Jewish Religion Interview

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-Shavout also known as Passover, commemorates the gift of ‘Laws of Moses’ from God to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

-Yom Kippur which “Is the Day of Atonement and is the Jews holiest day. It involves fasting, prayer and forgiveness as we spend almost the whole day in the synagogue reciting prayers from the Holy book” (Micah, R 2016, Nov 19).

- Jewish Dietary laws (Kasrut) - These are laws formulated to control the food consumed by Jews. Animals to be consumed must have split hooves as well as chewing cud while birds create confusion on which are right and fit for consumption according to religious laws. Slaughtering process has to follow extreme procedures. For example, it has to be fast and painless. The consumption of grape products produced by non-Jews is highly prohibited.

- Community leadership- According to Micah, priests are the highly honored members of the society and their roles are mostly in the ceremonial duties. Their roles are inherited from person to another not through choosing. Levites descended from the sons of Jacob and their roles include synagogue maintenance, assisting priests, law interpretation and synagogue construction and guarding. A Rabbi is an individual involved with legal issues and aids in sorting out complex situations. A Hazzan serves as a trained vocalist who has high understanding on meanings of prayer and recites traditional prayers.

During the interview, I came across the term ‘Tahor’. This term refers to a person who is considered to be ritually unclean or impure in Jewish terms. A person can be considered to be ritually unclean if one comes into contact with graves, corpses, seminal and vaginal flux or contact with people who are impure through the named methods. Priests are prohibited from entering graveyards and can only eat bread if they are ritually clean or after washing their hands thoroughly.

Several interview factors differ from the sources I came along in my research. Firstly, the laws on prayer practices differ in a way that the interviewed stated that it is a must for one to recite prayers throughout the day after waking up, while eating different types of foods at the same time and that one cannot offer communal prayers. Different Jewish denominations approach prayers differently and the rate of offering prayers depends on an individual (Judaism Facts, 2016). Also, today communal prayers can be offered by any Jewish religious individual if need arises.

On the dietary laws, only un hooved animals are confirmed not to be consumed by Jews. Other foods such as birds, fish and crustaceans have no standard law restricting their consumption and people can consume then on their own volition (Judaism Facts, 2016). Grape products from un Jewish companies can be consumed. Utensils used to cook meat can today, be used to prepare dairy foods under certain conditions that cannot be avoided. Micah confirmed that during slaughter, an animal that has exceeded a specific amount of time or procedure of slaughter cannot be consumed (Judaism Facts, 2016). Some animals may have complex body parts hence their slaughter maybe slow and not follow a set procedure.

Conclusion

Judaism and Jewish religion contain a lot of history from the past and Jews help in maintaining their culture and religion as it used to be. They continue to follow their God, practice the same deeds and follow the same old beliefs that existed in the past. However some factors have evolved certain Jewish practices to fit the already changing world.

References

Judaism Facts. (2016). Softschools.com. Retrieved 20 November 2016, from http://www.softschools.com/facts/religion/judaism_facts/997/