Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mr. Robertson.

I really love RE, and I'm really looking forward to teaching you today.

We have a fantastic lesson in prospect for you.

Our lesson is all about our big unit question, which is Pesach.

How do Jews remember God's covenant? And this lesson is all about the very beginning of that story about the Jewish people and the covenant.

Can't wait to get started.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to explain why the covenant with Abraham is important to most Jews.

We have four key words today.

I'm going to say the word first, and then I'm gonna ask you to say it back to me, okay? So, our first word is covenant.

Brilliant.

Our second word is descendant.

Amazing.

Our third word is Torah.

Brilliant.

And finally, Genesis.

Brilliant.

So, what do these words mean? Well, a covenant is a solemn promise.

A descendant is someone related to you who lives after you.

The Torah is Jewish holy text containing books of the law.

Genesis is the first book of the Torah.

You're gonna come across these words all the way through this lesson, and I know you're gonna be able to understand them by the end.

So, in this lesson on the Jewish people and the covenant, we have two questions we're going to look at.

Our first question is this, what is a covenant? This lesson is going to be using the tools of social science.

Well, what do we mean by social science in religious education? Izzy's gonna help us understand.

She says, "Social scientists are interested in how people live their lives.

They often survey or interview people to find out more about the things people do and the choices they make.

We can better understand people's worldviews by asking for people's opinions and exploring the reasons for their actions." And in this lesson, we're gonna be talking to different Jews and learning how ancient stories about the covenant influence Jewish communities today.

We'll start with Izzy and Jacob.

They're talking about meaningful promises.

Izzy says, "I think carefully before making promises.

I only promise if I know I'm going to try my very best to do it.

I don't like it when people make promises they don't really keep." Jacob says, "If my dad's not sure he can take me to a football match, he says: 'I'll try, but I can't promise.

' He's always honest, so I can trust him when he makes a promise to me." I wonder what you think about what Izzy and Jacob are saying.

What do you think about their ideas of promises? What does a promise mean to you? Have you ever made a promise to somebody? How does it feel if somebody doesn't keep their promise? We've got three different photographs here.

They show three different things.

I wonder what you can see in each of these pictures.

I wonder what you might think they link to, what connects them? What do these pictures have in common? Well, I can see here some rings, and I think they are about a promise.

And when people get married, they often exchange rings and make a promise to stay together.

Here we can see someone making a pinky promise.

So, maybe they're making a promise to stay friends with somebody.

So sometimes we promise friendship.

And here, we can see some keys, some locks padlocked to a bridge.

We can see these bridges.

I don't know if there's one near you where people do this.

And this is where people make a promise that they love somebody.

So they might write their names and put the padlock on the bridge as a symbol of a promise to love with each other.

So we've got a theme of promises here and different ways that people show that they want to make a promise and symbolise their promise.

People can make promises for different reasons.

An important promise might be called a covenant.

And we use that word in religion quite a lot.

I wonder whether you think saying "I promise to do something" is different to saying "I will do something." What do you think about that? Do they mean the same thing? Does the word promise make it feel different? Interesting ideas.

So, this idea about promises, we're going to look at it particularly today looking at Jewish worldviews.

So we're gonna meet Rafi.

Rafi is Jewish, and he reads the Torah.

Rafi says, "The Torah is a Jewish holy Book.

Every year we read the whole Torah at my Orthodox synagogue, starting at the beginning with the story of creation in the book of Genesis." And we can see Rafi there, the scroll has been opened up, and he's reading from that scroll.

What can we see here? I can see a rainbow.

And I can see some people.

I think I can see an ark.

The Torah includes many promises, or covenants.

A covenant is a solemn promise made between two people or groups.

God promised Noah that he would not destroy the earth again.

This covenant came with the sign of a rainbow.

And that illustration shows that story.

Maybe you know this story already in the Bible or the Torah.

When the world is flooded, God, in this story, sends a rainbow into the sky as part of this covenant or promise that the earth won't be flooded again.

Let's just check our understanding so far.

We've got three images here.

I wonder which of those shows the Torah, and I wonder how you know.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, it's the middle, isn't it? There's the Torah scroll and a pointer.

We have two other sacred texts here.

We have the Qur'an and the Guru Granth Sahib.

First for Muslims and the third for Sikhs.

But well done if you managed to spot the Torah.

Rafi's gonna tell us a little bit more about the story of Genesis.

Rafi says, "The book of Genesis tells the story of Abraham.

This is a very important story for Jews.

God's covenant with Abraham marks the beginning of the special relationship between God and the Jewish people." So Abraham is going to be someone we need to know a little bit about.

Here we've got a picture of Abraham.

The story begins when God told Abraham to move to a beautiful land that God would give to him.

Abraham trusted God, so he moved his wife, his animals, and all his belongings to live far away in the promised land of Canaan.

So this is a really ancient story about someone called Abraham, who's really important for Jews and for Christians and Muslims as well.

And in this story, Abraham trusts God to move to a new land.

You can see another picture here of Abraham looking up at the night sky.

And of course, in this part of the world, at night, you've got millions of stars.

God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation.

Abraham would have so many descendants they would be too many to count, like the stars in the sky.

Abraham was surprised because he had no children.

And by this time, he was quite an old man, actually.

The story continues.

Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were old, but they trusted God to keep his promise.

After many years, Abraham and Sarah had a baby called Isaac.

Let's meet Victoria.

She also has a Jewish worldview and she attends an Orthodox synagogue, as well as Rafi.

She says, "Abraham and Sarah waited many years for the birth of Isaac.

They trusted God to keep his promise and to keep his covenant with Abraham.

Abraham had many descendants because Isaac went on to have children and grandchildren." So we can see this idea of a solemn promise in the story of Abraham.

We have the promise to Noah not to flood the world and the promise of descendants to Abraham.

Let's think about this word, covenant, then.

What's the best definition of a covenant? Is it A, a place of worship, B, a holy book, or C, a solemn promise? Think about what we've been learning about.

Think about Noah and Abraham.

Pause the video and have a think.

Brilliant, it's a solemn promise, isn't it? In the Torah, in Genesis, God makes a promise to Noah not to flood the world.

And also in Genesis, God makes a promise to Abraham that he takes him out of his land to give him descendants even though he was really old.

Okay, we've got our first task here.

We've been thinking about this question, what is a covenant? And I'd like you to try and complete these four sentences.

Can you match them up? So we have these sentences.

A covenant is.

Descendants are.

The Torah is.

And Genesis is.

And then we've got the ends of the sentences.

A Jewish holy text containing books of the law, the first book of the Torah, a person who's related to you and lives after you, and a solemn promise.

I'd like you to put these together to make the full sentences.

Can you do it? I know you can.

Really look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Wow, you've worked really hard, haven't you? So, did you manage to solve them? Here are the correct answers.

A covenant is a solemn promise.

Descendants are a person who is related to you and who lives after you.

The Torah is a Jewish holy text containing books of the law.

Genesis is the first book of the Torah.

If you've managed to do that, brilliant understanding, amazing.

Our second question that we're asking today is this: How do Jews understand the covenant today? So let's meet Daniel.

Daniel has a Jewish worldview and he attends a progressive synagogue.

Daniel says, "The book of Genesis ends with the story of Isaac's grandson, Joseph.

The long story tells how Abraham's descendants ended up living in Egypt, far away from the promised land." You can see an image of Joseph there.

I wonder what he's doing.

I wonder who those people are around him.

Joseph was his father Isaac's favourite.

He was given a special coat, and he was able to interpret dreams. You can see him there in his special coat, can't you? Joseph's 11 brothers fell out with him because they were jealous.

Could see why they might've been jealous, can't you? If he was given a special coat and they thought he had special powers.

The brothers sold Joseph to some traders, and he ended up enslaved in Egypt.

Joseph was very successful in Egypt and became an advisor to Pharaoh.

I don't know if you've studied ancient Egypt, but if you have, you'll recognise the Pharaoh with his outfit and the pyramids in the background.

And Joseph, even though he was enslaved, actually ended up becoming an advisor, so that was really amazing.

At a time of famine, that's a time when there's no food and the crops have failed, Joseph's brothers left Canaan and came to Egypt looking for food.

Joseph forgave them for what they'd done.

He invited his brothers and father to join him in Egypt.

Abraham's descendant lived happily in Egypt for many years.

Let's check what we've understood from this story so far.

I've got a true or false question for you here.

Abraham's descendants stayed in the promised land of Canaan for ever.

Think about what we've just been learning there about Joseph.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think.

Excellent, it's false, isn't it? Why? If you remember, Abraham's great-grandson Joseph ended up in Egypt, and then the rest of the family went to join them there because there was a famine, and they stayed there for many years.

Well done if you got that right.

Daniel explains to us why the story of Joseph is important.

He says, "God kept his covenant with Joseph's family because they were Abraham's descendants.

The story of Joseph and his family shows me that God is faithful even when we make mistakes." Daniel explains more about the covenant stories in Genesis.

"God told Abraham that his descendants would be 'strangers in a land not their own.

' I wonder if Joseph's family felt like strangers in Egypt? Maybe they remembered God's words to Abraham and felt that God already knew what was going to happen to them." Daniel explains how Jews talk about covenant stories today.

"Sometimes," he says, "Jews are treated like strangers in the places where we live.

The story of Joseph helps me talk about how this feels.

I remember that God kept his covenant with Abraham.

God stayed faithful to Joseph, even when he was far away in Egypt.

He brought a family back together." So even though this is a really ancient story, this is important to Daniel because sometimes if he feels like he's not welcome somewhere or he feels like a stranger, he thinks about that story and remembers that God stayed faithful to Joseph and to Abraham, and it makes him feel safe as well.

Let's think about another question here with a true or false question.

The covenant with Abraham is ancient and has no meaning for Jews today.

Is that true or false? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Think about what Daniel was saying.

Excellent, it's false, isn't it? Why is it false? Well, as Daniel said, the covenant is still part of Jewish identity, And Jews today might find meaning in covenant stories because they see themselves as descendants of Abraham.

Victoria talks about what she understands from the covenant stories.

She says, "Abraham's descendants must have looked back to the promised land when they were far away in Egypt.

I think they remembered God's covenant and understood that God had chosen them to be his special people.

The covenant is such an important part of my Jewish identity.

As a Jew, I see myself as a descendant of Abraham because the story of the covenant belongs to all Jews.

The covenant reminds us that God is always with us." So for her, it's a really important part of her Jewish identity, and she sees herself as a descendant of Abraham.

Which of these is not a descendant? A great-grandmother, a grandson, a great-granddaughter, or a son.

Can you remember what the word descendant means? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, it's great-grandmother, isn't it? Because a great-grandmother is someone who came before you, whereas a descendant is someone who comes after you, like a grandson or a son or a granddaughter.

Really well done if you got that right.

So let's sum up what these three Jews have told us about the idea of covenant.

Rafi says the covenant with Abraham in Genesis marks the beginning of a special relationship between God and the Jewish people.

Daniel says that God was faithful, even when people made mistakes.

And Jews should remember how it felt to be strangers, away from the promised land.

Victoria says she sees herself as one of Abraham's descendants.

The covenant is part of her Jewish identity as one of God's chosen people.

Got three different ways in which the covenant means something to these different Jews today.

So, we're going to think about that now.

Here are some of the words that Rafi, Victoria, and Daniel used.

They talked about a special relationship.

They talked about a chosen people.

They talked about the importance of being able to remember.

They talked about the idea of God being faithful.

And they talked about the idea of descendants.

I wonder if you could use these words to explain how Jews might understand the word covenant today.

Could you use some ideas? Many Jews think that the covenant is.

Maybe say what the covenant is.

Maybe say why it might be important and why Jews might use that word today.

Think about what Rafi, Victoria, and Daniel have said.

And you might want to go back and look and listen again to what they said to help you.

If you come up with three or four ways of explaining that, that would be really brilliant.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Wow, you've been working so hard, haven't you? So you might have said something like "Rafi says the covenant with Abraham shows a special relationship between God and the Jewish people." You might've said that "Victoria sees herself as a descendant of Abraham, and she believes that Jews are God's chosen people." You might've said that "Daniel remembers that God is faithful when Jews make mistakes or feel like strangers." If you've managed to say something about that idea of covenant, you might have mentioned it being a promise.

If you've thought about this idea of descendants, that's brilliant.

Really well done.

Fantastic work.

Let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've been learning all about the Jewish people and the covenant.

We've learned that the word covenant means a solemn promise.

We've learned that the Torah has stories about the covenant between God and his people.

We've learned that the story of Abraham and his descendants is found in Genesis.

And Jewish people believe God made a covenant with Abraham.

We've also learned that the covenant story is the beginning of the relationship between God and the Jewish people.

Hope you've enjoyed learning about this.

It's interesting how these really ancient ideas still mean a lot to people today.

And maybe you might want to think about the idea promises for yourself.

What does the word promise mean to you? Really look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon.

Thank you.