World Religion Research Paper

Judaism

Jewish Practices and Teachings

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Kashrut

1. The only animals that may be eaten are those that have been properly slaughtered (generally, a quick slice by a knife across the bird or animal’s neck.)

2. An animal that has died or been killed by another may not be eaten. Deer are potentially kosher, but must be ritually slaughtered—thus a deer killed by a hunter is not kosher.

3. Quadrupeds with split hooves which chew the cud are the only four-legged beast eatable. These include cows and goats.

Pigs do not chew the cud and are prohibited.

Once properly slaughtered, the quadruped’s blood must be drained away.

4. Fish must have both fins and scales. Shark and shellfish, lobsters and shrimp and scallops are all forbidden.

5. No insects

6. Milk and meat may not be consumed together. Cheeseburgers are right out.

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More Kosher Rules

The rules of kashrut are based on laws found in the Torah, most notably Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as interpreted by rabbis.

Kashrut does not involve rabbis blessing the food. Rabbis do not have special powers. Their role is to inspect the slaughtering, and to ensure the food is not mixed with non-Kosher food. The shochet, or slaughterer, will usually say a blessing before killing the animal or before several animals.

Families that keep kosher keep a separate set of dishes and utensils for meat dishes and dairy dishes.

Some will even have separate ovens and refrigerators, or at the least separate meat and dairy parts of the refrigerator.

Also, food must be properly killed. A beef hamburger is not kosher unless it came from a properly killed animal and is certified as such by rabbis.

Neutral foods like margarine may be used on both meat and dairy, and are called pareve.

Fruits and vegetables are kosher.

Hechshers—Food that is certified as kosher will often bear a certification mark known as a hechsher. Some common ones are on the right.

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Blessings over Bread and Wine

To further sanctify meals, a brief prayer is usually said before the meal— generally, the blessing over bread, and if wine, the blessing over wine. A grace is also usually said after the meal.

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Mikveh Used as a means of spiritual purification, mainly by Orthodox.

Used by Orthodox Jewish women after menstruation and before resuming marital relations, or after childbirth. Often used by grooms before marriage, or by fathers before circumcision, and in some communities before Shabbat.

Immersion in a mikveh is often part of the conversion process for both genders.

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Prayer

Jews formally pray three times a day. According to the Talmud, each was instituted by one of the patriarchs. Prayers were done in the synagogues, and after the Temple was destroyed, the three services were created to substitute for the sacrifices.

While you can do the services alone, some prayers —such as Mourners Kaddish-- must be done with a minyan—a quorum of ten [men in Orthodox, men and women in other groups].

A liturgy of prayers developed.

The most important prayer is the Amidah, or the Sh’moneh Esreh (18 blessings). A version of this is done at every prayer service.

The Sh’ma—the affirmation of God’s unity—three important Torah verses setting out and discussing the Sinai Covenant—is read in the morning and evening prayers.

The Afternoon Prayer is often done shortly before the evening prayer in many synagogues.

At morning services, Jews will often wear a tallit (prayer shawl), tefillin (phylacteries), and a kipah, a skull cap, often called by Ashkenazi a yamulke. It is a minhag, a very strong custom, for Jewish men to cover their heads all the time, not just at a prayer service. Tefillin, (shown at right) which also contain bits of the Sh’ma, are only used at weekday services. 6

Torah and Haftorah Reading A portion of the Torah is read on Saturdays, and Monday and Thursday morning. On Sabbath and holidays, a portion from Neviim—the prophets—is also read, one that relates somehow to the Torah portion or the festival. The language used for prayers is mainly Hebrew at Orthodox services, with more English—or whatever the local vernacular is—at Conservative and other services. Some important prayers, such as the Kaddish, are in Aramaic, reflecting a time when that was the language of most Jews. The Talmud is also in Aramaic.

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The Jewish Calendar The Jewish calendar is based on the ancient Mesopotamian calendar. It is a lunar calendar, and is hence only 354 days long, as a lunar month is 29 and a half days. Every 2 or 3 years, an extra month is added to keep the holidays in the proper season. Hence, a holiday may be Sept 20 one year, and Sept 9 another, and another day the next. Generally, the days don’t move much more than 4 or 5 weeks: While Rosh Hashanah may be in September or October, it never falls in November.

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JEWISH HOLIDAYS

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Shabbat--Sabbath

According to the Bible, God rested on the Seventh Day of Creation. In imitation of the deity, who separated sacred time from ordinary time, and because it is commanded by God in the Ten Commandments, Jews rest on the Sabbath. It is also associated in Deuteronomy with liberation from slavery after the Exodus.

“There was evening and morning, one day…” Jewish days begin at sundown. The Sabbath begins on Friday night and ends on Saturday when three stars appear.

It begins when—usually—the women of the house light two Shabbat candles. A service is held, and the Sabbath is greeted as a bride in a prayer. Then Jews return home, and there is a formal meal with challah and wine.

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Havdalah A braided candle and spice box greet the new week at Sabbath’s end, the Havdalah service.

This weekly touch of the holy life has helped Jews stay Jewish for millennia.

The Talmud’s rabbis once observed that it was not just Israel that had kept the Sabbath but the Sabbath that had kept Israel.

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Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah, which falls in September or October, begins the “Days of Awe” or Yamim Noraim. The Bible commands Jews to blow horns, and this is interpreted as a way of awakening us to repentance and self-examination.

For the entire month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah, ram’s horns, or shofars, are blown to call Jews to repentance (or t’shuvah) and self- examination. They are blown at several occasions during Rosh Hashanah services.

In some midrashic interpretations, God is seen as sitting on a throne on Rosh Hashanah judging humanity on these days, writing in a book his judgment of life or death. But the decree is in suspension until Yom Kippur when the judgment is sealed.

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U’sanneh tokef • A prayer repeated at both additional services on Rosh Hashanah and at Yom Kippur. It is often considered the emotional high-point of the

High Holiday Service.

• It describes Yom Kippur as a mini-Day of Judgment, where even the angels will be held to judgment. • • It then follows with a chilling list of the calamities that can befall one during the year to come: • • All mankind will pass before You like a flock of sheep. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass

under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the destinies of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.

• • On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed - how many will pass from the earth and

how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by beast, who by famine and who by thirst, who by upheaval and who by plague, who by strangling and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted.

•   • But this passage ends hopefully:

• But Repentance, Prayer, and Charity annul [or avert] the severe Decree."

• (oo t’shuvah, oo t’filla oo tzedaka) זֵרָה�ְּ וְּתִפלָּה וְּתשׁוּבָה וּצְָדָקהרעַ ֶאת ַמעֲבִירִין ַהג •

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Apples and Honey

At the High Holiday festival meals, apples with honey are traditionally served, to signify the desire for a sweet year.

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Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the most solemn day of the calendar.

On Yom Kippur it is believed the Book of Life is sealed, so the day is one of solemn prayer and fasting.

Throughout the holiday, there are collective confessions of sin by the entire community. By custom, people strike their hearts at each sin—and extra hard if they know they committed it.

There are many restrictions on Yom Kippur. No food, no drink, no intimacy, no shaving or bathing, no work. Those with health problems, children under thirteen, and nursing mothers are exempt from the rigors.

Isaiah on “Is this the fast I have chosen?” is read.

The entire Book of Jonah is read at the afternoon service. Jonah ends with a conversation between Jonah and God, with God telling Jonah:

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

It is the Haftarah for the afternoon of Yom Kippur due to its story of God's willingness to forgive those who repent.

And perhaps because it shows you cannot flee from God.

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Break Fast

Yom Kippur ends with a concluding service, Ne’ilah, where you are supposed to stand for well over an hour. At the end, there is a festive “Break-fast”, as many Jews in America call the post-holiday meal.

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Sukkot—Harvest Festival

Sukkah Jews build a temporary booth called a “sukkah” as a reminder of the wandering in the desert, and

are commanded to eat and if possible sleep in them during the holiday.

This holiday, described in the Bible, may have helped inspire the first Thanksgivings in America.

Etrog and Lulav The citrus fruit Etrog and the lulav of palm, myrtle and willow are used in some of the

rituals of Sukkot.

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Simcha Torah At the end of Sukkot, the rabbis added a day called Simcha Torah, the Rejoicing of the Torah. The reading of the Torah ends, and after finishing Deuteronomy, Genesis begins again. This is celebrated by dancing with the Torah scrolls.

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Passover

The holiday which most commemorates the Exodus is Passover. Jews gather for two-nights to retell the story of the Exodus at a meal called the Seder.

Jews are prohibited during this holiday from eating food that has risen—basically, anything with yeast in it.

This is said to be because the Jews had to flee in a hurry and could not allow their bread to rise. Thus Matzah—flat, cracker-like breads with little to no taste—are eaten instead of bread, and cakes and pastries produced in a non-yeast using fashion—such as macaroons---are eaten.

Special utensils and plates are used for the holiday, and the ovens and other food places are re-koshered.

Shortly before the holiday, the house is cleaned thoroughly to remove bread and similar foods. The custom is to hide a few pieces to be sure they are found. This can be a lot of fun, similar to an Easter Egg hunt.

The chametz (leavened stuff) is bundled together and thrown out or even burned. Some may be temporarily sold and bought back after the holiday.

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The Seder

At the Seder, there is a festive meal, but a certain order and liturgy must be read from the Haggadah (telling).

The Haggadah contains the story of the Escape from Egypt and many songs, hymns, and rabbinic commentary.

Moses—the central human figure of the Exodus—is never mentioned in the Haggadah.

The Exodus is seen as a miracle from God.

There are many things which are put in to amuse and educate children, and keep them active.

For instance, they ask the Four Questions (Why is this night different), and they steal the Afikoman, which they exchange for a gift. This seems to be a folk custom of the Ashkenazi.

There are also many well-loved songs.

Many of the foods have significance. The Seder plate displays bitter herbs, to remind Jews of the bitterness of slavery, and it is ritually consumed, charosetz (nuts, wines and apple) to remind Jews of the mortar used by the slaves to build cities), lamb bone, to remind us of the sacrifice of lambs before departure, a roasted egg, a green vegetable, and often another vegetable. Some of these reflect the spring harvest which occurred about the time of Passover (usually, April).

Four cups of wine are consumed to remind us of God’s blessing, and a fifth cup is left out for Elijah, whose symbolic presence represents the Messianic hope.

Certain types of grain are prohibited, but Ashkenazi and Sephardi rabbis differ on which ones. Sephardis permit rice for example, Ashkenazis prohibit it.

Traditionally, the final song is Chad gadya—“One little goat” which is supposed to symbolically represent the history of the Jewish people.

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Shavuot The anniversary of the giving of the Ten Commandments. They are read in the synagogue during the service, and dairy food is traditionally eaten. Its name means The Feast of Weeks, and it marks the end of the seven week counting of the omer—a wheat offering that was offered starting at Passover. During the seven weeks, the Perkei Avot is traditionally read.

In Greek, the holiday is known as “Pentecost”, and a significant event in Christian history occurred on Shavuot.

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Hanukkah Hanukkah commemorates the victory of Judah Maccabee over the Seleucid Greeks. The Temple was rededicated, and oil that should only have burned one day burned for 8, according to the Talmud. The holiday for long was fairly minor; there were no restrictions on working, such as with major festivals. Menorahs were lit; and food cooked with oil were eaten, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and jelly donuts. A game involving a spinning top called a dreidel was played. The children were given a few coins in Ashkenazi lands: Chanukah gelt. In America, the proximity of the holiday to Christmas, with its gift-giving custom, resulted in the Chanukah gelt custom changing into a custom of giving the children presents. 22

Purim

The Book of Esther tells a story from the Persian Empire whose historicity is greatly doubted. A young Jewish girl, Esther, becomes Queen of Persia. Her Jewishness is kept hidden from the Emperor. Her cousin Mordechai, greatly upsets the Emperor’s vizier, Haman.

He decides to wipe out the Jews. Esther eventually reveals her Jewishness to the Emperor, and accuses Haman of attempting to kill all the Jews in the Empire —including her.

The Emperor is enraged and Haman and his sons are hanged.

The Book of Esther is the only book in the Bible where God is not expressly mentioned. However, Mordecai tells Esther when she, fearing for her life, is reluctant to intercede with the Emperor:

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and rescue will arise for the Jews from elsewhere… (Est. 4:14)

Jews celebrate this February/March holiday by reading the Book of Esther, and use noisemakers to drown out the name of Haman whenever it is mentioned. Carnivals and parades are usually held, and people are encouraged to dress in costumes. Three-cornered pastries, supposedly resembling Haman’s hat, called “hamentaschen” are eaten. Drinking has also been known to be encouraged. The holiday has sometimes been called “Jewish Mardi Gras”.

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Other Holidays

• Tu B’sh-vat: The New Year of the Trees • Tish B’Av: The Ninth of Av. The Second (and

traditionally the First) Temple was destroyed on this day

• Israel Independence Day: Often celebrated with a parade in the Diaspora

• Yom HaShoah: Memorial prayers said for victims of the Shoah [Holocaust].

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JEWISH LIFE CYCLE EVENTS

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Birth

Circumcision of males is a basic mitzvah, commanded to Abraham and his descendants. It is a sign of the covenant Abraham made with God, and is generally referred to as a Bris—the covenant. Unless there is a medical reason not to, it is performed by a trained mohel 8 days after birth, even on the Sabbath or holy days. At the ceremony, the child receives his Hebrew name.

There is no circumcision of girls in Judaism. However, it has become customary to take the child to synagogue at a Sabbath after her birth (first or fourth) and give her a Hebrew name as well.

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Bar/Bat Mitzvah

Many societies have puberty rites for male children. In Judaism, 13 year old males are considered old enough to enter into their religious obligations and be counted towards minyans.

Bar mitzvahs (son of the commandments in Aramaic) will at the very least read the Haftorah and do the blessing for a Torah section. Depending on custom and the education of the child, they will often lead much of the Shabbat service and even read from the Torah (a difficult task as there are no vowels in a Torah scroll, only consonants.) The Bar Mitzvah boy will often give a short speech.

Afterwards, there is often a celebration. Some of these have become very elaborate and expensive, especially in non-Orthodox communities, and there has often been much criticism of them. Some believe that the party has become more important for many than the religious event it celebrates.

In recent decades, 12 to 13 year-old girls have become Bat Mitzvahs. This custom began in non- Orthodox circles and has spread to some Orthodox Jews. Since most non-Orthodox congregations are egalitarian, this means that Bat Mitzvahed girls can lead congregational services, be counted towards minyan, and eventually become rabbis if they so desire.

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Marriage

In traditional Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved.

Marriage is contractual, and if need be can be dissolved. Among the rituals are signing a ketuvah—a marriage contract— which are often beautiful documents suitable for framing. The grooms duties are laid out in the ketuvah. As the traditional documents read somewhat like a sale, there has been some rewording among the more liberal denominations.

Then there is a service under a chupah, a canopy representing the new home they are building.

A glass is broken, in memory of the destruction of the Temple.

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Ketubahs

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Bedecken

It is an Ashkenazi custom for the groom to veil the bride just before the ceremony under the chuppah. This is said to be in memory of Jacob, who was tricked into marrying the wrong woman.

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Divorce Divorce is to be avoided, but it still happens. For a Jewish divorce, a document called a get is presented to the wife, validated by a rabbinic court called a bet din. Traditionally, the wife’s consent is required. On occasion, a wife may request a divorce before a bet din, and they may grant it. If a man refuses to give a get, the woman cannot remarry within the Orthodox community.

While a civil divorce may be gotten, it is not recognized by the Orthodox. 31

Death, Burial and Mourning

It is believed that the soul of the departed hovers around the body for a few days, and the body is to be kept company until the burial. Someone will recite psalms over the body all night. The body is washed, and traditionally wrapped in a burial shroud. Mourners will symbolically tear their clothes—often by a strip of torn cloth.

After the burial—usually within 3 days of death—there is a week long period of mourning called shivah. Mourners do not work, remain at home (in fact, may often not even step out side), and services are held at their home. Men do not shave for at least a month, and mourners refrain from entertainment for a month. The tombstone is not erected for 11 months, and on the Hebrew anniversary of the death, yahrzeit candles are lit, and Mourners’s Kaddish is said.

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Gravestone

Visitors traditionally place small rocks or pebbles on the gravestone when they visit.

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