...Jewish Holy Days Paper REL/134 June 12, 2013 Hanukkah Hanukkah is an eight day and night celebration. That begins in the Jewish month called Kislev, occurring in November or December of a secular calendar. The word Hanukkah means dedication. The holiday is rededication of the holy temple in Jerusalem (165 B.C). The event was established when Jewish victory over the Syrian Greeks. Hanukkah is a holiday that has significance like Christmas. The celebration has a meaningful history, traditions practices, and cultural differences in the various branches of Judaism. The story is in 168 B.C. the Jewish temple was seized by the Syrian Greek soldiers. The Jewish people were afraid to fight back. After the Syrian Greek Emperor ordered all Jews to worship Greek gods. The Jews began to resistance and join together to retake their land from the Greeks. The rebels were called Maccabees. Maccabees got control of their land and returned to the temple of Jerusalem. The Jews were forced to eat swine and worship ideal gods. So to cleanse their selves they burned ritual oils in the temple of Jerusalem for eight days. The significant thing was there was only enough oil for one day but, the oil surprised the Jews and lasted eight days. That was the miracle of Hanukkah. There are many traditions when it comes to celebrating Hanukkah. The celebration involves games, the songs, and foods. One of the games is called dreidel. It’s the spinning of the four side toy. The songs are like...
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...Jewish Holidays Passover: 15th of Nisan (spring, March-April) The Passover in Hebrew is known as Pesach. It begins in the Sunset of Monday, April 10, 2017, and ends at the nightfall of Tuesday, April 18, 2017. The Pesach is depicted in the book of Exodus 12:23. It describes the day when God passed over Israelites. During the Passover, the Israelites usually celebrate their Liberation from the Egyptian bondage. This is when God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. The Passover is also considered to be one of the most theologically important holidays in the Jewish calendar. It normally goes for eight days but in other communities, it lasts for only one week. The Jews are prohibited to eat any bread or leavened food. They are only allowed to eat unleavened bread and traditional foods made of ground matzah referred to as matzah meal. Such foods may include gefilite fish, ponge cake cakes and cookies made from Nuts and macaroons (Hexham, 89). Other activities comprise of the Jewish reading the Haggadah to retell the story of the Exodus and their migration from Egypt. During the Passover, the firstborns of Israel must fast to thank God for being merciful and sparing them. The seventh day usually marks the day they crossed the Red Sea. On the last day, the Yizkor memorial prayer is recited for dead. Feast of Weeks: Shavuot Shavuot begins in the sunset of Saturday, June 11, 2016, and ends at the nightfall of Monday, June 13, 2016. The name Shavuot is a Hebrew name that means Weeks...
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...Frank Greco Site Visit Dr.Elder March 26th, 2014 Congregation B’nai Israel Address: 2710 Park Avenue Bridgeport, CT 06604 Phone: 203-336-1858 Date: March 21st, 2014 Pre-Oneg 5:30p.m Kabbalat Shabbat 6:00p.m On Friday march 21st, my classmates and I went to go to a Jewish Ceremony. When we first arrived, James Prosnit, a very welcoming Rabbi met us and introduced us to this new and unfamiliar place. A Rabbi is similar to a priest in the Catholic Church; Rabbi’s are teachers of the Jewish religion whereas priests teach and preach about the Catholic religion, so this was somewhat familiar to me. After meeting James Prosnit, we were given a tour of the sanctuary. After that we made our way to the pre service gathering, which we soon learned was called a Pre-oneg. When the tour guide said we were going into a Pre-Oneg, at first I did not know what to expect. I soon learned that a Pre-Oneg is a festive and casual gathering that precedes the Shabbat service. The tour guide said that this gathering gives people the opportunity to have a social connection with each other while enjoying food and beverages. We learned that usually only wines and cheeses are served at a Pre-Oneg, but sometimes there are other types of refreshments. In the Pre-Oneg we were greeted by a lot of people. They seemed very interested about what we do and why we were there, asking us questions like where we attend school and what our majors are. This made us feel even more welcome. Next, James Prosnit...
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...Name: Instructors name: Course: Date: Jewish Holy Day of Hanukkah With many religions worldwide, there are special and dedicated times of the year where followers celebrate the associated holidays with the religion practiced. I had the privilege of celebrating one of the historic Jewish Holy Days called Hanukkah or Chanukah with my friends from the Jewish community. Chanukah or Hanukkah celebrates Jewish rededication of their temple in Jerusalem during the second century. Chanukah or Hanukkah as I came to learn means dedication in Hebrew and it commemorates a miracle which is oil based. The festival ran for eight consecutive days and each of the days was marked with games, dances, songs, oily fried foods, candle lighting and a lot of joy and laughter. Each day of Hanukkah we thanked God by reciting a complete ‘Hallel’ during the Morning Prayer service. We also inserted a special thanks giving prayer and read from the Torah. After each Morning Prayer service we ate oily fried foods such as fried potato pancakes also known as latkes, deep fried doughnuts also known as sufganiyot, cheese and a lot of dairy foods. We also got to play dreidel games. From the brief history given I came to learn that during the ancient days, the Greek oppressors banned Torah schools and so the young children would study deep in the forest. All this while, they would post sentry to make them aware of Greek patrols. When the soldiers came, the kids would hide or bury their texts into the...
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...Medias Synagogue By Julie Dawson and Letitia Cosnean The Mihai Eminescu Trust 63 Hillgate Place, London W8 7SS Tel. +44 20 72297618 Romania Str. Cojocarilor nr. 10, Sighisoara 545400 Tel. +4 0265 506024 The Mihai Eminescu Trust UK 63 Hillgate Place, London W8 7SS Tel. +44 20 72297618 with the Ten Commandments. The pediment is flanked by two carved wooden acroteria. The mural paintings along the interior walls depict artistic representations of a menorah, vegetal motifs, lions, Stars of David, the Ten Commandments and a fortress, probably a romantic depiction of Jerusalem. During Ceauşescu’s dictatorship, the Trust helped dissidents keep in touch with western academic thought; and by alerting the world to his plan to bulldoze Romania’s rural architecture, it played a part in saving hundreds of villages from destruction. After his death, the Trust turned its attention to the country’s cultural revival and rural regeneration. The Trust concentrates on the Saxon villages of Transylvania, a special case because of the age and richness of their past and the emergency caused by the mass emigration of the Saxon inhabitants to Germany in 1990, leading to the abandonment of many of their houses and a loss of awareness of the value of their heritage. These villages – farmers’ houses and barns built around fortified churches, substantially unchanged since the Middle Ages – lie in spectacularly beautiful surroundings, rich in wild flowers. Wolves, bears and wild boar roam...
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...When studying religions there are different types of rituals and events. As in Judaism, they set aside certain holidays and days of remembrance. These holy days are scheduled with a different type of calendar. The Jewish use a lunar calendar this calendar is based on three astronomical phenomena: the rotation of the earth’s axis (a day), the revolution of the moon about the earth (a month), and the revolution of the Earth about the sun (a year). (Cation) The Jewish calendar beings when the first sliver moon becomes visible. As with the secular calendar almost every holiday falls on the same date, but with the Jewish calendar these dates would not be on the same date but in the same season. It is important to understand the lunar calendar in this religion because all the holy days are base on this type of calendar. As with the secular calendar almost every holiday falls on the same date, but with the Jewish calendar these dates would not be on the same date but in the same season. All Jewish holidays begin the night before the date of the holiday. The reason the Jews start the holiday the night before is from the story in Genesis ch1, it says "And there was evening, and there was morning, one day." From this they believe that the day begins at sunset and with that being said ends at the nightfall of the next day. They also have strict rules about work on specific holy days, which is work is not permitted. There is thirteen holy day in which work is not permitted Rosh Hashanah...
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...Signature assignment: The Impact of Jewish life in Florida Michael Otero West Coast University Abstract This paper identifies and shows my reflection on the Jewish museum of Florida which exhibits the richness and diversity of Jewish life from 1763 to the present Jews, non-Jews, Florida residents and visitors alike. I examined how Jews during these times grew to develop a dynamic variety of ethnic groups, all seeking to balance the continuity and traditions of their heritage wit the values and customs of a larger society. This paper also explains the central issues rose from the museum and historical purpose it served as the Jewish community made its contributions in Florida. Topics * Identify and explain the central issues raised by the museum. * Formulate a distinct, individual point of view (personal reflection) that engages critically with various perspectives offered by the museum. * Evaluate the evidence that the museum offers for its point of view. * Consider how the site/exhibit/museum uses cultural, political, and (or) historical contexts to present its issues and purposes. * Exhibit your knowledge of how the museum presents and uses cultural worldview frameworks, and also how you use your own knowledge of those frameworks to engage the museum. The Jewish museum of Florida located in Miami was home to congregation Beth Jacob and was the first synagogue on south beach. The synagogue is the building in which congregation meets...
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...“Parenting as a Religious Jewish Feminist” by Haviva Ner- David Haviva Ner-David’s, the writer of “Parenting as a Religious Jewish Feminist,” talks about the tallit (prayer shawl) and the tefillin (little boxes strapped onto the arm and forehead that contain scriptural passages), both traditionally worn by only men for prayer, which she believes enhances her perception of God and the sanctity of her own body. She mentions that in the bible Michael the daughter of King Saul and the first wife of King David “Wore tefillin and Sages did not protest her action.” It was most commonly understood that the Rabbis exempted women from performing certain time bound mitzvoth, such as putting on tefillin, because women’s time belongs to others their children and their husbands. As a mother of four with Michal being the oldest she talks about how she takes being a Jewish mother seriously. She introduces her children to Toraah and Mitzvot with love. She does not want Michal to grow up feeling as a Jewish female, resentful of her religion or marginalized and irrelevant all of which she often felt as a child and young woman. David goes on about how she would love to see her children adopt the values that she had chosen for herself meaning seeing her daughter pray with tefillin, and hear her son tell her that he refuses to say bracha thanking God for not having created him a woman. Michal and her other daughters may decide to follow in her religious feminist path or may not. As a mother she...
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...In The Wake of The Plague In the Wake of the Plague, Cantor reasons his thesis that the Black Plague had tremendously altered the history of Europe and the lives of its people. Furthermore, he reasons that the plague has not just had an effect on a particular estate or a specific aspect in a society, but affected everyone alike in many different aspects. He specifically states in his writing how the plague had affected the nobilities, the priests, and the peasants. Subsequently, he argues that the plague had an impact on the population change, economics, literature, and science of medieval Europe. Cantor makes a coherent and clear argument that justifies his thesis through organizing the novel in three parts: biomedical context, people, and history. The first part serves as an introductory reading that defines the Black Plague in biological terms and gives background information of how the plague swept the entire continent of Europe. The second part serves as the body of his argument, where he refers to how the plague had affected all three estates of people: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. The body of the argument is not necessarily organized in a chronological order, but organized in different estates of people. In the third chapter, Cantor uses the example of Princess Joan and the incident of Bordeaux fire to explain how a noble family was affected by the plague. When Edward III asked Pedro to rescue Princess Joan from Bordeaux where the plague was spread, the...
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...After escaping the clutches of the Pharaoh, G-d brings the Jewish person, whom is led by Abraham, to the land of Canaan, now called Israel. This promise land was told to be “the land of milk and honey.” The promise of fertile land, made this location even more desirable, especially after wondering forty years in the desert. The promise land was quickly taken by other countries, forcing the Jewish population into exile. Thousands of years later, the Jewish people still had no place to call home, leading towards the creation of the Zionist movement. During the 19th century, Jews were facing discrimination in East Europe, facing prosecution, legal restrictions, and even pogroms. This caused many Jews to emigrate to the United States, and some towards the notion of their homeland. This vast migration spurred the revival of the Hebrew language, enticing many other Jewish people to migrate towards this region, Southern Syria. The push for a Jewish state didn’t take off until 1896, where Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat, a pamphlet stating that the only way to fight off anti-Semitism that was growing in Europe was for the Jews to establish a Jewish state. A year later, the Zionist Organization was founded and the First Zionist Congress set its goal to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The start of the 20th century brought thousands of Jews to the newly established land. This great influx of Jewish people, led towards the creation of the first entirely Hebrew-speaking...
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...SHABBAT (SABBATH) Samuel Dominguez REL/134 AUGUST 22, 2013 EDWIN ZACKRISON SHABBAT (SABBATH) “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy,” Exodus 20:8 ("Bible Gateway", 2011). It is known worldwide that the Jewish religion observes the Sabbath, known here in the USA as Saturday. The Sabbath worship has actually influenced several denominations of the Christian faith. The Sabbath is also one of the most debated religious beliefs among the religions, but that will be for a different paper. Although the Sabbath is in the Bible, many are unaware of what it really is. The questions that come to mind are: What is the Sabbath? Where did it originate? What day is it? How is it observed? Many people have these and other questions. Others just have absolutely no clue. My reward will be that after reading this paper you will have a much better understanding of this wonderful Holy Day. Shabbat, or Sabbath, is the most recurring Jewish holiday the Jewish faith has. But what is it? For starters, the word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word šabbāt, meaning “to cease, rest,” ("The Free Dictionary", 2013). The Jewish religion is based on the Bible canon, or how they call it, Tanakh. The Tanakh, though, consist of only what we call the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. This paper started with Exodus 20:8, the start of the fourth commandment from the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. If we read the next couple verses, it states “six days you shall labor and do all your...
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...“Loyalty of the Ancient Jews” 17 February 2010 It is interesting how many of the values of the Jews can be seen from the earliest of their documents, and through these writings we can see how they attempted to remain steadfast to their morals and beliefs. As I read the excerpts of ancient writings in our Encounters in World History book, what seemed to stand out most to me about the Jewish values, was the concept of unwavering commitment to the ways of Yahweh. I’m not saying that the Jewish people were always successful in this endeavor, but it appears that the endeavor itself never changed. There was always a deep sense in their historical writings that committing to the ways of their creator was not only the correct, but the most absolute valuable thing they could do with their existence. We can trace this theme of commitment from Yahweh back to the creation story of the Jews which is found in the book of Genesis. After Yahweh created man he commanded to Adam that “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (49). This appears to be the first instruction that man ever received from the Creator. As the story goes, Adam and Eve both ate from the tree exposing them to the knowledge of good and evil. Yahweh went on to say “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it...
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...Hate has happened plentiful times, plentiful ways, and in plentiful places. a few things people hate today are traffic, morning alarms, and small talk(work cited).This is not about small hatreds. This is about the most well-known hatreds in history, the hate for the Jewish people. Judaism has been around for plentiful years. They believe in only one god, the god of Israel. The most well known jewish holidays are Hanukkah and Shabbat, yet they have plentiful others. The religion started from the covenant between their god and Abraham. This is what the Jewish belief is built on. Now, why are Jews the, even now, hated. One of the main reasons is that Jews had a higher amount of successful than other people. This led to jealousy of what they...
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...affect the way which an individual approaches the death of a loved one. However, religion plays a central focus in people’s life. Religion helps to shape our thoughts as well as our beliefs and practices. Religion imbeds its values and ideologies in a person, whereas it teaches one morality and ethics to a high extent. In Judaism life is valued, however, when one dies there are customs that they adhere to during the time of bereavement. This paper will analyze the profound impact of how religion plays an imperative role in funeral practices that are performed by Jews. This paper also aims to highlight how the Jewish community cope with the loss of loved one and how they prepare a loved one for burial .This paper will examine Jewish customs and laws concerning to death and mourning. In addition, it will focus on the post mourning procedure and methods. Statistics/ Jewish meaning of life & death The U.S. Census data in 2010 reported that nearly 2,468,435 died. The five leading cause of death includes heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke, and accidents. The life expectancy at birth for all races and both sexes was 78.7 years in 2010. The study displayed that Hispanic females have the longest life expectancy of 83.7 years, followed by non-Hispanic white females with 81.1 years, Hispanic males 78.9 years, non-Hispanic black females 77.8 years, non-Hispanic white males 76.4 years, and non-Hispanic black males 71.6 years.(Miniño, 2011). In Judaism life...
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...contrasts in the film The Pianist allows the viewer an understanding of the extreme emotional distress, sadness and despair of the characters. Color emphasizes the differences between the life of the Polish and that of the Jewish people separated only by a dark wall Through the multiple layers of color symbolization the viewer is able to recognize first the happiness and normalcy of the Szpilman family. The film opens with brightly colored scenes and their daily life of the Jewish and Polish in Warsaw. The appearance of the characters is clean with rich and colorful clothing. Wladyslaw, the protagonist, is dressed in soft blue suits giving him a very content and soft appearance. The apartment in which the Szpilman family lives is full of warm colors and rich furniture. There is a welcoming atmosphere and a comfortable, homey feel to the apartment. When outside the sun is shining and people smile in the streets. The Jewish people interact with the Polish comfortably, there seems to be no noticeable differences between the two nationalities living in Warsaw. All seem happy as the war approaches and all seem oblivious to the horrors to come. When the Germans invade Warsaw and the war progresses the Jewish people are moved out of Warsaw and into the Jewish district. As the mood of the characters changes to depression and fear the colors become more shadowed. There are many greys, browns and blues combined with low natural lighting that...
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