Festivals Pt1, Judaism

• Starts - on Friday evening (sunset)
• Finishes - Saturday evening (sunset)

• "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. You shall not do any work... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth... and he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy".
• One of the Ten Commandments and it comes from Exodus 20.

had devoted a whole section of the Talmud for Sabbath rules.

• Growing/preparing food
• Making clothing
• Leather work and nitting
• Providing shelter (building and demolishing)
• Creating a fire
• Work completion
• Transporting goods (Jews tend to live near synagogue, for they are not allowed to drive either).

• Sign of their connection with God.
• Gives motivation to work hard for the rest of the week.
• Period of serenity.
• A "sacred" time - different quality of time.
• Bring joy to family and also keep Jewish community together (distinct from other communities "holy nation")
• Sense of unity within women when lighting candle.

Yom Kippur

• Mother & daughters bake and bless Challah bread. (mitzvot for women)
• Mother lights 2 Sabbath candles (one to remember, one to keep Sabbath) & says blessing. (mitzvot for women)
• Father blesses Sabbath through Kiddush - blessing over wine.
• Father sings to wife as praise (from Proverbs)
• Father blesses children with his hands
• Table becomes alter.

• Places lips on child's forehead and holds child while saying:
• "May God make you like Ephraim and Menasheh" (for boys)
• "May God make you like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah" (for girls)

• Orthodox: would follow rules to the letter, as they believe this is a crucial part in Judaism in order to be halackic and kedushah (separated). Perhaps followig the law is such a fundamental part of Judaism, that if lost, much of what defines the religion would be lost.
• Liberal/reform: Believe that Judaism doesnot need to be so legalistic. Judaism is going to die unless there is change that adapts to the time. eg. sexism in Judaism.

• Belief that only mitzvot that support high ethical standards of behaviour should be retained, others can be discarded (ie Chukim laws - laws with unclear meaning like kosher food laws, Sabbath day laws such as do not rip toilet paper).
• eg. Women to have equal rights to men. So, female rabbis, men and women pray together etc. (Keen to modernise itself.)

Chukim

• Enjoy Sabbath (esp. generally ceremonies)
• Go to synagogue on Saturday
• Take part in Yom Kippur
• Passover meal
• Still treat the Torah scroll with reverance

• Led to many Jews becoming almost indistinct from their gentile neighbours. Practices are "watered down" that they hardly seemed a different religion. After all, Christians worshipped one God and strove to meet high ethical standards too - what's the difference?
• The strict following of the law is very much what makes up Judaism.

Havdallah

• Marks the distinction between the time that is sacred (sabbath), and that is profane (normal, rest of the week).
• As soon as havdallah is over, you can work again - lighting the candle is first sign of work.

• Women (usually mother of the family)
• Usually 2 candles (one for remembering the Sabbath, one for keeping the Sabbath).
• After Sabbath, at the end of Havdallah ceremony, candles are lit again.
• Significance: Once again, Judaism stresses the importance of these "distinctions". The light and darkness, sacred and profane time, seventh day to the six workdays - it is distinctions. (Havdallah means "division").

• Lighting of the candle - first sign of work being done.
• Spice box to lift the spirits of the family (sadness as Sabbath is over).
• Blessing over wine.

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• Pesach (Passover) - the feast of unleavened bread.
• Shavuot (feast of weeks)
• Sukkot (feast of tabernacles)

• Were originally tied to the agricultural cycle of Israel.
• The 3 feasts were associated with the three harvests of the year, and Jews would make pilgrimages to the temple on each occasion to present offerings from the harvest.

• Torah and the Talmud.
• "Three times a year all your males shall apear before the Lord..."
• "Thou shalt not appear before the Lord empty handed" (Deuteronomy)

After the destruction, these festivals began to focus more on remembering Jewish history, especially the Exodus, than visiting the Temple.

• Passover: was associated with the actual escape from Egypt, and commemorate God "passing over" the Hebrews in Egypt, and sparing their first born during the last plague.
• Shavuot: was associated with the giving of the commandments on Mt. Sinai.
• Sukkot: was associated with the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

• All 3 festivals signify the concept of chosen people, covanent, and the birth of their religion.
• Yearly reminders of the central events in ancient Jewish history.
• Help keep the community strong and focused.

• Idea that Yahweh had rescued them from Egypt gave them confidence that they were truelly his chosen people, and that God is keeping his covenant with Abraham.
• During forty years in the wilderness, God revealed Ten Commandments and 613 mitzvot.
• So exodus is really the true beginning of Judaism as we know it.

• "For a seven day period you shall eat matzos (unleavened bread). On the previous day you shall remove the leaven (fermented substances) from your homes."
• Exodus 12

• Home is cleaned of all bread, cakes and products that are made with leavening agents such as yeast - called chametz.
• Passover crockery and cutlery is brought out.
• Haggadah ("telling", commandement, kind of guide book on the table at Seder celebration) is read at the Seder (special meal that takes place on first and second evenings of Passover).
• The youngest person asks 4 questions and the father answers it with the Haggadah.

• 8 days (perhaps 7)
• Mostly home-based. (synagogue services during Pesach are solemn occasions).

• It is the great festival of freedom - emphasis on remembering one's freedom as a Jew.
• Also emphasis on teaching and explaining to one's children, what it means to be a free person (eg. 4 questions). Importance of heritage based on the family and passing on of one's tradiditons from one generation to next. Never forgetting Jewish history.

• Matzot
• Matzot eaten as reminder of the haste of the Hebrews in leaving Egypt. There was no time to wait for the bread to rise.
• Also spiritual significance attached to leaven - because it makes bread rise, it has come to symbolise tendency in human being of being "puffed up" ie proud and self-reliant.

Because it was seven weeks after passover (Leviticus)

• Commemorates the receiving of the Torah from Yahweh at Mt. Sinai.
• Rabbis called it "the season of the giving of the Torah".

• Stay up all night and studying sections of the Torah and the Talmud in Tikkun Leyl Shavuot.
• Dairy foods such as cheesecake are eaten because in the scriptures, the Torah is described as being like milk and honey. (Food is symbolic in Judaism - like sweet apple and honey in Rosh Hashanah.)
• Synagogue and homes are decorated with flowers and greenery, to symbolise the legend that Mt. Sinai flowered when God gave the Torah to Moses.

Many Jews view Shavuot as the conclusion of Pesach. Physical freedom is now followed by spiritual freedom in the form of receiving the Torah.

• LIVING in (not just building) a Sukkot, or a hut for 7 days - eat and meet, even sometimes sleep in it.
• Reminds Jews of the time the Israelites lived in temporary huts as they travelled through wilderness for 40 years. + also farmers in Israel lived in booths at edge of field during harvest.
• Thus sukkot is only pilgrim festival that is both harvest and Exodus orientated.
• Living in the sukkot symbolises humans' dependence on God (eg. weather).
• (ps. Sukkot/booth has to be made according to kosher standards such as using specific plants to build the hut).

• Extend hospitality especially to the needy. (Some Jews believe great ancestors like Abraham and Isaac partake in the festival with them). - Also charity is important.
• Shaking of the lulav (3 leafy branches in a stick) in all directions - showing God's power all over universe. (also hold etrog in other hand) (commanded in Leviticus)
• First and last days of Sukkot holy - no work is to be done, except prep of food.

• "You shall live in booths for seven days... In order that future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt". (Leviticus 23)
• Important - like Passover, its passing on a memory, a piece of history to your children.