Torah

Torah means teaching and refers to the five books of Moses:
- Gensis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy

A torah scroll is made from parchment which is made from the skin of kosher animal. It is written by hand in Hebrew by a professional scribe called a sofer. Hebrew is read right to left

Torah

The sofer takes at least one year to write out the Torah. He is not allowed to write from memory. He must copy from a book of the Torah, and must keep checking for mistake. Letters must not be smudged or touch another letter.
If the sofer makes a mistake, he scrapes off the letters using a glass tool, the sheet with the error is buried in a Jewish cemetry, when all of hte sheets of parchment are finished they are sewn together.

Torah I created

THE Torah is regarded as holy and is decorated as beautifully as possible.

Judaism

1. What language do the Jewish people speak?

Hebrew

2. How do the Jewish people read Hebrew?

Right to left

3. Why is Israel important to the Jewish People?

Israel is the promised land, the land that was promised to our forefather by God

4. When was the present state of Israel formed?

5. What makes it unique in the world?

It is the only Jewish state

6. Who is the chosen prophet if Judaism?

Abraham

7. What do the Jews believe God thinks of their people?

They are the chosen people

8. How do the three main religions differ in their view of Jesus?

No Christmas due to difference in belief in Jesus

9. Why do the Jewish people not celebrate Christmas?

The Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah, so his birth is not of the same significance to them

10. What festival do they celebrate instead?

Hanukkah

11. What event is celebrated at this festival and what is the significance of the number 8?

12. What is the name of the sacred text of the Jewish people?

Torah

13. How is their text similar to the Christian Bible?

Old Testament

14. How many commandments do the Jewish people have to follow?

613

15. What is the name of the leader of a Jewish religion?

Rabbi

16. What is a Talis?
17. What is a Tefilin?

Holds the torah

18. What is a Kippah?

Skull cap worn on their head

19. What is the word used to describe the food Jewish people can eat?

Kosher

20. Where is the only Kosher Mc Donalds?

21. Why is a Cheese burger not Kosher?

Being Jewish

The term 'Jewish' can be used to describe a race and a culture rather than a religion, so some who identify themselves as Jewish many have little interest in the belieffs and practices within the religion of Judaism.

The Torah

The Jews believe in the teaching of the Jewish Bible, known as the Torah. This is the first testament of the Christian Bible, there is no second testament or new bible for Jews.

Written Law and Oral Law

- 613 commandments found in Torah ("written law")
Talmud  (Oral Law)  commentary of ancient rabbis that elaborates on how to apply Gods law in everyday life through:

- dietary rules
- dress and other symbols
- prayer and devotion to the one God
- the temple and temple rites
- observance of holy days
- proper social relations between male and female, in  business, judicial rulings

Core Beliefs

Jews firmly believe that there is only one God, there are 13 main beliefs that Jews believe in. they include;

- God exists
- God is one and unique
- God is eternal
- Prayer is to God only
- The prophets spoke truth
- Moses was the greatest of hte prophets
- The written and oral torah were given to Moses
- There will be no other TOrah
- God will reward the good and punish the wicked

- The Messiah will come

- The dead will be resurrected                                           

The Family

- The heart of judaism is in the ome and family, social responsibiltity and doing Mitzvot (good deeds based on God's commandments)

- Through education and hard work we make our lives, the lives of others, and the world, what God intended it to be - Holy.

Old Testament (Simpsons)

Note each story

What happened?

Who are the main characters?

Where it appears in the Bible?

Why is it important?

1^st Story

Genesis- story of creation

Adam and Eve/God

About the creation of the original sin

2^nd Story

Exodus- About slavery and discipline, Moses being the most important prophet to the Jews asks for the slaves to be let go, he leads his people from slavery in Egypt.

Pharaoh/ Moses

Important because the slaves break free

3^rd Story

David /Goliath – After searching the desert they found a new king (king David- Star of David)

When you die, you are judged by God, and either go to Heaven, Purgatory (7 stages of cleansing) and hell (7 deadly sins)

Judaism Introduction



Abraham and Sarah

Judaism is one of the three Prophetic Monothestic Religions in the world, the other two are Christianity and Islam. It is Prophetic as  there were numerous Prophets who predicted the coming of a Messiah, Monothestic as they believe in one God- mono (one), Theology (belief and study of God).

Jews are an ancient people of around 3000 years old. Their history is told in the Bible and its traced back to Abraham of around 1900 BC (before common time era). The Jews have been known as Jews, Israelites and Hebrews (Jesus was Jew however the Jews accept Jesus as wise man, but not the chosen Messiah as Christians believe, hence Judiasm predates and heavily infulences Christianity, but is not part of Christianity)

Abraham

Abraham is one of the first recorded leaders of the Hebrews in the Bible. He was a wealthly man who was called by God to leave his land and move from Ur to Canaan, or Israel as it is called today.

Abraham heard the call of the Lord to stop believing in pagan Gods (like God of wind, God of Mountain) and he folllowed Gods request and led his people from Mesopotamia to Canaan. This journey is recorded in the book of Genesis. We can map his journey here

http://www.biblemap.org/#Haran

Genesis

Day 1- day/night
Day 2- water/earth
Day 3- plants
Day 4- light/dark
Day 5- fish/birds/ animals
Day 6-  man
Day 7- rest

Questions

1. Who is Abraham?
     Abraham is a leader of Judaism, and the first Jew to worship one God.

2. What did Abraham believe? How was it different to the people of the time?
     Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.Though everyone else believed in many Gods.
    

3. What do you think a Convenant is, what convenant did God make with Abraham?
 A convenant is an agreement, the promise to Abraham was to make a great nation 
boss everyone in his name,

4. What sacrifice was Abraham requested to make? Why did God ask this of Abraham? 

5. What does Patriarchs mean?
The head father of the family


Questions

1. A synangogue is a Jewish church/temple
2. A rabbi is a Jewish priest
3. A kippah is a small hat like object that sits on the back of a Jews head
4. Hanaka
5. The fish symbol represents christianity