Year 2 Judaism

What Jewish people believe about G-d

The world had become a terrible place. There was only one good man left. His name was Noah. G ‑ d told Noah to build a large wooden boat, called an ark. G-d told him exactly how to build the ark. G-d said there there would be a great flood and that everything alive would drown - except the people and animals in the ark. G ‑ d told Noah to take one male and one female of every type of animal onto the ark with his family.

It rained for 40 days and nights. The waters were not calm for another 150 days. At last the water began to go down. The ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. Noah sent a raven, and then a dove to see if things had started growing again. When the ground was dry - exactly one year (365 days) after the start of the Flood - G ‑ d told Noah to leave the ark and re- populate the world.

Noah built an altar and made sacrifices to G ‑ d. G ‑ d promised never again to destroy all of mankind because of their behaviour. He set the rainbow as a sign of this promise. For ten generations, Noah’s descendants stayed together. They spoke the same language and shared celebrations. Then they made G-d angry by building a great tower to show how powerful they were. G ‑ d confused them by making them all speak different languages. They couldn’t understand each other, so they split into seventy nations. They spread all across the world.

Term 2: Torah

The Torah is the sacred book of the Jewish people. G-d told it to Moses, who wrote it down. The story of Moses is a very important one in the Torah.

The words of the Torah are written on special scrolls. Every synagogue has at least one scroll. The Torah scroll is kept in a special cabinet called the Holy Ark - Aron ha Kodesh. The ark is the holiest place in the synagogue. It is right at the front, on an eastern wall. There is a curtain in front of the ark. The ark is only opened during special prayers and when the Torah scroll is taken out.

The Torah must be read in a special way. The person reading the text uses a special tune. The scroll cannot be dropped. The reader uses a yad to keep place. ‘Yad’ is Hebrew for hand.

Term 3: Passover

At Passover, Jewish people commemorate the time Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, into freedom. They eat a special meal. Each part of the meal is symbolic.

Bitter herbs like horseradish remind Jewish people of the bitterness and harshness of the slavery the Hebrews endured in Egypt Charoset made from chopped nuts, grated apples, cinnamon, and sweet red wine represents the mortar used by the Hebrew slaves to build the storehouses or pyramids of Egypt. Karpas - a vegetable is dipped into salt water at the beginning of the Seder. The salt water represents the tears shed by the Hebrews in slavery. Z’roah is roasted bone which represents the lamb that was sacrificed. Beitzah is a roasted hard-boiled egg, is a symbol of mourning