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.

A couple of days ago I got the following question (sorry for the late answering for these, got a whole back log!).

I have a question, when attending a Jewish burial would one have to remove there piercings? Only asking as if I get one I would not be able to remove it until it heals completely which could take months to even two years. Jewidism is a important part of me even if I don’t show it much, I would rather have a piercing then a tattoo as they can be removed if needed even though I do think of getting a tattoo at times.

Example snake bites.

Thank you for taking you time to answer this question.

Techinally from my understanding (and quite a few other Rabbis), piercings themselves is not against Jewish law and thus you could have them. However answering your question I would remove them as a sign of respect. As you have said about a burial, I am assuming you may be attending one soon and if so – why not just wait until afterwards and then get your piercings.

In other words, I would not worry too much about it but if you can remove them in such a event. Ultimately people are not going to be bothering over what you look like but for the mouring of the dead.

Hope it helps.

So today I got the following question from someone asking about the Talmud.

Why does the talmud seems so evil when it talks about gentiles?

Now at face value you are correct, it does seem so evil and seems Jews are able to steal from gentiles and pretty much do whatever we please but once you studied it you will see it isn’t like that all and everything has to do with context.

I will just do one example and that is stealing. Something we call the “Code of Law” clearly states that stealing is forbidden – even to a gentile (and not to say that in a superior way) and so does the Maimonidies also say the very same thing.

What it does say however is and it is example time again. Lets say you lost a tenner and I came across it (and by came across it I mean you dropped it somewhere) I would not be a sinner if I did not return it.

So no, we can’t go around stealing as many people think. I got a good link for you for further reading: http://www.sinaicentral.com/jewhaters/defending_the_talmud.htm.

How long each day does a 12 year-old have to study the quran???

Now I normally ignore every non Jewish or obvious trolling but I will answer this one. From my understanding of Islam I recall there is no limit set but studying it daily such as for an hour or two will allow you to remember the Qu’ran in pretty much no time at all.

Just keeping studying it and you will finally remember it.

Over the last few days I have been getting the same question from different people so I am guessing someone been assigned a project so I will answer the question (everyone who submitted sent the same question, just worded differently).

How important is a synagogue in Jewish 21st century life?

The Shull is very important to the Jewish community and ultimately will be what makes Judaism survive in the years to come, but from experience it seems a Shul is simply only important nowadays for the religous side of things and have lost its importants in terms of being the center of a Jewish community.

To me personally, a Shul is not that important as I am able to learn anywhere and if I need guidance, I am able to visit my local Rabbi and can even contact him by email without having to visit the Shul personally. If you are doing a research project, I would advise you to read a wonderful book by Rabbi Herring called Tomorrow’s Synagogue Today.

Overall in my opinion – it sadly is not as important as it used to be, although I would love to see it once again become the center of a Jewish community.

Do Jews say amen?

A nice and simple question today and the answer is – yes they do and is said as – Ah-mayn. This roughly means “so be it”. Other words are used such as Ken yhi ratzon and Bemet.

So well over a month ago, I got a question that is listed below about an “Ashkenazi Jew”. While the question is below, I would first like to say sorry about the massive delays. I have been very busy and now got a massive back log to go over 🙂

Shalom!! I would like to ask a question regarding as to why the Jews of Europe call themselves Ashkenazi. Thank You!

To start of with you need to first understand that the name Askenazi comes from a person called Ashkenaz. Within rabbinic literature, a kingdom called Ashkenaz was associated within Scythian and Slavic regions. Over time, that went onto being associated with Northern parts of Europe and Germany.

Over time, Jews that was living in those areas started to call themselves Ashkenazi. And it is basically as simple as that.

Always nice to get questions, and today I got one listed below.

I am reading a book called “Perfect Rigor” and there is this one sentence said by a character that I couldn’t really put on my hands on. He (a Jewish man) said: “It’s the shtetl dream…Learn the fiddle and play at weddings and funerals”. What could this sentence possibly mean?

Shtetl is a Yiddish word for a small town so basically the shtetl dream in relation to the rest of your question is the person basically wants to become a “big fish” in a small town and play at weddings and funerals. In other words, his dream is to play at many people’s weddings and funerals.

I would need to read the book to understand the context, but that is what I would answer this question as with the information at hand.

If anyone knows a beter answer, please do comment below.

Quick question and answer today. The question I was asked by a man is listed below.

I am thinking of converting to Judaism. I have already been circumcised so a circumcision would not be required. However, due to personal reasons I have big issues with displaying my genitals. Will anyone require proof of my procedure or will they take me at my word? Thanks!

The short answer is they do not need to take your word for it as they will require, if you are circumcised, to take a small drop of blood from your foreskin as a custom. So the answer is sadly if you convert to Judaism, you will very likely be required to do this so yes, they need to see your genital to do this.

However this is often done by professional doctors (well, normally anyhow) and they have seen just about everything before so if your will to convert to Judaism is very high, it may be worth the few minutes it will take.

That said, speak with your sponsoring Rabbi when you look into converting to Judaism – they will speak to you about it further and what needs or what not needs to be done.

First of all I would like to say sorry to my readers about the lack of updates, had major problems with the emails sending and currently sorting a new method out. Anyhows I got a question quite a while back asking about Mary’s father.

i know this is a strange question, and i am familiar with alot of your beliefs. I am an agnostic, i have not made a descision as to a religion. I have read both the old testament and the new testament and i would like to get a jewish interpretation of a question relating to the new testament. Please do not be offended that i ask of a question relating to jesus but i would really like a third parties perspective. Here is my question: Who is Mary’s Father (Mary being the mother of jesus)?

Well the biggest problem to this answer is simply the New Testament doesn’t state anywhere the name of Mary’s father however with the writings of the Gospel of James, Joachim is the name that seems to be linked to Mary’s father as long as you do not mind extra-biblical sources that is very hard to prove.

Due to restoring the website I have long lost the image I had here of Jesus’s family tree. Sadly I am unable to replace it.

Hopefully that does help answer questions but honestly I doubt this answer will ever come to light – there just doesn’t seem to be many recordings of Mary’s father anywhere beyond some “questionable” text. If you know any better sources, please do let me know it is a somewhat interesting question.

Now to answer my view of the question – no idea. From what I know about, I recall it isn’t said anywhere and I never seen any history sources saying otherwise and the name Joachim was used simply to fill in a gap that was not known. I also recall there is nothing or little known about Joachim life either so honestly, I couldn’t really answer this question well