Lesson video

Hi everyone, my name is Rabbi London, and we're going to learn about Judaism together.

Today's class we're going to talk about understanding God in history, and we're going to learn about some of the attributes of God and the concept of free will.

Before we get started, I'm going to ask you to make sure that you have a pen and paper with you or something to write with and on.

Also, please take a moment now to turn off any notifications on any of your apps and to end any conversations you might be in the middle of.

And if you're able try and find a place that is quiet or with the fewest distractions that you can find.

Now, when you're ready, let's begin.

In today's lesson we're going to learn about the concept of monotheism within Judaism.

We're also going to learn about some of the attributes of God according to Jewish thought.

And at the very end, we'll learn about the Jewish concept of free will.

As I said, you're going to need a pen or pencil and paper or something to write on and with.

If you haven't already done so take a moment to go get those things.

Judaism is a monotheistic religion.

Judaism is actually one of the oldest monotheistic religions.

Monotheistic means that it's a belief that there is only one God.

Now this belief that God is one or that there's only one God is actually one of the most important and basic.

There is a prayer that is said daily and in some communities twice daily that affirms that God is one.

This prayer is called the Shema.

The Shema is a prayer which affirms the belief that there is one God.

The Hebrew word Shama, which is the first word of this prayer is the Hebrew word that means to hear or to listen.

The prayer is from Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four.

In Hebrew it sounds like, in English that would be hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord alone.

Or in other translations, you might read it or think about it as hear O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is one.

So in this prayer on a daily or weekly basis, Jewish people are affirming that God is one and that there is only one God.

So what does it mean to be monotheistic? Does it mean a, belief that there is one God or b, belief that God is everywhere? You are correct.

A, belief that God is one God.

What is the prayer that said to affirm that God is one? The Shema.

What does the word Shema mean in Hebrew? Does it mean to watch or learn or to hear or to listen? It means to hear or to listen.

Now that we covered that there is one God, and God is one let's learn about a few other characteristics of God according to Jewish believe.

In moment, I'm going to ask you to pause the video and create a mind map of what you think the Jewish beliefs of God are.

What I'd like you to do is to write the word God either in a circle or in the centre of a page, and have a few arrows going in different directions, and for you to think about what characteristics do you think, or do you already know that the Jewish people believe about God.

I started mine off here.

As you can see, I wrote, God is one, God is all-knowing, and God is everywhere.

So please pause the video to complete your task.

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

When you're finished, resumed the video.

Back.

So here's a version of my mind's map.

I wrote that God is one.

God is all-powerful.

God is all-knowing.

God is always present.

God is transcendent.

God is eternal.

God is merciful.

And God acts like a judge.

What did you put? Jews believe there is only one God, and that this God is the creator of the world as well as being all-present, all-powerful, and all-loving.

Let's learn about a few other characteristics of God.

The first characteristic we're going to learn a few new words.

All three new words we're going to learn are going to start out with the prefix, omni.

Omni means all.

First word is going to come from the root potent, meaning powerful.

When we put omni and potent together we get the word omnipotent, meaning all-powerful.

So one of the attributes of God that Jews believe is that God is omnipotent.

That God is all-powerful.

Again, we're going to see this prefix omni, all.

And we learned that omnipotent means all-powerful.

Now we're going to learn the word benevolent.

Benevolent means loving.

Now, if he put omni and benevolent together, we get omnibenevolent.

God is all-loving.

God is omnibenevolent.

So now we know God is one.

There is only one God.

God is omnipotent.

God is all-powerful.

And God is omnibenevolent.

God is all-loving.

We're going to learn one more omni word.

But omni means all, omnipotent means all-powerful.

Omnibenevolent means all-loving and omnipresent means everywhere.

God is everywhere.

Jewish people believe that God can be found every place at every moment in time.

So we know that the Jewish belief of God so far, some of the characteristics that we've come across is that there's only one God, that God is omnipotent, all-powerful, God is omnibenevolent all-loving, and God is omnipresent everywhere.

Let's match the words with their definition.

What is the definition of omnipresent? Omnipresent means God is present everywhere.

What does it mean that God is omnipotent? Omnipotent means God is all-powerful and able to do all things.

And what does it mean that God is omnibenevolent? God is all-loving.

Omnibenevolent means all-loving.

God is everywhere, God is all-powerful and all-loving to God's creations.

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

Please write your answers in full sentences.

One, what do Jewish people believe about God? Two, what does it mean that God is omnipresent? Three, what does it mean that God is omnipotent? Four, what does it mean that God is omnibenevolent? Please resume the video once you're finished.

Let's go over some of the answers.

What do Jewish people believe about God? The Jewish people believe that God is one.

What does it mean that God is omnipresent? Omnipresent means that God is present everywhere.

What does it mean that God is omnipotent? Omnipotent means that God is powerful and able to do all things.

What does it mean that God is omnibenevolent? Omnibenevolent means that God wants what is good for all of God's creations.

We have learned that God, that the Jewish people are a monotheistic religion, meaning that they believe in one God.

God is omnipotent, all-powerful, omnipresent everywhere, and God is omnibenevolent, all-loving.

Another attribute of God is God is transcendent.

God is not part of the world that we know and because of this, God can't fully be understood by human beings.

This idea is because the Jewish belief is that God is a above and beyond the earthly things that we can understand.

According to Maimonides who was a 12th century Jewish philosopher and lawmaker, he was even a doctor.

According to Maimonides, there is no language that is able to adequately describe the uniqueness of God.

God is so unique and so big or vast that there actually isn't enough words to describe God.

And so we're always going to come up with not being able to say what we really want to say in order to describe the greatness or bigness of God.

So God, one of the tendance is that God is transcendent.

That God is not part of this world.

And as humans, we will not always be able to understand all of the ways of God.

Another belief is that God is eternal.

This means that God has always existed and will always exist.

There was, according to the Jewish believe there is no time that existed without the existence of God.

God is also not like humans that's limited by time and space.

According to this belief, God doesn't see time in the same way that you or I see time, it functions differently.

And as in the same way as we said about transcendence, it's a way that we, as humans we are not really going to be able to understand.

So God is transcendent.

God is above what humans are able to understand.

And God is eternal.

God has always existed and will always exist.

Choose the word that means, God is not part of the world we know.

A, merciful.

B, transcendent.

The answer is b, transcendent.

True or false.

Jewish people believe there was a time before God.

False.

The Jewish people believe there was never a time where God did not exist.

What does it mean to be monotheistic? A, the belief that there is one God, or b, the belief that God is everywhere.

A, the belief that there is one God.

What is the prayer that is said to affirm that God is one? The Shema.

Now that we know that God is eternal, God is transcendent, God is omnipotent, God is omnipresent, God is omnibenevolent, and God is one.

Another attribute of God is that God acts as a judge.

This means that God is responsible for punishing, rewarding and forgiving people for all the things that they might do here on earth.

One Jewish belief is that God will punish or reward people depending on how they act during their time on earth.

When a Jewish person does something they might be wrong, as most people do at any given point in time, they'll ask forgiveness both from God and from the person that they wronged.

One Jewish holiday where this comes up and is spoken about a lot is the holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiday of atonement, where Jewish people will spend most of the day in synagogue praying.

And most of the prayers that day are about asking for forgiveness or atonement.

The belief is that God has a forgiving nature.

So although God is judging people, God also has the ability and the desire to be forgiving and to forgive.

Many Jews believe that God is judging humans at every moment every day.

And he cares not only about what they're doing in relationship to God, but also what are each person doing in relationship to other people and other creatures here on earth.

Knowing this many Jewish people strive to act in good and kind ways towards one another, carry out good deeds and obey mitzvot.

The word mitzvot is the plural word of the Hebrew word mitzvah.

Mitzvah literally means commandment.

It's used in today's conversational language, both in terms of a commandment from God, and also sometimes used as a good deed.

So I might say, oh, I did a mitzvah.

I want to go and visit someone who is ill.

So when we're talking about mitzvoh, God is judging the Jewish people on the mitzvot that they are doing or not doing.

And that is including those that are related to God.

And in the ways that people are meant to be treating each other.

As much as God is judging the human people, humans, God is also merciful.

Merciful means that God is not always going to punish people who do wrong in human opinions.

As we said, God is transcendent.

The believe that God is transcendent means that there's sometimes understanding that God has, that we humans are not able to under understand.

So part of being merciful is taking more understanding of a situation than the law being black and white.

So part of this might be to take in why someone might have done what they did, and to show understanding or mercy to that person.

The belief, many Jews believe that God knows all of the actions that a person does, both the good and the bad and in that God will be judging.

But when God judges, God is judging with mercy and God forgives those who repent.

Those who try to change the way in which they were acting that was wrong.

God will show mercy to them and forgive them.

Choose all that apply God is responsible for: A, punishing.

B, rewarding.

C, forgiving.

D, teaching.

The answers are a, punishing.

B, rewarding.

And c, forgiving.

True or false.

Jewish people believe they can ask God for forgiveness.

True or false.

True.

The Jewish people believe they can ask God for forgiveness.

God forgiving a person when they do something wrong is an act of: A, Judgement.

B, mercy.

The answer is b, mercy.

Choose all that apply.

The Hebrew word mitzvah means: Commandment.

B, law.

C, judgement.

D, good deed.

The answers are a, commandment and d, good deed.

Choose all that apply, which are characteristics of God? A, God is a judge.

B, God is a eternal.

C, God is omnipotent.

D, God is a student.

The answers are a, God is a judge, b, God is eternal, c, God is omnipotent.

What does the word Shama mean in Hebrew? Does it mean to watch or learn, or does it mean to hear or to listen? The answer is the word means to hear or to listen.

Now we're going to talk about the concept of free will.

As we've said, we've learned a number of the characteristics and attributes of God.

So God is one.

The Jewish people believe that there's only one God, that God is omnipotent, God is all-powerful, God is omnipresent, is everywhere.

God is omnibenevolent, is all-loving.

Other attributes are God is transcendent.

So God is above this world that we understand, God is eternal.

God, meaning that there is never a time that God didn't exist, and will never be a time where God does not exist.

God is a judge and God is merciful.

Although there are commandments, as we learned there are mitzvoh, that Jewish people are meant to be doing.

A major belief is that each person has free will.

That means that each person has the choice and the ability to choose between what is right and wrong.

So although the Jewish people are commanded in many different ways, both in relationship to God and in relationship to how they're interacting with other people.

Each person has the ability to choose what to do.

And the best way they think is, they think they should be pursuing that action, or even have the choice and the ability to do what is wrong and what might not be so nice.

Every person, according to this belief has free will.

I'd like you to answer the following questions.

What is the name of the prayer that affirms that God is one? What is the word used to say that Jewish people believe in one God? What does it mean that a person has free will? What is the name of the prayer that affirms that God is one? The name of the prayer is the Shema.

What is the word used to say that Jewish people believe in one God? Monotheists.

What does it mean that a person has free will? Having free will means a person is able to choose to do right or wrong.

Thank you! Please, it was so nice to learn with all of you today.

Today, we spoke about some of the Jewish beliefs of the characteristics of God and the concept of free will.

Please is now complete the end of the lesson quiz.

Feel free to think of three things that you learned during this lesson and share them with your parent or carer or even a friend, or maybe even your teacher to show all of the hard work that you are doing and putting into your learning.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day.