The Fertile Crescent is known for its fertile soil, making it ideal to sustain a population and enhance its ability to make surplus food. Merchants traveled through the Fertile Crescent, which gave Hebrew civilization the ability to have a strong trading advantage. Land surrounding the Crescent was dry and unsuitable for agriculture. Due to the Hebrew's established civilization on the Crescent, an abundance of food was a constant.
Like many other civilizations, the Hebrews developed a division of labor. Their division of labor was not as structured as many other civilizations during their time. However, they still had merchants, craftsmen, artisans, and farmers. Merchants had the role of trading the goods that the craftsmen and artisans made. Farmers took the major role in agriculture to supply food for the people. To keep the civilization running, all these roles worked together in a structured manner. .
It is evident that religion was a big part of many early civilizations; The Hebrews were one of them. Judaism was the oldest of the major western religions. Their religion ruled every moment of Jewish life. The Hebrews believed in one God. The Ten Commandments are widely known and originated through a Hebrew leader, Moses. He introduced the Hebrews to a set of laws given to them by their god, Yahweh. It was emphasized that Yahweh was the one and only god that the Hebrews should acknowledge. Information on the Hebrew religion can be seen in a Jewish doctrine known as the Torah. The torah contains five books of Moses naming the code of laws, which is named the Mosaic law. The Mosaic laws consist of the Ten Commandments and laws developed during later periods. These five books are Yahweh's teachings and directions for idolizing and life. Judaism set a huge importance on ethics. The Hebrew form of monotheism is often called ethical monotheism. Along with ethical monotheism being a major contribution to Western civilization, in total, Judaism has been a major influence in Western civilization.