Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies
    Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies
    Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies
    Ebook84 pages

    Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies

    By Simple Guides and Akasha Lonsdale

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In today's multicultural society we are increasingly likely to meet and become friends with people from different religious backgrounds, and to find ourselves attending an unfamiliar ceremony. When this happens, there can be few of us who know exactly what to expect, or are confident about how to behave. This chapter from Do I Kneel or Do I Bow? will tell you everything you need to understand and take part in a Jewish ceremony. Armed with this basic information, you will feel relaxed enough to enjoy the occasion, and perhaps inspired to discover more about the spiritual world view of another cultural tradition.

    Access the world's religions with Simple Guides: Religion a series of concise, accessible introductions to faiths around the world. Written by experts in the field, they offer an engaging and sympathetic description of the key concepts, beliefs, and practices of different faiths. Ideal for spiritual seekers and travellers alike, Simple Guides aims to open the doors of perception. Together the books provide a reliable compass to the world's great spiritual traditions, and a point of reference for further exploration and discovery. By offering essential insights into the core values, customs, and beliefs of different societies, they also enable visitors to be aware of the cultural sensibilities of their hosts, and to behave in a way that fosters mutual respect and understanding.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKuperard
    Release dateSep 1, 2011
    ISBN9781857336481
    Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies

    Read more from Simple Guides

    Related to Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies

    Related ebooks

    Judaism For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Sephardi Stories

      Jul 26, 2022

      Sephardi Stories
      2 min read

    • Article

      Count Down!

      Jul 10, 2023

      Count Down!
      16 min read

    • Article

      Count Down!

      Jul 10, 2023

      Count Down!
      16 min read

    • Article

      Michael Wood On…

      Sep 1, 2022

      In my job, travelling the world making films on history and culture, I’ve spent a lot of time exploring religion in its many manifestations. Religion, after all, is a gift for the camera: full of colour, action and often moving rituals. It’s also a c

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Asbury Revival

      Mar 23, 2023

      Most church services end with a hymn and a prayer and the congregation goes home, lingering only perhaps for friends to chat over coffee served at the back of the church. On 8 February, after a Wednesday morning service on campus at Asbury University

      6 min read

    • Article

      Crosses Across Asia

      Apr 8, 2022

      Crosses Across Asia
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tiny Jordan's Outsize Role Fostering Interfaith Understanding

      Dec 26, 2018

      Mention religion in the Middle East and what often leaps to mind is conflict: Muslim vs. Jew, Sunni vs. Shiite. But from Jordan, a religious crossroads, comes a forceful call for interfaith harmony.

      6 min read

    • Article

      ‘Seeing Our Common Humanity’: New Yorkers March Against Anti-Semitism

      Jan 6, 2020

      Some 25,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge Sunday to protest recent attacks against Jews in the New York area.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Kabbalah

      Feb 28, 2020

      Think of the mystical religion Kabbalah, and many will immediately picture the singer Madonna. As one of a number of celebrities to embrace its ancient wisdom in recent years, she has sought to study and understand Kabbalah’s deep teachings, often in

      5 min read

    • Article

      For Love Of Strangers: Behind The Jewish Legacy Of Welcoming Refugees

      Oct 31, 2018

      For many, the question of whether to accept refugees into the United States comes down to politics. For many Jews – as well as Muslims and Christians – it is “a matter of moral commitment.”

      6 min read

    • Article

      Finding Faith

      Feb 25, 2023

      Finding Faith
      5 min read

    • Article

      Zen In Vietnam: The Making Of A Tradition

      Jun 28, 2022

      Zen In Vietnam: The Making Of A Tradition
      11 min read

    • Article

      Being Jewish In New Zealand

      Jul 14, 2019

      Being Jewish In New Zealand
      11 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies

    5/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Simple Guide to Attending Jewish Ceremonies - Simple Guides

      WHAT JEWS BELIEVE

      Judaism is a monotheistic religion, believing in one Supreme Being – a merciful, just, all-seeing, all-knowing and all-powerful God who created and rules the world. It introduced a personal moral code and also the idea of free will, responsibility for choices made and individual accountability. The aim of Judaism is to sanctify life through education, prayer and observance of the ethical and ritual precepts of the Torah. By these acts Jews become partners with God in fulfilling His purpose.

      Defined by their beliefs and actions, the Jewish people evolved from the biblical Canaanites and Israelites. In time Jewish communities grew up outside the land of Israel. The destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem by Rome in 70 CE had two major consequences: it reinforced this dispersal, known as the Diaspora (Greek, scattered seeds), so that the majority of Jews came to live outside historical Israel, and it gave rise to the system of law and custom still recognizable in modern Judaism. Jewish people, wherever they are, share the ceremonies, rituals, laws and commandments of their faith.

      Jews do not believe that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah who would usher in an age of peace. This, it is believed, will only happen when the true Messiah from the house of David finally comes.

      SACRED WRITINGS

      The Jewish holy book is the Tanakh, an acronym for three sets of ancient Hebrew texts – Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim. Known as the Written Law, these texts contain God’s instructions for living a good and spiritual life. The Torah consists of the Five Books of Moses (Genesis to Deuteronomy in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible) given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai during their exodus from Egypt. It contains 613 mitzvot (commandments) whose purpose is the sanctification of creation – including the Ten Commandments, given to Moses on two stone tablets. Nevi’im (the Book of Prophets) contains direct prophecies from God, and Ketuvim (‘Writings’) records the wisdom of David and Solomon and includes the Books of Esther and Ruth.

      A Sefer Torah unrolled for reading in the former Glockengasse synagogue in Cologne.

      Parallel to the Written Law was the Oral Law, the oral tradition passed down through the generations until after the destruction of the Temple, when it was compiled, edited and written down. This compilation is called the Mishnah, and the various questions, discussions and decisions that arose from it are contained within a long Aramaic commentary called the Talmud (Hebrew, study), also known by the Aramaic name Gemara. These relate to the Halakhah (Hebrew, way or path) – Jewish law determining ritual practice and ethical behaviour.

      THE NAMES OF GOD

      God is called by many different names in the Bible. The Hebrew four-letter name of God – YHVH, revealed to Moses at the Burning Bush – is so sacred that it is never spoken by Jews. This name is used in the Torah when referring to God’s relationship to the people of Israel, and by Jewish scholars when describing His attribute of mercy. The other most commonly found name of God is Elohim. This is used when describing God’s relationship to the world generally, and according to scholars refers to His attribute of justice. Another frequently used name is Adonai (‘my Lord’), and there are very many other, essentially descriptive, names for God. However, in conversation some religious Jews will refer to God as Ha-shem (‘the Name’) in Hebrew, and in English will write it as

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1