Jewish philosophy (Hebrew: פילוסופיה יהודית) includes all philosophy carried out by Jews or in relation to the religion of Judaism. Until the modern Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) and Jewish emancipation, Jewish philosophy was preoccupied with attempts to reconcile coherent new ideas into the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism, thus organizing emergent ideas that are not necessarily Jewish into a uniquely Jewish scholastic framework and worldview. With their admission into broader modern society, Jews with secular educations embraced or developed entirely new philosophies to meet the world's demands in which they now found themselves.

Medieval rediscovery of ancient Greek philosophy among the Geonim of 10th-century Babylonian academies brought rationalist philosophy into Biblical-Talmudic Judaism. During the Geonic period, philosophy was generally in competition with Kabbalah. Both schools would become part of classic Rabbinic literature, though the decline of scholastic rationalism coincided with historical events that drew Jews to the Kabbalistic approach. For the Ashkenazi Jews of Western Europe, emancipation and encounters with secular thought from the 18th century onwards altered how philosophy was viewed. Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe and Sephardi communities had comparatively later, more ambivalent interactions with secular cultures than those of Western Europe. In the varied responses to modernity, Jewish philosophical ideas were developed across a range of emerging religious movements. These developments could be seen as either the continuation of or breaks from the canon of Rabbinic philosophy of the Middle Ages and the other historical dialectic aspects of Jewish thought, resulting in diverse contemporary Jewish attitudes to philosophical methods.

Philo (c. 20 BCE – c. 50 CE) was a Jewish philosopher of antiquity, active in Alexandria and writing in Greek, who sought to harmonize biblical theology with Greek philosophical traditions, particularly Platonism, Pythagoreanism, and Aristotelianism, though he also drew from other Hellenistic schools. He attempted to fuse and harmonize Greek and Jewish philosophy through allegory, which he learned from Jewish exegesis and Stoicism. Philo attempted to make his philosophy the means of defending and justifying Jewish religious truths. These truths he regarded as fixed and determinate, and philosophy was used as an aid to truth, and a means of arriving at it. To this end Philo chose from philosophical tenets of Greeks, refusing those that did not harmonize with Judaism such as Aristotle's doctrine of the eternity and indestructibility of the world.

Central to Philo's thought was the concept of the Logos, a divine intermediary between God and the world, through which he explained creation, providence, and human access to the divine. In his ethical philosophy, Philo interpreted the patriarchs as moral archetypes: Abraham as faith guided by reason, Joseph as the model of a wise and just statesman, and Moses as the ideal leader combining the roles of legislator, priest, and prophet. He envisioned the soul's ascent to God through the cultivation of virtue, contemplation, and the rejection of passions.

The Book of Sirach, also known as Ecclesiasticus or The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira, was originally composed in Hebrew in the early 2nd century BCE by Ben Sira in Jerusalem. It is a major example of early Jewish wisdom literature from the Hellenistic period. Rooted in Israel's wisdom tradition, Sirach offers a developed ethical framework for a Jewish population living under foreign influence. Its central concept is the fear of the Lord, described as the foundation of wisdom (1:14). This fear manifests in practical ethics: trust, humility, obedience to commandments, and respect for parents and teachers. Wisdom is cultivated through moral discipline, social responsibility, and study of the Law, aimed at aligning life with divine order.

Ben Sira closely associates Wisdom with the Torah, presenting the study of the Law as both spiritual practice and intellectual pursuit. This approach recalls Stoic ideals of living in accordance with reason and nature, in a way situated within ancient Israel's covenantal tradition. The figure of the scribe emerges as a teacher and sage, devoted to sacred texts and based in a house of study (beth midrash, 51:23).

Sirach advocates a this-worldly ethics. It avoids speculation about afterlife, resurrection, or messianic redemption, focusing instead on earthly reward for virtue and the shaping of character through moral choice and tradition. In this respect, the book differs from apocalyptic writings of the Second Temple period. Philosophically, the book is practical rather than speculative. It uses mashal (proverbs), extended moral reflections, hymns, and praises of creation and wisdom. While heavily reliant on biblical texts, especially Proverbs and Psalms, it also shows influence from Hellenistic sources, including the Wisdom of Ahikar.

With the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Second Temple Judaism was in disarray. Still, Jewish traditions were preserved especially thanks to the shrewd maneuvers of Johanan ben Zakai, who saved the Sanhedrin and moved it to Yavne. Philosophical speculation was not a central part of Rabbinic Judaism, but some have seen the Mishnah as a philosophical work. Rabbi Akiva has also been viewed as a philosopher figure. He is credited with the following teachings in the Mishnah: