Key Terms
This is the body of Jewish law that guides daily life.
What is Halacha?
This term describes belief in one God expressed through moral action.
What is ethical monotheism?
This holiday marks the Jewish New Year and begins a period of reflection.
What is Rosh Hashanah?
This group tends to follow Jewish law very strictly and maintain traditional practices.
What is Orthodox?
Daily prayer, dietary laws, and Sabbath observance are examples of this.
What are practices of following the law (mitzvot)?
A commandment or good deed in Judaism.
What is a mitzvah?
This phrase means “repairing the world.”
What is tikkun olam?
This is the Day of Atonement focused on repentance and forgiveness.
What is Yom Kippur?
This group adapts Jewish law to modern life and often uses local languages in worship.
What is Reform Judaism?
This word means the scattering of a people away from their homeland.
What is diaspora?
This text is a collection of rabbinic discussions and interpretations of the law.
What is the Talmud?
This form of Judaism developed after the destruction of the Temple and focuses on rabbinic teaching and law.
What is Rabbinic Judaism?
This holiday celebrates liberation from slavery in Egypt.
What is Passover?
This group falls between Orthodox and Reform, maintaining tradition while allowing some adaptation.
What is Conservative Judaism?
This is a common method of interpreting law through discussion and debate.
What is rabbinic argument or interpretation?Or midrash?
This is the Hebrew Bible, made up of Torah, Prophets, and Writings.
What is the Tanakh?
This ceremony marks a Jewish child’s coming of age and responsibility for the law.
What is Bar/Bat Mitzvah?
These two themes are represented in each holiday and are considered the problem and solution to the religion.
What is exile and return?
This practice (dietary laws) is observed differently across the three sects.
What is keeping kosher?
This major event forced Jews to adapt worship without a temple.
What is the destruction of the Temple?
This central prayer declares the oneness of God.
What is the Shema?
This word refers both to a people and later to a nation/state, and originally means “one who wrestles with God.”
What is Israel?
This is a weekly observance that includes spending time with family and friends over shared meals and prayer.
What is Shabot?
This is a key difference: whether Jewish identity is based strictly on this or can be more flexible.
What is lineage / maternal descent / conversion standards?
This myth explains human disobedience and its consequences.
What is Adam and Eve?