Holidays and Rituals of Jews and Christians

© 2013 by Rev. Dr. Salatiel Sidhu. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/31/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1141-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-1140-1 (e)

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The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright,1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents

About This Book

PART ONE

Jewish Holidays

Sabbath

Rosh Hashanah The Jewish New Year

Yom Kippur The Day of Atonement

Sukkoth (Succoth) (Booths)

Simkhat (Simchat) Torah

Hanukkah

Purim

Passover

Tu Bi-shevat

Yom Ha-shoah

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah

Kosher or Kashrut

Tallit The Prayer Shawl

Tefillin

Head Coverings for Men and Women

Brit Milah Circumcision

Brit Habat Naming the Baby Girl

Jewish Wedding

Pidyon Ha-Ben Redeeming the First Born

The Torah

The Talmud

Jews and different Sects

Why the Jews do not believe in Jesus

Part Two

Christianity

Sunday and the Sabbath

Christmas

Christmas tree and the Poinsettia

Christmas Stories

Legend of Poinsettia

Legend of Christmas Star

Story of Birth of Jesus

The Legend of Santa Claus

Reindeer and the Sleigh

Christmas Celebration in India

Twelfth Night

Ash Wednesday

Shrove Tuesday

Palm Sunday

Maundy Thursday

Good Friday

Good Friday Traditions and Rituals

Easter

Easter has pagan roots

Sunrise Service

Hot Cross Buns

Easter Bunny

How Easter date is decided

Advent

Epiphany of Our Lord

Pentecost

Baptism

Methods of Baptism

Baptism of Desire

Spiritual meaning of Baptism

The Lord’s Supper

Observance of Holy Communion or Eucharist

Should the little children take the Holy Communion?

Thanksgiving

Turkey Tradition

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Halloween

Jack-O-Lanterns

Trick-or-Treat

All Saints and All Souls Day

Appendix

Glossary

Bibliography

"Let the Lord God and the Messiah be glorified in our lives,

our homes and in the world"

About This Book

There are many people around us who claim to know their religion. They celebrate the customs and holidays of their religion, because these have been passed on to them by their ancestors. If you ask these people about the historical background of the holiday or the ritual, only very few will be able tell you. Once I preached in a Church about the importance and historical background of Ash Wednesday. After the Church service a pastor intern and some members came to me and told me that they did not know about the origin and historical background of this important observance. Likewise there are many other holidays and rituals both in the Jewish and Christian faith about which very few people know. Since Christianity and Judaism are closely related and they both believe in the same Jehovah God and Adonai, so if you are interested to know what Jews and Christians believe I have tried to write about the holidays and rituals of both the faiths. Many Christians do not know about the Jewish Holidays which are mentioned in the bible, I have tried to write about most of the holidays and rituals.

As I started writing this book in June 2010, I started walking through the religion Isles both in the libraries and the different book stores to look for the books which could help me to update the information about the related topics. On Judaism I got couple of good books, but regarding Christian Holidays and rituals I was unable to find a book which could give me comprehensive information. So I decided to write about the holidays and rituals of both the faiths in one book. One thing I want to make clear that Jesus Christ for the Christians and the Messiah for the Jews is the central theme of the bible. God gave Mosaic Law to the Jews, so that abiding by that law they may stay close to God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the lost relationship between the man and the God may be restored. Even now they are waiting for the same promised Messiah, who will be their Savior and will rule over them for a Thousand years. His advent is very near. Christians are also waiting for their Lord’s second advent who will reign over the righteous for thousand years and His reign will be reign of peace and prosperity.

I have tried to give brief history of Judaism and their mainline different sects and avoid unnecessary details. Christianity has more than 200 denominations, so it is not possible to write about all of them. Also writing the details of different denominations is out of the scope of this book. The main focus of the book is the holidays and rituals. While writing about the holidays and rituals I have tried to be more specific and have skipped the unnecessary details, so that even the lay person can understand. Wherever difficult terms and words have been used both in Judaism and Christian holidays and rituals I have tried to explain in the glossary.

While writing this book I do not claim to be perfect, yet I have tried to convey to the reader the meaning and the purpose of these holidays and rituals. I have divided the book into two parts. The first part deals with Judaism, its holidays and rituals and history of Judaism and its sects in brief without going into the microscopic details. The second part is little longer and it deals with the Holidays and Rituals observed by the mainline Christian denominations.

Judaism and Christianity:

Christ is the foundation of Christian faith who is the central in the Old and the New Testaments. Secondly Christian faith in not only based upon historical facts, but is also logical and consistent with the human life in all ages and you can live it.

Like Judaism, Christianity is a way of life and living with God in a relationship of love under His grace and enjoying His love and mercies by keeping close relationship with Him as Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before they were turned out. You can feel happy and secure in His presence. God is your guide and care taker only when you trust Him and do His will and obey His commandments. Christian faith is not obscure based upon mythological figure Jesus Christ. It is based upon historical facts tested and verified on the anvil of time. Jesus Christ the Jewish carpenter of Nazareth is a real person who lived in Israel more than 2,000 years ago, who suffered crucifixion at the hands of Roman rulers at the behest of some Jewish hierarchy.

Adversaries of Christianity have tried to discredit these facts by baseless and concocted stories that Jesus did not die on the cross. He was in an unconscious state and after being healed by his disciples at night, he escaped Israel and came to India and died here. No historical authentic document proves it, but it is a made up baseless concocted story to undermine the crucifixion of Jesus by which He shed His holy blood to pay the price of sins of the humanity and those who try to disapprove His sacrificial death have no authentic proof except theoretical reasoning.

All human beings young and old, even the atheists at some point of life feel they are not machines, but are human beings. They want to know what is their purpose and meaning in life. They want to seek answers to the questions about their life which no human being can answer. They feel there is some super being that is behind this creation and only he can answer their questions. That super power or being is the creator of this universe which we call God and Christianity believes in that God who gives meaning to your life. Christians believe that bible is the authentic and authoritative word of God and Jesus Christ is His son who paid the price our sins by shedding His holy blood on the cross and we are all saved and forgiven by trusting and believing in Him.

Again Christianity is a faith which believes in the grace of God. Humans are weak and helpless; they cannot reach God because of their sins. We need God’s grace to reach Him and get salvation. Though some religions who believe in ‘Karma’ (actions and deeds) feel human beings have the ability to reach God through their own efforts, actions and good deeds, yet Christianity differs here. Christianity believes that we cannot achieve salvation by our good works. God paid the price of our sins through the sacrificial death of His son Jesus Christ by shedding His holy blood on the cross, because our so called good deeds are like dirty rags in the sight of God. We can do good deeds only when we trust and believe in Him and His son Jesus Christ. His grace gives us power to do good deeds.

Judaism is not a mythological religion, but it is too a way of life to be lived and practiced. The followers trust and believe in one living God who has guided their patriarchs and by His iron hand brought out His people (Israel) from Egypt, the furnace of slavery. Who guided and fed them for forty years in the wilderness right after parting the red sea and let the whole nation cross on dry land. He guided and took care of them till they took possession of the Promised Land after defeating their powerful enemies who resisted them on both sides of the Jordan River.

Perhaps this is the oldest monotheist faith in the world which started with their patriarch Abraham the Hebrew, who was called by God to leave the house of his father Terah who used to make idols. God chose Abraham and asked him to leave his father’s house and go to a land which He will give to his descendants as a perpetual holding. That is the land of Canaan, where he lived as a nomad. At that time he was known as a Hebrew, but later on the name of his descendants changed to Jews from Judah the son of Jacob and God named Jacob Israel meaning prince with God. George Robinson the author of ‘Essentials of Judaism’ quotes Professor Menachem Marc Kellner where he says, Judaism is a religion of pots and pans in the eyes of those who derogate its concern with actions. He said it because of the Kashrut, the dietry laws of pots and pans for different foods which are not to be eaten or mixed together. These laws deal with kitchen utensils, silver ware, plates and glass ware, refrigerators, sinks and foods like meat, poultry, fish, cheese, milk, yogurt, wine soda and other drinks. This faith is not only of pots and pans, but more than that all Jews irrespective of their groups or sects believe in one God YHVH (YHWH, YAHWEH, JEHOVAH or ADONAI). Then their holy books, Torah, Tanach and Talmud is the binding and surviving factor for all Jews.

In spite of raiders like Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Romans, Crusaders and Moslems who uprooted the Jews and destroyed their nation and scattered them all over the world where they faced hatred, persecution and killings on large scale. Then Hitler the Nazi who considered Jews basically criminal and blood sucker parasites for the human society, tried to wipe out the Jews by killing six million of them in the Second World War. Even then Judaism and Jews have survived for more than 4,000 years. They lived without temple and away from the Promised Land for 2,000 years, but there was only one thing that kept Judaism and Jews alive where ever they were and that was Torah. Unlike the sects and denominations in other religions, they do not believe in mudslinging and fighting with other Jewish denominations.

Though like other religions they have different sects and groups like orthodox, liberals, gays and lesbians, black and white Jews, yet they live peacefully and believe in the same book Torah and practice same traditions and customs. Tanach (Tanakh) is the whole Hebrew bible containing all the 39 books of the Old Testament right from Genesis to Malachi, whereas Torah is the Pentateuch the first five books of the bible and this is the life line of their faith.

Judaism is like a tree having many branches (Sects) with its own sets of beliefs and practices, but the beauty of Judaism is that they have one trunk and one root from where they get their spiritual food. Each branch lives its own way without conflict with other branches and that one root is ‘The Torah’ and ‘The Talmud’.

Israelites claim to be chosen people of God and the Old Testament (Tanakh) supports it. In spite of Israel’s rebellion, God loves His people and promised to restore the glory and honor of this beloved nation. God through the prophets claimed Israel to be His son whose image He has on His palm. Through prophets God also expressed husband wife relationship with Israel. God is faithful to His promises and never backs out if He loves someone. Though Jews do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah, yet God has promised salvation for the Jews through Messiah at His Second Advent.

In my personal view Israel is like the burning bush on the Mount Sinai through whom God revealed Himself in the Old Testament scriptures and promised Messiah the savior for the Jews and Jesus Christ for rest of the world.

Jews do not claim that non-Jews cannot have the privilege of chosen-ness. They can also have the privilege of being chosen if they submit themselves to the will of God and promise to obey the commandments of the Holy one. I can say in spite of the cultural pressure and there being orthodox and liberal Jews, their faith spins around Torah and they have stuck to the basics of their faith and practice traditions and customs as laid down in Torah and Talmud. Jewish holidays and rituals are mainly based upon the Torah (The Old Testament in the bible), but only two Christian Sacraments Baptism and Lord’s Supper have biblical roots. Regarding rest of the celebrations scholars have different views. Remember one thing that no one can comprehend God with limited human knowledge and wisdom, but even then some people try to evaluate God with their worldly knowledge and education and reasoning. They try to question the works and the word of God. It is not possible to comprehend the wisdom and infinite personality of God with finite minds and self-centered views. Some people try to figure out God as a glorified and smart human being. If that is true then there would be no awe and majesty of the Almighty. We cannot reduce his knowledge, wisdom and thinking to be ours. As clay cannot question the potter, so human beings who are just dust cannot question God about His works, creation, and scriptures which He has given through His loyal and obedient prophets, to which they have not added their own views and opinions. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy or scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God 2Peter 1:20-21

As the Almighty God does not change with time, so the word of God is still valid today as it was when it was given to the human beings.

Lastly I would like to thank Rev. Dr. Lee A. Brewer Ph.D Pastor Glenmont United Methodist Church Silver Spring Maryland who after reading the manuscript gave valuable suggestions to make the book more interesting and useful to the reader. I am also grateful to him for writing few lines about me and the book.

Salatiel Sidhu

12901 Flack Street

Silver Spring,

MD, U.S.A. 20906

PART ONE

Jewish Holidays and Rituals

And

Brief History of Judaism and its Sects

Jewish Holidays

The story of Judaism starts with their ancestor Abram son of Terah (or Tarah). Terah originally lived in Ur the land of Chaldeans (present day Iraq). He was asked by God to get out of the land of Chaldeans and go to Canaan, but when they came to Haran they settled there. God had a different plan for Abram who was later named Abraham by God. He asked Abram to get out of Haran and go to the land of Canaan which God promised to give his descendents as an inheritance. Since God is true to His promises, He had promised a son from Sarah. Abram was ninety nine years old when God changed his name to Abraham and renewed His promise to give him a son from Sarah and give the land of Canaan as a perpetual holding. God said to Abraham I will establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you. So God kept His promise and covenant and chose Isaac and his son Jacob and their descendants. They were at that time called Hebrews, but with the passage of time from Jacob’s son Judah the term came to Judaism and then the Hebrews were called Jews.

Jewish history is full of hardships, hatred, and torture at the hands of their enemies. Right from the times of Pharaohs when Joseph died they suffered suppression and torture. Babylonians, Assyrians, Romans, Hitler, and all other foreign raiders and rulers routed the Jews from their homeland and they got scattered all over the world. Even now their enemies are pledging to wipe out the nation of Israel from the map of the world, but I as a believer in the Almighty sovereign God, will say Israel is a chosen nation of God and the God who made covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has preserved the nation of Israel against the persecution and hatred they have been undergoing. Their great king David says," In God I trust ; I am not afraid, what can flesh