Shalom. So, what is Judaism? Well, it is many things; it is an evolving religious civilization. It is a religion; it is a way of life. It involves deep spirituality, a moral life and traditional observances. The goal of Judaism is to make all of life holy; it goes back four thousand years to Abraham, his belief in one God and a covenant between that God and Abraham’s descendants became the foundation of Judaism. And, the Torah and the Talmud are sacred writings offered inspiration and guidance through the centuries, it still do.
So, what are the basic ideas on Judaism? First of all, there is one God, that God and the people of Israel have a covenant or a relationship. The basic covenant is through the meets goal of the commandments, and there are a hundreds of them regulating what human beings are to do. Hope to serve God and to work with humanity. We have a basic principle of when we sinned, the Torah are torn for a transgressions of come back to God. And, we have a tradition and belief that there is a better future ahead, basically, the Messianic era.
Now, what are the basic writings? Well, we have, first of all the Torah, the five books of Moses. And then, there is one third of the Holy Bible, which includes many books of the prophets and the books of the writings. And then, what we call the Oral Law is actually now written in the form of the Talmud. We also have many Holy Days, the Sabbath which comes on Friday night through Saturday night every week. And then, other holidays including the New Year Rosh Hashanah, ten days later the (foreign language).
Five days later, the holiday of Succoth, that feast of Brogues, this lasts for a week. And then comes Hanukkah, the redecoration of the temple and the holiday of political and religious freedom which occurs during, towards the end of the secondly year in December. Tubishba which is the Arbor Day; which occurs usually in January and Porum which is the festival of the survival of the Jews against threatened Genocide from Persia in the fourth century BCE.
Passover, the Torah story of the Exodus and freedom from liberation bounded in Egypt, then seven weeks later, we have the holiday of Shavuot that celebrates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. And then, in the middle of the summer there is sad day when we commemorate the destruction of both holy temples, which on the same day unite the vow but hundreds of years apart.
And then the period between Passover and Shavuot, we have new days that we celebrate in commemorate, sadly the commemoration of the holy cross occurs during that period, so does Israel’s memorial day, and rejoicing of Israel’s birthday. Now, one of some of the major life cycle events in Judaism, we have or babies covenantal experience for boys at circumcision, and the naming. Pre-adolescence is abided by Mitzvah, then many Jewish groups have confirmation, of course we have a special marriage ritual. I have videos on all of these things, and special death practices.
And also, it is important to know when understanding Judaism, that there are various denominations, expressions of Jewish life. I have videos on all those Orthodox were formed conservative, re-constructionist and others. We also have various religious symbols, including the wine goblet called the kinescope. Candlesticks for lighting candles, the prayer shawl, I have a video on that, (foreign language) I have a video on that. The Rams worth for the high holidays, I have a video on that, the Star of David, I have video on that. (Foreign language) I have a video on that, but important religious symbols.
And so, what is this all about? It is to serve God in a sacred way as express through the commandments and to try and make the life holy.
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