Judaism and practices

• Mitzvot are commandments that Jews follow to show their love for God
• There is a mitzvah that all Jews should marry and have children.
• Marriage is regarded as essential for people to become complete.
• The ceremony takes place under a canopy called a huppah, which symbolises the couple's new home and how marriage needs both privacy and openness to friends and community.
• Avelut is the mourning period.
• Chevra kaddisha is the burial society.
• The main feature of the marriage ceremony is the ketubah, in which the groom promises to provide for his wife and specifies what she will receive in the event of his death or a divorce.
• The rabbi recites seven blessings over a glass of wine for such things as making the marriage a happy one which produces children.
• An Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony can only take place between two Jews, but some Liberal synagogues have special ceremonies for mixed (inter-faith) marriages.
• Jewish marriage ceremonies are important because they bring two people together in the Jewish faith and provide the opportunity for a new Jewish family to develop and continue the faith.
• At the point of death the family say special prayers.
• As soon as they hear of a death, close relatives make a tear in their clothes to fulfil the mitzvah, then the chevra kaddisha helps prepare the body for burial which should take place as soon after death as possible (the Orthodox do not allow cremation).
• Someone stays with the body all the time until the funeral.
• The funeral itself is very simple.
• The rabbi gives a short speech about the dead person.
• Then everyone accompanies the body to the grave where prayers are said.
• There is a period of mourning (avelut) - the first seven days are extreme mourning (shiva) when close family sit on low chairs, do not leave the house, mirrors are covered and music is not allowed.
• For the next three weeks male mourners go to synagogue every day to pray kaddish.
• During this time a simple headstone should be set up in the cemetery.
• 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.' Genesis 2:23-24.
• On the anniversary of the death and as long as mourners live they keep yarzheit.
• On this day the family remembers their dead relative and a candle is kept burning for a night and a day and kaddish is said.
• Many Liberal/Reform Jews think that some of the Orthodox funeral customs are out of place in the modern world.
• So they allow more time to elapse before the funeral so that all family members can attend.
• They also allow cremation, put on a black ribbon rather than tearing their clothes, sit shiva for only one day and do not use low chairs, do not cover the mirrors, do not stay in the house for seven days and allow music to be played.
• The Talmud says, A man without a wife is incomplete.
• An unmarried woman is an unfinished vessel.
• The Torah records that when Jacob heard that his favourite son, Joseph, was dead, 'Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.' Genesis 37:34.
• Jewish death and funeral rituals are important because the death of a family member is a time of great grief but the rituals of the faith provide the comfort of the Jewish community, which helps people to cope this terrible time.
• The main feature of the marriage ceremony is the ketubah, in which the groom promises to provide for his wife and specifies what she will receive in the event of his death or a divorce.
• Bar Mitzvah is the Jewish boy's coming of age, celebrated at the age of 13.
• Male children are circumcised eight days after their birth in a ceremony known as Brit Milah, when the mohel (circumciser) carries out the operation and then blesses the child and names him.
• Brit Milah marks Jewish males' entry into the covenant.
• Some very liberal Reform Jews do not circumcise their sons as they believe the covenant with Abraham was purely spiritual.
• Bat Mitzvah is the Jewish girl's coming of age, celebrated at the age of 13.
• Female children of Orthodox Jews have a special naming ceremony in the synagogue on the Shabbat following the birth.
• Many Reform/ Liberal synagogues have a special Brit Bat ceremony for girls to make the occasion as important as Brit Milah.
• Brit Milah and Brit Bat bring a child into the community of Judaism and are important in giving the parents the promise of support from the community.
• Minyan is the required number of adult Jewish males for certain prayers to be said in the synagogue.
• Jewish law states that any male child born Jewish but not circumcised is still a Jew.