Lesson video

Hi everyone, my name is Rabbi London.

Today we are going to review a lot of what we've learned together over the past unit on Jewish Beliefs.

I am so surprised that we're already here at our revision day.

Today you're going to need to have a pen or pencil, and some paper or something to write on, or with.

I'll also take this moment to remind you to turn off any notifications or to end any conversations that you might be in the middle of, if you're able to.

And try to find a place where you're going to find the least distractions.

If you need, press pause so you can gather whatever you might need and get to a space that is good for you.

And press play when you're ready to begin.

We're going to start off with a few quick fire questions.

A mitzvah means commandment.

The Jewish people believe there are how many number of mitzvot? 10, 613, 2000 or seven? 613.

Mitzvah means commandment.

The Jewish people believe there are 600 mitzvot.

The Jewish belief that work should not be done on Shabbat is because: there has been at least one day not working.

It sounded like a good idea.

Because God rested from creation on the seventh day.

Or because Abraham did.

The Jewish belief that work should not be done on Shabbat is because God rested from creation on the seventh day.

The term shechina refers to: one of the names of God.

The giving of the Torah.

The divine presence.

A sign of the covenant between God and the Jewish people.

The terms shechina refers to the divine presence.

The word Tanakh stands for: Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim.

Tradition, nature and culture.

Be tolerant, be nice and be kind.

Teaching, nurturing and kin.

Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim.

Tanakh stands for Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim.

The five books of Moses, prophets and writings.

Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah are known as the: forefathers, high priests, foremothers or great rabbis.

Foremothers.

Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah are known as the foremothers.

King David was told he was not allowed to build the temple, but was promised: that David would be resurrected and would build it then.

That it would be built at some point in time.

A temple would not be needed.

Or that his son Solomon would.

That his son Solomon would.

King David was told he was not allowed to build the temple, but was promised that his son Solomon would.

Which books listed might a rabbi look at, in order to decide on Jewish law? The Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, or Responsa.

The book of Psalms, Song of songs, or Proverbs.

A siddur or a haggadah.

Rabbis never need to look anything up.

The Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, or Responsa.

The books that a rabbi might look into in order to decide on Jewish law would be the Talmud, Shulchan Aruch, or Responsa.

Which word do Jewish people use informally to mean good deeds? Shabbat, Tanakh, Shiva, or Mitzvot.

Mitzvot.

The Jewish people use the word Mitzvot informally to mean good deeds.

All right, now we're going to do some true or false.

To show reverence to God's name, some Jewish people will write G-d.

True.

Some Jewish people will write G-d instead of write down God with the O to show reverence or respect to God and God's name.

HaShem is the name of God regularly used in Tanakh.

False.

HaShem is the term that many Jewish people will use when talking about God, instead of saying God's name.

In Tanakh, God has many names.

One name is known as the unmentionable name.

And when it's read out loud, it's pronounced Adonai.

According to Jewish tradition, a person has the free will to choose to do what is right or wrong.

True.

According to Jewish tradition, a person has free will, meaning that they're able to choose between doing what's right, and what's wrong.

You guys are doing awesome.

That was a lot of material from many different classes.

Now we're going to go over some bits of what we've gone over.

So covenant, we've spoken a lot about covenants.

A covenant is an agreement made between two or more parties.

We learned about the covenant with Abraham, where God told Abraham that if Abraham followed God, God would then bless Abraham with descendants, the promised land, and that Abraham's name would be a blessing.

We learned about Moses, and God fulfilling the covenant with Abraham through Moses.

Telling Moses that Moses will be the one to take the Jewish people out of the land of Egypt and lead them to the promised land.

And the covenant with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, where God gives the Torah to the Jewish people and the Jewish people say they will do the laws that are given over to them.

According to this idea, the covenant in God says, if you're going to follow my words, you will be rewarded, and if not, you will get punished.

What I'd like you to do now is pause the video and bullet point as many points as you can about covenant in Judaism.

So anything that I've just said or anything that you remember me saying or anything you might know from your own life.

At the top of the page, please write a definition of covenant.

And then I'd like you to think about God's covenant with Abraham, with Moses and with the Jewish people.

When you're finished completing your task, please press play to resume.

Here's some stuff that I wrote.

So a covenant is an agreement made between at least two parties.

With Abraham, I wrote that Abraham was told to go from his home to a place that God will show him.

And God says to him, if you follow me, I will bless you with the promised land, many descendants, having many children and grandchildren and so on and so forth.

And you will be blessed and your name will be a blessing.

Moses, I think about where God comes to Moses to talk to him while he is in the burning bush, telling Moses he's going to be the one to go save the Jewish people from slavery.

And God says, if you follow me, you Moses, will take the Jewish people out of Egypt.

And this is the fulfilment of the covenant with Abraham, as God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves, but they would be freed.

It is also Moses that is told that he will be the one to lead the Jewish people to the promised land.

Now the Jewish people leave Egypt in the Exodus and on their travels, they stop off at a place named Mount Sinai.

At Mount Sinai is when, according to most Jewish tradition, the Jewish people received the Torah.

In this receiving of the Torah, God said, if you follow me, if you follow my laws, you will be blessed, and if not, you will be punished.

So you did a great job on covenant.

Now let's think about the qualities or characteristics that we know about God.

I'd like you to spend two minutes drawing a mind map, showing the qualities some Jewish people believe about God.

Press pause to complete this task and resume when you're finished.

So what's on your mind's map? Here's what I put on mine.

Maybe some are similar.

Some Jewish beliefs about the characteristics of God are: that God is one, there's only one God.

That God is sometimes seen as a judge, giving laws and deciding who's getting rewarded and who's being punished.

God is omnipotent.

God is all knowing, all powerful.

God is omnipresent, meaning God is everywhere.

God is omnibenevolent, God is all loving.

God is merciful.

So although God is judging, God also sees mercy and is able to see the bigger picture and doesn't always decide law, black and white.

God is all knowing.

God knows everything that's happening in the world and everything that will, and everything that did happen.

God is transcendent.

God is above all of what we, as humans, are able to understand.

There are other aspects of God that we spoken about, or maybe you know from what you've learned with other teachers.

I'm sure that your answers are great and I'd love to be able to hear them.

We looked at the 13 principles of faith written by Moses Maimonides.

Maimonides wrote these principles as a discussion of what does it mean to be a Jewish person of faith? And so these principles are his opinion.

There are many Jewish people who do follow and believe that this is what makes a Jewish person.

And there are many Jewish people who don't believe all 13 of these attributes or principles.

The first five principles are about God.

So we just spoke about some of the characteristics of God that we learned about.

Let's read his characteristics of God.

So one, is God exists.

He starts from the very beginning, that there is a God.

Two, God is one, there's only one God.

That Jewish people are supposed to be monotheistic.

Three, God is transcendent and has no form.

Again, God is above what humans are able to understand.

And there isn't any physicalness to God.

Four, God is eternal.

God existed before everything and God will always exist.

There was never a time when God did not exist.

And number five, one should only worship God.

No other being or deity, other beings should be worshipped.

Now we're going to look at number six and number seven, which talks about prophecy.

So number six, there were prophets, and what they said is true.

So according to Maimonides a Jewish person should believe that the works of the prophets all happened.

Number seven, is Moses was the greatest of the prophets.

According to Jewish tradition, Moses was the only prophet who spoke to God face-to-face.

So Moses is known as the greatest of all prophets.

Eight, is the belief that God gave the Torah at Sinai, that this is something that happened and that the Torah was said by God.

Nine, the Torah is God's law and there will never be another Torah.

This idea is that the Torah came from God and no other Torah, no matter who comes to us will ever be equivalent or true.

Now we're going back, we have two more about God.

So God is omniscient, God is all knowing.

God knows about everything that happened, and will happen and is happening.

Eleven, God will give rewards and punishments based on one's actions.

And we don't understand what rewards or punishments one is going to get based on what they're going to do.

But there's a Jewish belief that one should strive, one to try their hardest to be as good as they possibly can.

Twelve, is that there will be a Messiah, a Mashiach.

The time of the Mashiach will come.

What this means, means a lot of different things to lots of different people.

One idea is that the time of Mashiach is going to be a time where all questions are answered and there's going to be peace and tranquillity.

And all the things that were broken will now be unified again.

And 13, there will be a resurrection of the dead.

This is a belief that the souls and bodies of those who have died will come back.

And according to some opinions, during the resurrection of the dead, this is when God will judge the Jewish people.

And that is when someone will receive any rewards or any punishments that they are due.

So that's the 13 principles of faith by Maimonides.

Maimonides listed 13 principles that he feels make up what does it mean to be a faithful Jewish person.

Again, as I said, there are some Jewish people who do believe all 13 of these principles.

In some orthodox prayer books, this is listed in the back of the morning prayer service.

There are other Jewish people who don't believe all 13.

And there are other people who wrote principles of faith that are somewhat different than what Maimonides wrote.

Sorry about that.

Don't know what was going on in my brain.

Tanakh.

What does Tanakh stand for? I know I use that word a lot while I'm teaching.

The T stands for the word Torah.

Torah is the five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

That is what is referred to as the Torah.

Neviim are the books of prophets.

So this section includes books like Joshua, the book of Judges.

It's where we'll read about King David and King Solomon.

It's also Isaiah and Jeremiah and a lot of others.

Ketuvim.

The last section with the K is the books of writings.

In the writing section we're going to read the book of Psalms, the book of Song of Songs, the Megillot, the Scroll, so the scroll of Esther and Ruth and Lamentations.

When one is talking about all of those books together, one will say Tanakh.

So Torah.

Who wrote the Torah? There are some Jewish people that believe that the Torah was written by God.

And some Jewish people believe that the Torah was written by prophets or intelligent people of the time.

There's an idea that at the same time that the written Torah was being given at Sinai to Moses, Moses also received the oral Torah or the oral law.

The oral law was things passed down verbally, so mouth to mouth by talking, listening, and learning from what was going on around people.

And the oral law was ways to help explain many mitzvot because sometimes in the written Torah, there's a mitzvah, but it's not very clear of what that should look like.

It's only through the oral law that one was able to know how to actually fulfil that commitment.

Jewish law is also known as Halacha, which literally comes from the word to go because Halacha in Jewish law is about encompassing Jewish person's entirety of life, from how to tie shoes, to how to pray, to how to keep the Sabbath, to how to pay one's workers fairly.

There are some mitzvot, commandments, mitzvot, that are between humans and God.

And some mitzvot are between humans.

So some mitzvot that are between humans and God might look like how to pray, or how do I keep Shabbat properly? And some mitzvot that are between humans are how do I take care of those who are in need? Or how do I make sure that the people I'm hiring are treated fairly.

A group of mitzvot that get spoken about a lot, are the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments were given at Sinai and are passed down as tenets or a basis of Jewish law.

Again, these are only 10 commandments out of 613.

So let's go over the 10 commandments.

One, you should have no other God besides for me.

Two, you should not make yourself a sculptured image.

So don't make any statues or idols.

Three, you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

Again, this is a reminder, similar to what Maimonides was writing.

Or Maimonides was quoting this, of only pray to God.

Four, you shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your God.

Don't use God's name in vain.

This we see in the ideas that Jewish people will use reverence or respect when dealing with God's name.

So not writing it out everywhere or not pronouncing it all the time, and having certain words that are said at certain places and times that are able to show God the respect.

Five, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

Six, honour your father and your mother.

Seven, you shall not murder.

Eight, you shall not commit adultery.

Nine, you should not steal.

Ten, you shall not be jealous of your neighbor's house.

As you can see in these 10 commandments, it seems like the first five are more to do with how do humans interact with God.

And the second five look more at how do humans interact with other humans? What would our society look like if we followed these rules? What I'd like you to do now is to bullet point your answers.

I'd like you to write a definition of the word mitzvah.

And then I'd like you to give three examples of mitzvot between humans and God.

And then three examples of mitzvot between humans and humans.

And if you can, use proof from the Torah.

A hint for that is to think to the 10 commandments.

So press pause and complete your task, and then press play when you're finished.

So how did you do with that? Again, a mitzvah is a commandment.

Some examples of a mitzvah between humans and God are prayer or Shabbat, or the commandment to worship only God.

Some commandments about humans and interacting with other humans is honouring one's parents, and the commandments not to steal or not to murder.

So now we're going to go zip through history because here we are revising so we're going to go zipping.

King David became king and conquered Jerusalem.

He wanted to build a temple or a home for God, but God said, you can't do this, but your son, King Solomon, will.

King Solomon builds the first temple and it's this amazing building built from stone and wood and gold.

And according to the Talmud, this was a site that everyone wanted to see.

It was apparently the most beautiful building that you can imagine.

Hundreds of years later, in 586 BCE, so before the common era was the destruction of the first temple by the Babylonians.

The temple gets destroyed and the Jewish people are forced to leave Jerusalem.

This starts to change how Jewish people are practising because during this time when they don't have the temple, they're no longer giving sacrifices, which was the main way of worshipping God during the time.

In 515 BCE, so before the common era, the second temple is rebuilt and completed.

A number of years later, King Herod renovates the temple and makes it even bigger and grander than what was done when they rebuilt it the second time around.

But the Romans invaded Jerusalem and destroyed the second temple in 70 CE.

This destruction fully changed the way that Jewish practise was.

There was no longer any temple sacrifices and most of the community was no longer living in Jerusalem surrounding the temple area.

So the rabbis moved from Jerusalem to other cities in Israel, and then into Babylon in Syria.

It was there that they continued to learn Jewish texts and to discuss Jewish law, which was known as the oral law.

A Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi decided to write down the Mishnah, which is an explanation of how to apply and follow the mitzvot.

Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi decided this because he was worried as the exile, as the leaving of Jerusalem was becoming in some ways more permanent, he was worried that the oral law would get lost forever.

And so took it upon himself to write it down, in what we now know as the Mishnah.

The Gemara was then written down in the year 500.

So the Mishnah was written in 200.

The Gemara was then written down in about the year 500 by two other rabbis, Ravina and Rav Ashi.

The Gemara is a collected discussion and comments relating to the Mishnah and to Jewish life.

The way that the page of Gemara is set up is primarily in discussions where you could see rabbi A says this, rabbi B says this, and they're going to bring proof texts quoting from Tanakh, but mostly from the Torah.

Sometimes the stories in the Gemara will tell us about how were people of that time living.

Sometimes one could read about customs, and sometimes there are stories that are part of the oral tradition, or were part of the oral tradition to explain stories that are in Tanakh.

So although the Gemara and the Mishnah were written down as a hope to make understanding and remembering what Jewish law is, made it a little bit easier.

It wasn't always that easy.

The Gemara didn't have, and doesn't have a conclusion for every law.

And sometimes laws are interspersed into sections that one wouldn't think that it should be there.

In the 1100s, Moses Maimonides, a rabbi that was born in Spain, moved to Morocco and Israel, and finally settled in Egypt, was one of the first rabbis to compile a book that just gave the end result of what the laws should be.

He wrote down the Mishneh Torah.

He thought that he wants to create a guide to help Jewish people know what laws to follow and how to follow them.

Later in the 1500s, Rabbi Yosef Caro wrote a book called the Shulchan Aruch.

The Schulchan Aruch again was another code of Jewish law written in a different order than Maimonides, with some more explanations.

At the same time, that Rabbi Yosef Caro was in Spain and then in Israel, Rabbi Moshe Isserles was in Poland and heard about Rabbi Yosef Caro's book.

Rabbi Moshe Isserles wrote some commentary and additions to what Rabbi Yosef Caro was writing.

So in today's volumes of the Shulchan Aruch, you can see both the writings of Rabbi Yosef Caro and the commentary of Rabbi Moshe Isserles to have a greater idea of how does one or how can one understand Jewish law? Where are they getting the ideas from? And what were some of the practises and different practises based on where someone was living? And the last book or books really, is Responsa.

Responsa is a body of Jewish legal writing, where the form is generally in question and answer.

Where either it's a real question that someone really did mail in to the rabbi, or the rabbi comes up with a question and then answers it.

Responsa are still happening today.

There are modern books of Responsa.

In some communities, you even have a Responsa by SMS, or you can just send a text message.

Responsa, sometimes the answers are very quick, as you can imagine with the SMS, you're not going to get 20 pages to read.

It'll give you generally what you have to do, or if something's allowed or not allowed.

Some Responsa are long, long essays where the rabbi is going to prove, how do they get to their idea based on their learning from the Tanakh, the Talmud, and any of the commentaries leading all the way to a Responsa that he or she might have read.

Responsa is used in almost all Jewish communities and written by almost all different types of rabbis.

I'd like you to answer the following questions in full sentences.

One, what are the Mishnah and Gemara? Two, why did Rabbi Judah Ha'Nasi compile the Mishnah? Three, in what ways do some Jewish people use books like the Shulchan Aruch or Mishneh Torah? Four, describe in your own words what Responsa is.

When you're finished, please press play and resume the video.

So how did you do with that? There's a lot of Jewish books and a lot of books that are explaining what are the ways in which a Jewish person can and should lead their lives.

Now, we're going to go over some of the aspects of a Jewish funeral.

Before burial the body is ritually washed by members of what's known as The Chevra Kadisha.

They're a group of people who are specially trained in this special type of ritual washing, and getting the body ready for burial.

The immediate family members will do kriah, or a tearing of their shirt, or in some communities they'll have a ribbon and tear that.

They do this tearing in order to show to everyone their sadness and grief.

Following burial, immediate family members will sit Shiva.

Shiva means seven in Hebrew.

And this represents the first seven days of mourning.

For seven days, many mourners will: Only stay at home.

Will have a candle burning for all seven days.

They will not cut their hair or shave.

During this time of Shiva the family will stay at home, but the community will come to visit the family.

This is known as paying a shiva call.

Generally people come to either listen about the person who had just died or to share stories.

This is a way that for some people they're able to find comfort after the loss of a loved one.

In many communities during the week where a family in their community has Shiva, the prayer services during the weekdays will move from the synagogue to this person's home.

Kaddish is a prayer traditionally said by mourners.

Although the Kaddish prayer has to do with nothing about death.

It actually has to do with about God and the greatness of God.

This prayer is said by mourners during up to.

Well, it depends.

They're able to say the Kaddish prayer for 30 days.

If someone lost their parents, traditionally, they're going to say Kaddish for 11 months.

Kaddish is also then said on the Yahrzeit or anniversary of the death of their loved one.

Other customs that someone might have on Yahrzeit is to light a candle or to visit the gravestone.

And when you go visit a grave, they would put a rock on the grave.

I'd like you to pause the video to complete the following task.

Create an outline of the rituals for when a Jewish person dies.

Please try to use the words: Vidui, Kriya, Chevrah kadisha, Kaddish, Shiva, and Yahrzeit.

When you're finished, press play to resume.

My outline goes over two pages, we'll start from the beginning.

A person who's dying, or their family says Vidui.

Vidui is the prayer asking for forgiveness for anything that a person might have done.

And the very last line is the Shema saying that God is one.

The Chevra kadisha prepares the body for burial through ritual washing.

The family does Kriya, a tearing of their clothing to show their grief.

A funeral takes place as soon as possible.

Prayers, songs and eulogies are said.

Eulogies are speeches or stories that people might say about the person who had just died.

The eulogies can be said by family or friends or even the rabbi.

The mourners begin to say Kaddish.

Kaddish will be said for 30 days or up to 11 months.

It depends on who has just passed away.

The immediate family sits shiva, sitting on low stools at home with the community coming to visit and offer comfort.

Many have the custom to light a candle for seven days.

Many have the custom to not shave or cut their hair.

On the anniversary of the death the family observes the Yahrzeit.

On this day they might say Kaddish, light a candle, or go visit the cemetery and leave a stone on the grave, or they might choose to do all of the above.

You all did a great job today and through this entire unit.

I thank you so much for learning.

So today, try to write down, I know I ask you this all the time, to write down three things that you've learned.

Maybe it's not something that you learned for the first time, but maybe it's something that you remembered that you forgot.

So write down three things that you learned and try to share it with someone, whether it's a parent or carer or friend or teacher.

And don't forget to complete the end of the lesson quiz.

And if you want, share your work with Oak National.

Please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

We'd love to see the work that you're doing.

Hope you have a wonderful rest of the day, and happy learning.