship between the High Priest of Israel and God, in accordance with the LDS Church's theological interpretation of the Book of Exodus.Buerger, David John. The Mysteries of Godliness . Signature Books (November 2002). Last accessed 2006-11-16 (excerpts only online). Hence, the LDS Church's Holy of Holies is considered by its adherents to be a cognate to the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle and Temple in Jerusalem.

Of the 173 temples operated by the LDS Church today, only the Salt Lake Temple has a Holy of Holies; previous to the completion of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893, the Manti Utah Temple housed a Holy of Holies for the use by the president of the Church. While the room itself still exists in the Manti Temple, it was used as a sealing room for marriages for some time; since it is such a small room, it is now open only for viewing by temple patrons.

Latter-day Saints believe that Jews will one day rebuild a temple in Jerusalem and that the Jews will restore the practice of rituals of the Law of Moses within that temple.

Priesthood and clergy

Judaism holds that descendants of Aaron in the male line are Kohanim, or priests, and other descendants of Levi in the male line are Leviim, members of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. Kohanim and Leviim have specific religious rights, duties, and (in the case of Kohanim) restrictions. The daughter of a Kohen (a bat-Kohen) also has specific rights and restrictions but does not pass on the status of Kohen to her offspring (unless their father is also a Kohen). Judaism recognizes no other forms of priesthood.

Rabbis are not necessarily Kohanim; rather, they are Jews who are particularly learned in Jewish law. Although not required, it is typical for a congregation to have at least one rabbi. While it is typical for rabbis to act similarly to spiritual leaders in other religions—delivering a weekly sermon, visiting the sick, officiating at weddings and other life events, and so on—a rabbi's most important function in his or her congregation is interpreting and teaching Jewish law.

Training to become a rabbi includes extensive education in Jewish law and practice, and may also include education in Jewish history and philosophy. In general, a congregation will hire a rabbi after reviewing applications and interviewing several candidates—there is no central body that assigns a rabbi to a congregation.

Orthodox Judaism accepts only male rabbis. Reform Judaism ordained its first female rabbi in 1972, Reconstructionist Judaism in 1974, and Conservative Judaism in 1985. All three non-Orthodox movements also accept openly gay and lesbian rabbis.Conservative rabbis reach out to gay Jews Gay Marriage: Is it a fight for equal rights or the end of a moral society? Karaite Judaism accepts only male ḥakhamim, although they serve a different purpose than rabbis do in Rabbinic Judaism. Conservative Judaism moved to allow individual congregations to choose whether or not to accept both gay and lesbian rabbis and same-sex commitment ceremonies in December 2006.Ordination of Gays and Lesbians and Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies There are no restrictions in any branch of Judaism with regard to race or descent.A black woman's journey to the rabbinate in North Carolina

The LDS Church allows "literal descendants of Aaron" the legal right to preside as bishop, when so directed by the First Presidency. When no worthy descendants of Aaron are available, Melchizedek priesthood holders preside instead.

The orders of the priesthood are the Aaronic, modeled after the priesthood of Aaron the Levite, the first high priest of the Hebrews, and his descendants (Kohen); and the Melchizedek priesthood, modeled after the authority of the prophet Melchizedek. The LDS Church does not recognize a patriarchal order of priesthood separate from the Melchizedek priesthood, and considers that both the Patriarchal and Aaronic priesthoods are subsets of the Melchizedek.

Members of the Tribe of Levi are said to have held the Levitical priesthood by right of birth before Jesus, whereas after Jesus, holders of the Aaronic priesthood have received it "by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands". The Doctrine and Covenants, however, contains an indication that the Aaronic priesthood is only available until the Tribe of Levi again "makes an offering unto the Lord in righteousness" (See D&C 13:1). The Aaronic priesthood is now typically given at the age of twelve.For a detailed history and comparison between the Levitical and Aaronic Priesthood, see the LDS Bible Dictionary: Aaronic Priesthood

Just as the priest's and the high priest's lines were subsets of the tribe of Levi, parallels may be drawn between levels of authority within the offices of the Latter-day Saint Aaronic priesthood and offices under the Law: deacons, corresponding to Levites; teachers, corresponding to Kohathites; priests, corresponding to the priestly line; and bishops, corresponding to the Aaronic High Priest's descendants (not to be confused with the High Priesthood of Melchizedek).