Judaism-My religion
Major religious groups in Israel
Interesting to listen to what two major religös groups you have in Sweden and I really thought it actually The two major religious groups in Israel are jews and muslims. 40 % of the population of Israel are jews which means judaism has got most followers in Israel. The synagogue is the name of the holy house for jews and it's like the church but for jews. In some synagogues men and women pray separetely but in others men and women pray together. In the synagogue we read out of the Torah which is our holy book. It's strictly prohibited to touch the Torah so you read from the Torah with a candlestick called the yad. The Torah is actually not a book but a scroll with texts out of the Old Testament. When persons read out of the Torah then they stand at the ark which is in the center of the synagogue. Also, there is three directions in judaism and they are Orthodox Judiasm, The Conservqtive Judaism and Reform Judaism. The Orthodox Judaism are very strict in keeping old traditions and not changing anything in Judaism. The Conservative Jews just want to change a little bit of traditions in Judaism but not so much. The Reform Jews want to make big changes in traditions e.t.c in Judaism. The second largest religion in Israel is Islam. The followers to Islam are called Muslims. They also believe in one God and they believe that Muhammed is God's prophet. 20% of the population of Israel are Muslims. It is told that the angel Gabriel appeared in a came for Muhammed. He told Muhammed that he would become God's prophet and that he would till people hos to live in a righteous way. And so Muhammed did and he also told some wise-men what the angel had told him and they wrote it down in a book. And that book is called The Quran. The Koran is in Arabic and Muslims believe that everything that is written in The Koran is God's Words from God to Gabriel, to Muhammed and to those who wrote The Koran. Muslims also believe that a Koran must be written in Arabic because Muhammed spoke Arabic and Muslims believe Arabic is the holy language.
Some of the ceremonies we have are The Bat Mitzva, The Bar Mitzva, and the funeral. The Bat Mitzva is when a girl, in an are of 12 years is becoming major in a ceremony in the synagogue. The girl is becoming a major earlier than a boy because girls are in general becoming mature a little bit faster than boys are. The Bat Mitzva actually means "the Daughter of commandment" which the girl is becoming when she's done the Bat Mitzva. The Bar Mitzva is a ceremony when the boy is becoming major who can take care of himself. This ceremony is held when the boy has got 13 years of age. The Bar Mitzva means "the Son of the commandment". During the ceremony which is held in a synagogue the Son reads the Ten Commadments out of the Torah. The daughter is not Reading out of the Torah if it's an Orthodox synagogue then the daughter isn't Reading out of the Torah because Orthodox Jews are much more strict to keep old traditions and ceremonies. But it's different if you're in a Conservative or in a Reform synagogue. After the Bat Mitzva or the Bar Mitzva, alla party is usually held where you invite friends and family to the party. 4 years ago I became Bar Mitzva and I thought it was really nice and my parents threw an astonishing party for me where I had some trememdous food, and really nice company.
Festival
One of the festivals we have during the whole year is the Easter. Easter is called Pesach in Hebrew. Then we celebrate that Moses had the Jews out of the Slavery in Egypt and that Moses receiver the Ten Commandments on the mountain of Sinai. The food that we eat on Pesach symbolize how it was for my ancestors to work as slaves in Egypt for a some hundred years.
Document
I have a document called the Tanakh which is divided into three parts: The Torah,the Neuviim, and the Khetuvim. The Torah tell me how God cheated this planet, how Noah build an ark for Gud, and how the Jews became God's people by Abraham, and how Moses had the Jews out of the horrible Slavery in Egypt. The Neuviim tell about some really important kings in the jewish history suck as Saul, David and Salomon and about some really essential prophets. And the Khetuvim is about some poetical texts about life. But the Torah is the most important document of all these three separate parts of the Tanakh. In the Torah it stands about the rules of life in the ten commandments which is very important to follow if you're a jew. Another thing that is really major in Judiasm is that we Jews believe that God has given us a mission: To tell people around the world, what God wants. When we've done so God will send a chosen person called the Messiah to Earth and we will explain to everyone that there only is one God and then the world will become a place were peace and justice will rule. We think the we are God's chosen people who have been given this mission, but this doesn't mean that we Jews think that we're much more worth than other people on Earth. Everyone has got the same worth in the Jewish Faith.
