Judaism: practices · GCSE Religious Studies

The synagogue

The synagogue is a place of prayer, study and community. The Ark (Aron Hakodesh) holds the Torah scrolls. The ever-burning light (ner tamid) hangs in front of it. The Torah is read from the bimah, a raised platform.
In Orthodox synagogues, men and women sit separately; in Reform synagogues, they usually sit together.

Services are held three times a day. In Orthodox Judaism, some prayers need a minyan of ten adult men. Prayers include the Shema and the Amidah (the standing prayer).
Many Jewish men wear a kippah (skullcap), a tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin (small boxes containing scripture, worn on the arm and head).

Shabbat runs from sunset on Friday to nightfall on Saturday. It is a day of rest, remembering that God rested after creation.
It begins with lighting candles, the Kiddush blessing over wine, and challah bread. Orthodox Jews avoid 39 categories of work, such as lighting a fire. It ends with the Havdalah ceremony.

Brit milah: circumcision of a baby boy at eight days old. Bar mitzvah (boys at 13) and bat mitzvah (girls at 12, or 13 in many Reform communities) mark religious adulthood.
Weddings take place under a chuppah (canopy), and a glass is broken. Mourners sit shiva for seven days and say the Kaddish prayer.

Kashrut (kosher food laws): only animals that chew the cud and have split hooves, and fish with fins and scales, may be eaten; meat and dairy must not be mixed; animals are slaughtered by shechitah. Forbidden food is treif.
Rosh Hashanah is the new year, when the shofar (ram's horn) is blown. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is a day of fasting and repentance. Pesach (Passover) remembers the escape from Egypt with a Seder meal and matzah. Sukkot is a harvest festival, when families eat in a sukkah (a temporary hut).