A couple of questions

Just a quick one today, got loads to do! So just a few hours ago I got sent the following bunch of questions. They will be simple one line answers where possible so sorry if you are looking for a much more in depth answers.

We’re doing a project on Judaism and we need to ask you some questions please respond. Thanks
Q1: What is your most important holiday?
Q2: What are the most important holidays?
Q3: How often do you go to a synagogue?
Q4: Who wrote your Holy Book?
Q5: What do you do when you pray?
Q6: What is the Tanakh?
Q7: What is the Masoretic Text?
Q8: What’s your favorite Jewish food?
Q9: What are the holy books of Judaism?
Q10: How is religion affect your daily life?

Q1: What is your most important holiday?

Yom Kippur

Q2: What are the most important holidays? 

The most important two I would say is Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur simply as they both deal with the same thing – being attoned. You can Google both of those for further information about what the holidays involved.

Q3: How often do you go to a synagogue? 

Every week on the Sabbath.

Q4: Who wrote your Holy Book? 

Tradition states it was Moses but it is widely accepted he couldn’t have written quite a bit of it – else he would have access to knowledge he didn’t at the time. It was written by quite a few people but whom I sadly could not tell you without further research.

Q5: What do you do when you pray? 

This is actually a odd question to answer simply because there is so many. I myself simply pray to myself with the belief that G’d doesn’t really need us attend a place of worship daily just for us to be thankful for everything done for us. That said, Jewish tradition has a whole lot to say about praying and if you do not mind paying a little bit, you can buy aprayer book on Amazon.

Q6: What is the Tanakh? 

Its basically the canon for all Jewish writing and beliefs. It has the Jewish scriptures which is broken down into the Torah, the Writings and the Prophets and often has the name the Hebrew Bible given to it.

Q7: What is the Masoretic Text? 

This one is hard ish to explain so hopefully I can explain it well. These texts is named after a bunch of Rabbis called Masoretes who made it their goal in life to correct all the faults and problems that happened with the holy texts during the Babylonian captivity period. The other goal is to stop it from happening again.

It is worth noting that when the Dead Sea Scrolls was found, the Masoretic text actually was pretty close to the original text (the Dead Sea Scrolls being one of, if not the, oldest version of Jewish writing).

Q8: What’s your favorite Jewish food? 

Depends how you define Jewish food but my favorite food is chips and cheese!

Q9: What are the holy books of Judaism? 

The most holy book itself is the Tanakh which as written above has the three different important texts within it such as the Torah. The Torah itself is the most important part and includes the Five Books of Moses which I am sure you can Google for further information.

Q10: How is religion affect your daily life?

It hasn’t in a bad way, surprisingly. Only thing I can say is I have a far greater sense of community, culture and tend to see each day with more drive. Other then that nothing really changed.

Reference Me

Kyle ben Avraham Avinu (קייל בן אברהם אבינו) (2013) A couple of questions. [online] Ask a Jew. Available at: https://askajew.co.uk/question/a-couple-of-questions/ [Accessed 29 Mar 2024]