Because of the uncertainty of determining dates in ancient times, it became a custom to add an extra day to many of the holidays celebrated in the Diaspora. Therefore, the Israeli holiday calendar is slightly different from that observed abroad by Orthodox and Conservative Jews. Reform Jews do not celebrate the second day of certain holidays such as Shavuot. The Jewish day ends and begins and ends at sundown, and therefore holiday observances always begin in the evening. Some commemoration days are moved to a different day if they fall on a Shabbat (Saturday).

Three holidays were singled out in the Torah as “regalim” – holidays that required a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by the entire people of Israel. These are Sukkot (tabernacles) Pessah (Passover) and Shavuot.

Rosh Hashanah – Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year. It is celebrated in the fall. At Rosh Hashanah a Shofar (Ram’s horn) is blown to signal the arrival of the new year. It takes place on the first day of Tishrei, usually in September. It is followed by 10 days during which, according to tradition, judgment is passed on each person, the judgment being sealed on Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur – the fast day of atonement, on the tenth of Tishrei, on which Jews ask God for forgiveness for their sins. In addition to the fast, Yom Kippur is marked by having five sets of prayers.

Sukkot (“tabernacles”) begins on the fifteenth day of Tishrei. Sukkot lasts seven or eight days and commemorates the temporary houses in which Jews dwelt on their departure from Egypt, as well as marking the shacks built in the fields to bring in the autumn harvest. During Sukkot, Jews spend their days in outdoor structures that must have roofs that are slightly open to the stars.

Simhat Torah – marks the conclusion of the yearly cycle of Torah readings. In Israel, it coincides with Shmini Atzeret, the eighth and concluding day of Sukkot. Orthodox Jews mark Simchat Torah by dancing in the streets and Torah processions.

Hanukkah – The holiday of Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Greeks and the liberation of Jerusalem in the second century BC. It takes place on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, usually in December. Hanukkah. According to rabbinical tradition, a miracle occurred during Hanukkah, allowing the lamps of the newly liberated temple to be lit for eight days using consecrated oil that should only have sufficed for a single day.

Purim – The holiday of Purim, on the 14th day of the month of Adar, marks the rescue of the Jews of ancient Persia by the Jewish queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai from a genocidal plot of the evil minister Haman. It is celebrated by a masquerade carnival.

Passover – Passover, celebrated beginning on the 14th day of the month of Nissan, usually in April, commemorates the liberation of the Israelis from bondage in Egypt. It is celebrated by a ritual feast (Seder) and lasts 7 days. During this time Jews must eat Matzot, unleavened bread, and refrain from eating bread or leavened baked foods of any kind, in commemoration of the unleavened bread that the Israelites ate on leaving Egypt.

Yom Hashoah Ve Hagevurah – Holocaust Memorial Day – Israel marks the memory of Holocaust victims on the 27th day of Nissan, which falls in late April or early May. The date was chosen to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto revolt.

Israeli Memorial day – Israel’s memorial day for fallen soldiers and terror victims is marked on the fourth day of Iyar, one day before the celebration of Independence Day.

Israel Independence day – Israel Independence day is celebrated on the fifth day of Iyar. It marks the termination of the British mandate for Palestine and the renewal of Jewish sovereignty in Israel after 2,000 years of exile, on May 15, 1948 according to the Gregorian calendar.

Shavuot – Shavuot is celebrated on the 50th day (seven weeks) after Passover. It is both a harvest holiday and a holiday that commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Shavuot usually falls in late May or early June.

Tish’a Be’av – The 9th day of the month of Av, which usually falls in August, is a day of fast and mourning for the destruction of both the first and second temples, both of which took place on the same day of the year according to tradition.

A Religion and a People

The Jewish religion, unlike Christianity for example, is inseparable from the Jewish people and is center and starting point for all Jewish culture. According to Daniel Boyarin, the underlying distinction between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism. This is because Judaism evolved in the east, before the concept of a religion separate from nationhood evolved in the West. Boyarin claims that “Jewishness disrupts the very categories of identity, because it is not national, not genealogical, not religious, but all of these, in dialectical tension.” Therefore, in a wider sense, Judaism includes the study of all things and ideas that are Jewish or produced by Jews and that are related to Jewish religious, community or national life, and is not confined to religion.

Origins and evolution of Judaism

Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions, and the oldest one in existence today. It is the precursor of both Christianity and Islam, which borrowed many concepts from Judaism. Judaism has evolved and diversified in both space and time, reflecting the vicissitudes of a people twice exiled from its homeland, and cut off from its national center and center of worship in Jerusalem. The commandments of the Torah, the oldest book of law, were modified by the later oral tradition embodied with the Mishnah, and modified again with the destruction of the temple and codified in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud. Jewish law was further elaborated in the Shulkhan Aruch and the writings of Maimonides and others. Judaism underwent further transformations with the coming of the 19th century enlightenment, and the return to Zion in our own time. Scattered to the four corners of the globe, the Jewish religion developed two major streams of practice: Ashkenazic and Sephardic, that nonetheless strived to remain united despite the vast distances that separated them, and the diverse cultural influences upon them. They evolved a common liturgy in Hebrew and Aramaic as well as common customs for holiday celebrations, sacraments and life cycle events.

The People of the Book

The Jews are the known as “the people of the book.” The book is the Old Testament Bible, or Tanach which is a record of the history of the ancient people of Israel up to the first exile, viewed in terms of the relation of the Jews to God. To this book, which also defined the laws given to the Jewish people, were added a codification of Oral law, the Mishnah, and an amplification and redesign of customs following the destruction of the Jewish temple, the Talmud.

Elements of the Jewish faith

Throughout the centuries, Judaism as a religion maintained a unity of faith and practice centered around the following elements:

• Monotheism – a belief in one spiritual non-anthropomorphic God, who has no intercessors and who cannot be pictured.

• The centrality of Jerusalem and the land of Israel to Jewish religious and national life.

• Belief in the Messiah and in collective salvation as well as in an afterlife.

• The observance of the major holidays – Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover, Shavuot, with the addition of Hanukkah and Purim.

• Observance of Kashrut (dietary laws).

• Observance of common liturgy.

• Marriage within the faith and the Jewish people.

• Belief in the sanctity of life as an over-riding concern.

• Observance of the 613 commandments of the law (“Taryag Mitzvot”) as codified in the Babylonian Talmud.

The Jewish Confession of Faith

The Jewish confession of faith, equivalent to the Muslim Shehada and the Catholic Credo, is the ancient Shema Yisrael prayer:

“Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad” – Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

Articles of Judaica

Jewish handicrafts and decorated religious articles typically utilize characteristic symbols such as the Jewish star and lion of David. Designs are constrained by the religious stricture against drawing a human figure that might be considered the image of God. Articles of Judaica include anything that is used in Jewish worship, study and religious observances, and may include anything that is a product of Jewish culture: articles of apparel and religious dress such as a Kippah (yarmulkeh) or Tallit, Sabbath candlesticks, Shofar, Megilat Esther, prayer books, volumes of the Tanach, Talmud and other books, Mezuza and Hannukiya, Jewish Jewelry incorporating Jewish symbols and various products of Israel.