High Holy Days
This holiday, which means "head of the year," marks the start of the Jewish calendar.
What is Rosh Hashanah?
This is the total number of books in the Torah.
What is five?
This ceremonial plate holds symbolic foods like maror and charoset during the Passover meal.
What is the Seder Plate?
These triangular-filled pastries are a traditional Purim treat.
What is a hamantaschen?
This eight-day "Festival of Lights" is celebrated by lighting a candle one night at a time.
What is Hanukkah?
This is the term for the ten-day period of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
What are the Days of Awe?
This is the name of the first book of the Torah, which begins the creation of the world.
What is Genesis?
This flat, unleavened bread is eaten during Passover to commemorate the Israelites' hasty exodus from Egypt.
What is matzah?
This queen risked her life to save the Jewish people from destruction in the Purim story.
Who is Esther?
This Hebrew term refers to a good deed or an act of human kindness.
What is a mitzvah?
This book, symbolically described as being opened on Rosh Hashanah and sealed on Yom Kippur, is said to record who will live and who will die in the coming year.
What is the Book of Life?
This mountain is where the Torah says Moses received the Ten Commandments.
What is Mount Sinai?
This is the book read at the Seder that tells the story of the Exodus from Egypt.
What is the Haggadah?
This villain plotted to destroy the Jews of Persia and is booed and drowned out with noisemakers when his name is read.
Who is Haman?
This "New Year for Trees," observed by eating fruit and, in modern times, by planting trees, falls in early spring.
What is Tu BiShvat?
This final, single long blast of the shofar closes out the service at the very end of Yom Kippur.
What is tekiah gedolah?
This is the last of the Five Books of Moses, made largely of Moses' farewell speeches to the Israelites before his death.
What is Deuteronomy(Devarim)?
This piece of matzah is hidden during the Seder for children to find and is eaten afterward as the meal's final "dessert"
What is the afikomen?
This noisemaker is used to drown out Haman's name during the reading of the story of Purim
What is a grogger?
This seven-day mourning period is observed by immediate family members following a Jewish funeral.
What is shiva(sitting shiva)?
This blessing is recited in the synagogue by someone who has survived a dangerous situation, like illness, childbirth, or a long journey, thanking G-d for deliverance.
What is Bentsching Gomel?
While Moses was away on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, the Israelites prayed to this false idol.
What is the golden calf?
This prophet is honored with a ceremonial cup of wine and an open door.
Who is Elijah?
This cousin and guardian of Esther refused to bow to Haman, an act of defiance that set the Purim story in motion.
Who is Mordechai?
This life-cycle ceremony welcomes an eight-day-old baby boy into the covenant.
What is a brit millah (bris)?