JUDAISM

Judaism is the monotheistic religion of the Jewish people. It teaches that there is only one
God, and that God created the world. Jewish people believe that God chose them to have a special
relationship with him. They must devote themselves to God in all aspects of their lives because
God selected them to bring knowledge of him to the rest of the world. They believe God has
promised to make the Jewish people a great nation that will eventually draw other nations together
in a worldwide community of justice and peace. Judaism has more than fourteen million followers
worldwide. There are three main divisions of Judaism. Orthodox Jews are the most traditional.
Reform Jews made the most changes to make Judaism’s laws more modern. Conservative Jews
uphold many old traditions but have made some changes in their religious practice.
BELIEFS AND SACRED TEXTS
The Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament by Christians) is the sacred book of
Judaism. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Torah, are
especially important. In Hebrew, the word Torah means “to teach” or “to show the way.” The
Hebrew Bible contains books of the prophets and collections of poetry, stories, and history. The
Torah explains the story of the creation of the world.
The Torah also explains and interprets God’s laws, including the Ten Commandments. The
Jewish people believe God gave these rules to the prophet Moses. The Ten Commandments are
the most important laws in Judaism. These rules state that there is one God and describe how
to treat others. The Ten Commandments also tell followers of Judaism to rest on the Sabbath
to remember when God rested after creating the world. The sabbath is observed from sunset
on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Special meals and prayers takes place on the Sabbath. Work is
not allowed.
Judaism has more laws in addition to the Ten Commandments. Some laws forbid bad
behavior, while others require good deeds. Some laws forbid certain foods, such as pork or
shellfish, and explain how foods should be prepared. The Talmud is a collection of ancient
teachings written down by Jewish leaders, called rabbis, long ago. They also added their own
stories and comments. The siddur, the Jewish prayer book, contains prayers that are recited
daily.
The patriarch Abraham is considered the founder of Judaism. The Torah says God told him to
leave his home and take his family to Canaan. God promised Abraham in a covenant that they
would become a great nation in this new land, they named Israel. Over time, the Jewish people
spread out to live in many different countries.
SYNAGOGUE
The Jewish place of worship is called a synagogue. The Jewish community gathers there to
pray and study. A synagogue is sometimes called a temple or a shul, the Yiddish word for
“school.” The leader of a synagogue is called a rabbi, meaning “my teacher.” A rabbi provides
guidance to the Jewish community. Some synagogues also have a cantor, a specially trained
singer who leads prayer. The most important part of a synagogue is the ark, or cabinet, that
holds the Torah scrolls. A synagogue has a platform called a bimah, where the torah is read to
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worshippers. The main part of synagogue worship is the reading of the Torah.
Many synagogues read the entire Torah in one year. Worship services
take place on Friday nights (the beginning of the Sabbath), on Saturday
mornings and afternoons, and on Monday and Thursday mornings. Special
worship services take place on holy days and festivals.
HOLIDAYS
The major Jewish holidays fall into two categories: High Holidays and Pilgrim Festivals. The High
Holidays are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year. The holiday
is celebrated in either September or early October. This celebration marks the anniversary of
the creation of the world. People gather with friends and family to eat meals with sweet foods,
including apples and honey. They also go to the synagogue to pray. Prayers include the sounding
of the shofar, a trumpet made of a ram’s horn. Rosh Hashana is the start of a ten-day period
called the High Holy Days, or the Days of Awe, that ends on Yom Kippur. Followers of Judaism
think about how to live better lives in the year to come during this time. Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement, is the holiest day in Judaism. It is observed with prayer and fasting. The holiday’s
purpose is to purify the individual and community. Followers are forgiven for their sins against
God on Yom Kippur. They ask for forgiveness from people they have hurt. Work is not allowed
on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur.
The Pilgrim Festivals are Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkoth. Passover (or Pesach in
Hebrew) celebrates the freedom of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient
Egypt. The festival of Passover takes place for about one week in March or April.
Families eat a special meal called a seder. The story of Passover is told before the
meal. The most important food of the holiday is matzo, a flat bread made with only flour and
water. It is eaten to remind followers of the bread of their ancestors, called Israelites, took
with them when they fled Egypt for freedom. They did not have time to let it rise because
they were in a hurry to leave. Shavuot commemorates God giving the Torah to the Jewish
people. Sukkoth is an autumn festival that observes the time when the Israelites wandered
through the desert. Many of them had to put up sukkoth, huts or shelters) and pray and eat
their meals inside them.
Purim is a holiday that celebrates a time when the Jewish people in ancient Persia (now Iran)
escaped a plot to harm them. Purim typically falls in late February or early March. Jewish
followers go to a synagogue and listen to the story of how Queen Esther convinced the Persian
king to stop a plot to kill all the Jewish people in Persia. Jewish families have a festive meal,
dress in costumes, exchange gifts of food, and give to the poor to celebrate Purim.
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, lasts for eight nights and usually occurs in December.
Hanukkah commemorates a military victory long ago. Foreign leaders took over the Temple in
Jerusalem in ancient times. They tried to make the Jewish people give up
their religion. The Jewish fighters defeated the foreign rulers and took back
the Temple. According to tradition, they only had a small jar of oil for the
Temple’s lamps, but it miraculously lasted for eight nights. To celebrate the eight
nights of Hanukkah, people light candles on a menorah. They also exchange gifts
and play games.
CEREMONIES
There are many ceremonies in Judaism that occur at special times of a person’s life,
including birth, marriage, coming of age, and death. A ceremony takes place shortly after a baby
is born in which he or she is dedicated to God and named. A boy reaches adulthood
on his thirteenth birthday in Judaism and accepts responsibility for following the
commandments. The ritual is called a Bar Mitzvah. A boy studies the torah to
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prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. He reads from the Torah in Hebrew during a religious
service at the synagogue. Many families have a party to celebrate the event with
friends and family afterwards. A similar celebration, a Bas, or Bat, Mitzvah,
takes place after a girl’s twelfth birthday. Brides and grooms stand under a
covering called a chuppah in a Jewish wedding.