Judaism & Festivals (Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies B): Revision Note

Rosh Hashanah

The importance of festivals in Judaism

• Judaism has many festivals throughout the year

• Festivals happen at set times in the Jewish calendar

  • These are linked to the lunar calendar, they change dates from year to year

• Festivals are important because:

  • they celebrate and commemorate important events in Jewish history, meaning that they connect Jews of today with the events of the past

  • celebrating festivals maintains Jewish tradition, which is an important part of the faith. Many Jewish festivals have been celebrated since Biblical times 

  • they celebrate the special relationship between God and his people throughout time

  • they celebrate the power of God and the gifts he has given. For example, Shavuot and Sukkot have connections with nature and celebrate God as the creator of all things and the sustainer of nature

  • they provide Jews with a chance to show repentance and make a fresh start

• The most important Jewish festivals include:

  • Rosh Hashanah

  • Yom Kippur

  • Sukkot

  • Pesach

  • Shavuot

Origins of Rosh Hashanah

• Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year festival

  • 'Rosh' means 'head' and so this festival marks the ‘head of the year’

• Rosh Hashanah lasts two days and takes place in September or October

• It has been celebrated since Biblical times

• It commemorates the creation of the world 

• At this time, Jews reflect on their year and their sins

• The celebration of Rosh Hashanah is one of the mitzvot, as commanded in the Torah

Features of Rosh Hashanah

• In the month leading up to the festival, the shofar is blown each day in the synagogue

• Jews spend time in prayer and reflection, thinking about their sins and their relationship with God in preparation for a fresh start in the new year

• They make New Year resolutions and exchange cards with friends and family

• In the home, people mark Rosh Hashanah with a Kiddush over foods containing honey. This is in the hope of a sweet new year. They eat food such as pomegranates, which have lots of seeds, and fish, which are found in shoals, in the hope that there will be many good deeds in the new year

• People spend time in the synagogue, where there are prayers and readings from the Torah

• At the morning service in the synagogue, 100 notes are sounded on the shofar to represent people’s souls crying about sins of the past

• There is a Tashlich ceremony after the service, where people throw their sins symbolically into the water of a nearby river

  • This fulfils the teaching in the Book of Micah:

The meaning and importance of Rosh Hashanah

• Rosh Hashanah is important for Jews because they believe that this is a time when God judges all humanity

• God considers a person's good and bad deeds over the last year and on this day writes people’s names into his books:

  • the Book of Life, for those who are completely good

  • the Book of Death, for those who are completely evil

  • an intermediate book, which is where most people’s names are written

• The books remain open until Yom Kippur when they are sealed. People can affect where their name is recorded, so Rosh Hashanah is a time to choose to be good and to make up to anyone they may have hurt or offended in the past year

• Therefore Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection for Jews:

  • about their relationship with God and with others

  • about their values and priorities

  • about anything they would like to put right 

  • about anything they would like to achieve in the coming year

Yom Kippur

• The Jewish festival of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar and is known as the 'Sabbath of Sabbaths'

• It happens ten days after Rosh Hashanah and brings an end to the 10 days of repentance that starts with the festival of Rosh Hashanah, a period known as the ‘Days of Awe’

• During the ‘Days of Awe’ Jews focus on asking God for forgiveness as it is believed that he will make his final judgement on the day of Yom Kippur sometime in the future

Origins of Yom Kippur

• Yom Kippur is commanded in the Torah, which states that anyone who does not participate must be cut off:

• In the days of the Temple, priests made sacrifices to atone for sins

  • A bull was sacrificed to atone for the priest’s sins

  • Two goats were also presented. One was offered up as a sacrifice, the other cast out into the wilderness with the priest having symbolically placed the sins of the Israelites on its head. Therefore it was known as the scapegoat - the goat who would take away the sins of others

Features of Yom Kippur 

The Eve of Yom Kippur

• The day before Yom Kippur is a day of preparation 

  • Some Orthodox Jews practise a ritual called Kapparah, where a sacrifice of a chicken is made, and the meat is donated to the poor for food

  • The sacrifice is intended to make up for (atone for) their sins

• Most Jews undertake charitable works and families make donations to the poor instead of sacrificing a chicken

• The family shares a special meal and then goes to the synagogue before sunset for an evening service at which they will confess their sins

During Yom Kippur

• During the festival of Yom Kippur, Jews wear white as a symbol of purity and forgiveness.

• They will fast for 25 hours, which involves:

  • going without food and drink

  • no bathing or wearing perfume of any kind

  • no sexual relations

  • not wearing leather shoes

• Fasting is intended to purify their spirit and concentrate the mind on forgiveness and moral renewal

• The most important part of Yom Kippur is the time spent in the synagogue

  • It is the only day of the year when the synagogue holds five services

  • The day is spent in continuous prayer for forgiveness

  • People make their confessions silently to God 

• The story of Jonah is told in the synagogue, telling of God’s willingness to forgive those who fully repent

• The final service at the end of Yom Kippur is known as Neilah 

  • This is considered the most sacred service of the year and is full of solemn melodies and prayers

  • When the shofar sounds at the end of the Neilah service, the day-long fast that marks Yom Kippur is over

  • Many Jews view the Neilah as representing the symbolic closing of the gates of Heaven when God’s final judgement is passed on humans

• At home, the end of Yom Kippur is marked with a havdalah ceremony, just as at the end of Shabbat

The meaning and significance of Yom Kippur

• Yom Kippur is considered the most important festival in Judaism

• The teaching in the Torah that ‘Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people’ (Leviticus 23:29) means that this is a mitzvah that must be taken seriously

  • Therefore most Jews fast and attend the synagogue for Yom Kippur, even if they do not observe the faith during the rest of the year

• Atonement during Yom Kippur means that people have the chance to make up both to God for any sins and also to other people who they may have wronged

• Therefore it is important for Jews because

  • it releases them from guilt about past sins

  • it repairs their relationship with God and others

  • it enables them to make a fresh start

• Fasting is important for Jews at this time because

  • it makes them more aware of their spiritual needs, not their physical needs

  • it gives them more self-discipline, which they will need to live a better life

  • it makes them more aware of and compassionate towards others who fast from necessity, not from choice

Sukkot

• Sukkot is the festival of the Tabernacles

• Sukkot follows just five days after Yom Kippur

• It is celebrated for eight or nine days

• It marks the end of summer and the beginning of the autumn fruit harvest

Origins of Sukkot

• Sukkot is a festival commanded by the Torah. Jews are instructed to stop work, gather branches, and live in temporary shelters

  • This is to remember the time when the Israelites escaped from Egypt and wandered in the wilderness. They lived as nomads during this time, and their dwelling places were temporary huts with palm leaves as roofs:

Features of Sukkot

• Families will start to build their sukkah at the end of Yom Kippur

  • The sukkah is a temporary shelter (Sukkot is the plural) that is built outdoors with a roof of leafy branches covering it

• During the days of Sukkot, families may live in the Sukkah, or may just have their meals in it, depending on where in the world they live

• During the festival, people will meet in the synagogue with an etrog (a citrus fruit like a lemon) and a lulav (palm branch) to remember the teachings of the Torah

• This is a festival of much joy and rejoicing, and Jews will offer hospitality to others

The meaning and importance of Sukkot

• Sukkot is a festival that unites Jews

• They are reminded of the story of their ancestors and feel a link to their history and traditions

• It brings together families, who will live in their sukkah and many share the festival by offering hospitality to others

• The symbols of Sukkot represent the differing types of people:

  • Etrog: people who know the Torah and do good

  • Lulav: people who know the Torah but do not do good deeds

  • Myrtle branches: people who do good deeds but do not know the Torah

  • Willow branches: people who do not  do good deeds or know the Torah

Pesach

• Pesach is a seven-day festival marking the start of spring

• It is also known as Passover

Origins of Pesach

• Pesach comes from the time of Moses

• The Israelites who were in Egypt to escape famine were made to work as slaves by the Pharoah

• Moses was called by God to lead the Israelites out of their slavery

• Pharoah refused to let them go and so God sent a series of plagues on the people of Egypt

• After each plague, Pharoah said the Israelites could go, but each time changed his mind

• The tenth plague was the angel of death who killed the firstborn in each house

• The Israelites sacrificed a lamb and spread its blood on the doorposts of the house, and the angel of death ‘passed over’ those houses and went only to the Egyptian houses

• After this, Pharoah agreed to let the people go

• As Moses led them to freedom, Pharoah once more changed his mind and sent his army to chase after them

• When they came to the Red Sea, God parted the sea for the Israelites to cross

• But when the Egyptian army followed, the waves returned and destroyed the army

• God had saved the Israelites and given them their freedom

• Pesach celebrates these events and therefore is sometimes referred to as the ‘freedom’ festival

• Ever since the original events, Jews have marked Pesach

• There are several mitzvot about how to keep Pesach:

Features of Pesach

• In preparation for Pesach, Jews remove all grain products from their houses (called chametz)

  • Grain is not allowed to be eaten during the festival

• Leavened goods (containing yeast), such as bread, beer and oats are also removed from the house and Jews thoroughly clean to remove any trace of these

  • This is linked to the Israelites not having time to allow their bread to rise as they left Egypt

• Candles are lit to welcome Pesach

• The family goes to the synagogue where special prayers are recited and passages from the Torah are read

• A special meal is held called the Seder Meal

  • Seder means order, and there is a special order to be followed in the meal

• The foods on the Seder plate each symbolise a part of the Exodus story, which is retold during the meal using a book of ritual called the Hagadah

  • There are many symbolic foods on the table:

    • A lamb bone, which symbolises the lamb that was sacrificed

    • A boiled egg which is a symbol of new life

    • A green vegetable dipped in salt water to symbolise the tears of the Jews in slavery

    • Bitter herbs symbolising the bitterness of slavery

    • Charoset, which is a paste of apples, walnuts and wine, represents the mortar the slaves used when being forced to build

    • Unleavened bread (Matzah) is eaten, again as a reminder that their ancestors didn’t even have time to allow their bread to rise

• Four glasses of wine are drunk symbolising joy and one glass of wine is left for the Prophet Elijah who will return to announce the coming of the Messiah

  • Wine is also a symbol of the lambs’ blood painted onto the doorposts to save Jewish children from the final of the ten plagues

_{Passover Seder plates by United States Marine Corps is licensed as Public Domain}

The meaning and importance of Pesach

• Pesach is a celebration of freedom, it is also a celebration of

  • God’s power and the way he controlled the course of history so that the Israelites could achieve freedom and continue Jewish life and traditions

  • the bond between God and his chosen people

  • the birthday of the Jewish nation and a time of great rejoicing

Shavuot

• Shavuot is the Feast of Weeks

• It is also known as Pentecost

  • This is because it is held seven weeks or fifty days after Pesach or Passover (Greek for 50)

Origins of Shavuot

• Shavuot is a harvest festival, dating from the mitzvot in the Torah to offer the first fruits of the harvest to God:

• Shavuot also celebrates the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai, which happened fifty days after the events of the Exodus celebrated at Pesach

Features of Shavuot

• Shavuot does not have a set mitzvah outlining how it should be celebrated

• Jews say that is because it celebrates all 613 mitzvot being given to them, and therefore it includes following all of them

• The festival lasts two days, and Jews do not work during this time

• Features of Shavuot are:

  • Candles are lit

  • People stay up and study the Torah on the first night

  • People attend the synagogue and listen to the Ten Commandments being read

  • There are special prayers for those who have died

  • People eat dairy products but not meat

  • The synagogue is decorated with greenery, fruit and flowers

The meaning and importance of Shavuot

• Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah, which is the basis of Jewish law and identity

• Shavuot celebrates freedom and is seen as the completion of the freedom gained at Pesach

  • The events of Pesach are about the Israelites gaining physical freedom, but Shavuot marks them gaining spiritual freedom with the gift of the mitzvot from God

• Studying the Torah shows its importance for Jews

• Eating dairy rather than meat shows the importance of learning the correct laws - people did not know what the laws would be about eating meat; eating dairy meant that they would not be breaking any rules

• The flowers and greenery represent the flowering of Sinai after the giving of the Law to Moses. It also fulfils the mitzvah to present the first fruits of the harvest to God