Lesson video

Hello, hello, hello! Welcome, I am Mr. Hutchinson, and this is religious education.

We're learning all about Judaism.

And today's question, we're going to ask where do they worship? Where do they go and worship their God? So our lesson is going to look a little bit like this.

The first thing we're going to do is think about how Judaism has different branches.

I'll explain what that means.

We're going to look at some really famous synagogues and some beautiful synagogues.

We're going to look at some features of a synagogue.

We're going to think about what it's like inside a synagogue and have a look at what is inside a synagogue.

And then there will be that all-important quiz to test your knowledge.

Please make sure you continue doing those quizzes.

Some of you have been sending, you've been writing down the answers as well as doing them on the computer, you've also been writing down your answers.

That's really smart.

That will help it stick in your head even more and you've been getting some great scores.

Remember, if you don't get a great score, it doesn't matter.

Doing the quiz still helps you learn, whatever score you get.

So please continue to keep doing that, everybody.

So let's go back to our lesson.

We're going to look at the different branches of Judaism.

First of all, let's look at a famous Jew today.

This, I would like to introduce you to this man here and he's called Ephraim Mirvis.

And Ephraim Mirvis has a very important job.

He is the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

So, a rabbi, rabbi means teacher.

That's what the word rabbi means.

So within Judaism, rabbi is like the teacher, the person that teaches about the Jewish faith.

And there are different branches of Judaism, which we're about to look at, and different churches.

But, for many Jews, they look at Ephraim as their leader, as the main leader, the main teacher within Judaism today in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth nations.

So what do I mean when I keep saying there are different branches of Judaism? Well, Judaism has been around for a long time.

We know that it started with Abraham when he made his Covenant with God.

But since then, 4,000 years have passed.

And Judaism looks a bit like a tree.

Judaism has sort of branched off.

So it started everybody believing the same thing and living together, and then people started to sort of believe slightly different things and act in slightly different ways, and so it branched off into different types of Judaism.

They still believe the main things.

They still believe that Abraham made a Covenant with God and that Moses made a Covenant and got and received the commandments, but they've started to have slightly different ideas about how they should understand their religion and their faith.

And this is true with all religions.

With all religions, people believe slightly different things.

And there isn't just one thing that a Jew believes or one way that a Jew behaves, just like there isn't one thing that a Muslim believes and one way that Muslim behaves, or one way that a Christian believes.

You get slightly different beliefs and discussions within the religion, and Judaism is exactly the same.

So, within Judaism, there are lots and lots of different branches, there are hundreds or thousands.

Here are four of the main ones.

There are Orthodox Jews.

So, Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah and we're going to learn more about the Torah in our next lesson, the Torah, their Holy Book, is literally true.

Everything in it is exactly true.

It's just what it says.

And it should be, it should be understood literally and they should live traditionally just like Abraham lived.

Not all Jews think that.

Some are Liberal Jews and they think that the Torah should be read and understood a bit differently for modern times.

They think, "Look, we're not living in the same world that Abraham was living in 4,000 years ago so we need to interpret it a bit differently to make it fit with today's world and how life is today and what people think and believe today." There are also Conservative Jews.

Conservative Jews believe that there is a Jewish community.

There are all of these different people who are Jews and who sort of live together and teach together and talk and discuss the Torah.

And the authority of their faith comes from that community, it comes from all of them together.

And another type of Judaism are Reform Jews, and Reform Jews believe that God did give Abraham the Torah, sorry, God did make a Covenant with Abraham and He gave the Torah to Moses.

He told Moses how He thought people should live, but that work wasn't finished, that people are still receiving the message of God and still understanding how God wants them to live today.

The Torah's important, but it's ever-changing.

So this is true of any religion, and it's the same with Judaism.

People have beliefs, they have practises, things they do, and they have experiences.

And that's how Jews might differ.

They might have slightly different beliefs, they might behave in slightly different ways, they might have slightly different experiences.

And that means that we can't just talk about Jews as if they're one exactly the same people or Judaism as if it's one exactly the same religion.

There are slight differences and we need to bear that in mind.

So here's a little task for you.

See if you have understood what I've been talking about there.

One of the things that Jews will need to do is worship.

They need to worship their God, show their God that they think that He is glorious.

So is this true or false? Do you think that all Jews worship in the same way? Choose now whether you think that's true or false.

All Jews worship in the same way.

False, the answer was false.

So just as Jews have different beliefs and practises and experiences, they don't all worship in the same way.

Lots do, and lots worship in a very similar way, but they don't all worship in exactly the same way.

So we need to have that in our mind.

With that in our mind, let's look at some synagogues because synagogues are the place of worship of Jews.

It's the place where Jews gather together to worship.

So here's one synagogue here.

You can see this building.

The dome on the top, look closely at that.

What else can you see? This is the Blackpool United Hebrew Synagogue.

Maybe you live in Blackpool.

This could be near to where you live.

Very sadly this synagogue is now closed down.

But you can have a look at that building to see what a synagogue looks like in Blackpool.

Here's another synagogue.

Have a close look at that.

What can you see? If you have some time, you might even like to pause the video and sketch some of these synagogues.

Seen some brilliant drawing skills from you.

Maybe you'd like to see if you can draw one.

This is the Maida Vale Synagogue.

Maida Vale is in North London and this is the Maida Vale Synagogue.

Let's look at another one.

Oh, this one's slightly different.

What can you see on this one? This is the South Manchester Synagogue.

Maybe you live in Manchester, this synagogue's near you.

And of course, there are synagogues all over the world.

Here's another one.

And this one's in Pecs, which is in Hungary.

There is synagogues all over the world because there are Jewish people all over the world.

So we've had a little look at the outside of some synagogues, places of worship.

What would we find if we went inside a synagogue? What are the features of a synagogue? What sort of things do Jews have in their synagogues? Let's have a little look.

Features of a synagogue.

Well, here's a picture of what the inside of a synagogue might look like.

And you'll notice that there's different things that are labelled there.

At the top there is something called a Ner Tamid, and it's kind of like a candle burning, a flame burning.

So, Ner Tamid means eternal light.

It's a light that never goes out.

Now it might be an electric light in some modern synagogues or it might be an actual candle that never goes out, that's always lit.

There's also, you can see there, the Aron Hakodesh.

And that's kind of like a cupboard at the back of a synagogue.

So almost all synagogues will have a kind of cupboard at the back called the Aron Hakodesh.

Try saying it out loud.

Aron Hakodesh.

And the Aron Hakodesh is another name for an Ark or a cupboard or a case that contains the Torah.

The Torah is the sacred text of the Jews.

It's part of the Tanakh, which we talked about in the last lesson.

It's the first part of the Tanakh, the Holy Book of the Jewish people.

You can also see a yad.

Can you see the yad there? Can you point to that? A yad is kind of like a long pointer.

Because Jewish people, when they're reading the Torah, they don't want to get their greasy, dirty fingers all over it because they respect that book so much, it's so holy and religious and sacred to them, so they use a long pointer when they're reading instead so that their hands don't have to touch it.

And that pointer is called a yad.

There's something there called the bimah, and the bimah is like a speaking platform.

It's a platform that the rabbi, the teacher, will speak from when they're having a service.

And there's seating.

And in many synagogues, men and women will sit separately.

So in the Torah, it says that men and women should be separated.

Maybe they don't want to get distracted when they are focusing on the Torah and so they sit separately from each other.

In some synagogues, they've decided let's not follow that rule anymore, we think that men and women can sit together.

But in many synagogues, they will sit apart from each other to follow the teachings of the Torah.

So, have a look at that 'cause I'm going to test you now.

The Ner Tamid, the eternal light, the Aron Hakodesh, the Ark or the cupboard that's sort of like the cupboard, the case that holds the Torah, the Torah, the Holy Text, the yad, the pointer, the bimah, the speaking platform, and some seating.

I'm going to jumble them all up and see if you can find out, see if you can match up the name of these different features of a synagogue with what they mean.

Are you ready? Here we go.

So see if you can write those out.

Pause the video, and next to Ner Tamid, write what that means.

Pause the video and have a go at that now.

Super well done! Have you got them all written out in front of you? Let's see if you were right.

I'll show you the correct answer so you can give yourself ticks if you were right.

So the Ner Tamid, the eternal light.

The Aron Hakodesh, the Ark, which is kind of like a cupboard.

It's sometimes called the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant because the Covenant, the promise or the agreement that God has made with the Jewish people, and the Ark is the case or the cupboard or the sort of a chest that contains that.

And many people believe there was a first Ark of the Covenant.

So when God first gave his Covenant, then it was kept inside that Ark and it was the first Ark the Covenant's in.

They have an Ark of the Covenant.

Well done if you've got those right.

Correct them if you've got them wrong, okay? Just take a moment, pause the video, and you can correct them if you've got them wrong to make sure you get the right ones in your head.

Whew, well done! You worked really hard and you've learnt loads more all about Judaism and where Jews worship.

I'm really, really proud of you.

I'm really, really impressed with you.

Now, I would be delighted to see some of your work.

So if you would like to, after you have done that important end of lesson quiz, you can ask your parents or your carers to share your work on Twitter.

And you can do that by tweeting @OakNational, tell them to put in @OakNational in their tweet.

In our next lesson, we're going to be learning about the Torah.

We heard a little bit about it there.

So in our next lesson we're going to find out what's written in the Torah.

Jews believe that God dictated the Torah to Moses, that he tells Jews how they should live.

So in the next lesson, we're going to find out exactly what it says inside it and I can't wait to see you then.

Bye-bye!.