As part of Interfaith week, Year 3 were fortunate to have Leon from the Jewish Synagogue visit, for a question and answer session. Leon answered many of the children’s questions and shared Judaism artefacts which the children were fascinated with. Below are some of the key facts they learnt about Judaism from Leon:
- Jewish people believe in one God who created the entire universe.
- The Torah is the Jewish holy scriptures and it forms the first five books of the Bible (Old Testament) which is the Christian holy book.
- The Torah was given to Moses who is a prophet (the children were excited as most of them knew that Moses is known as Musa (PBUH) in Islam).
- The Torah is written in Hebrew.
- Jewish people are not allowed to torch the words in the Torah with their fingers for two reasons:
- Out of respect.
- To avoid damaging the Torah because of sweat or oils from fingers.
- A Yad is a Jewish ritual pointer, used when reading the Torah.
- The Talmud is a collection of traditional Jewish laws that comes from the Torah.
- Religious leaders in Judaism are called rabbi (a bit like a priest in Christianity or an imam in Islam)
- Just like other religions, there are many festivals in Judaism. One of these festivals is called Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish Day of Rest. Shabbat happens each week from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. During Shabbat, Jewish people remember the story of creation from the Torah.
- A shofar is a ram’s horn which is blown in the lead up to the Jewish new year, known as Rosh Hashanah.