1. Religion ? Nationality? Culture? Ethnic Group?

2. Sh'ma Yisra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.

3. No mandated, official, definitive belief Judaism does believe in an afterlife, but it is not the primary focus of our religion and there is a lot of room for personal opinion about the nature of the afterlife. Judaism is more concerned about actions than beliefs Deed rather than Creed

4. God formed man (vayyitzer) with two impulses yezter tov (good impulse) and yestzer ra (bad impulse) Yezter tov—moral conscious Yezter ra—difficult to define, many different ideas (not really desire to do evil, not really Satan/external) Concept of “sin” is simply straying off course Teshuva is returning Yom Kippur, day of saying “I’m sorry”, turning back, God seals fate for the next year

5. Shabbat (Sabbath) Holidays Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year) Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) Sukkot (Harvest Festival) Chanukah (Festival of Lights) Purim Pesach (Passover) Shavu’ot (Giving of the Torah)

6. Life Cycle Child born pure Baby naming, Brit Milah (Covenant of Circumcision—only males) Bar / Bat Mitzvah 13 years old, age held responsible for ones actions Wedding Funeral

7. Rabbi: teacher, scholar Patriarchs Abraham One God two sons Isaac and Ishmael Isaac Jacob God changed name to Israel, 12 sons Moses Exodus from Egypt Greatest prophet, teacher, leader

8. Tikkun olam Repairing the World Social Justice Mitzvot (Commandments) Environment Peace Caring for oppressed Charity, philanthropy

9. Torah Torah: 5 books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, Deuteronomy Written on parchment scrolls, don’t touch use yod, rules for transcribing Tanakh: TORAH (The Law), NEVI'IM (The Prophets), KETHUVIM (The Writings) No “Old/New” testament

10. Heritage through the mother Orthodox, Conservative, Reform: different gender roles, levels of observance Family, important Education: value to study Torah, to question

11. Land of Israel central to Judaism A substantial portion of Jewish law is tied to the land of Israel, and can only be performed there Living outside of Israel is viewed as an unnatural state for a Jew: exile, diaspora Jews were exiled from the land of Israel by the Romans in 135 C.E, after they defeated the Jews in a three-year war, and Jews did not have any control over the land again until 1948 C.E. For thousands of years services (Passover, Yom Kippur) end with “Next year in Jerusalem!”

12. 613 Mitzvot (commandments) 10 commandments categories for the 613 first tablet, containing the first five declarations, identifies duties regarding our relationship with God, second tablet, containing the last five declarations, identifies duties regarding our relationship with other people. Slight differences in translation/ order in Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism