You need to know what a synagogue, Torah, siddur, kippah and tallit is.
A synagogue, also called a temple or shul, is our place of worship. It's our safe haven where we pray together and celebrate our faith.
A Torah is our holy book. It is a handwritten by a scribe and takes years to complete. A Torah is precious, expensive, and very heavy, weighing about 40 pounds. And the kicker? You cannot drop the Torah, or you have to fast. That's a lot of pressure.
A siddur is our equivalent of bibles; we keep them in the pews at synagogue and read from them during services. If you drop it on accident, you have to kiss it. I will never forget the time I went to a friend's church, dropped their bible, and frantically picked it up and kissed it, only to look around and see people staring at me. "Oh, do we not do that here?" I asked nervously.
A kippah is a prayer cap. Men, and sometimes women, wear them while they are in a synagogue.
A tallis is a prayer shawl. Everybody wears those in synagogue.
There’s tons of other important icons in Judaism (Lulav, Etrog, tefillin, sukkah, Sedar plate, The Four Questions, afikoman, gelt, grogger, etc.) but let’s start with those.
We read our prayers in an entirely different language.
Most of our prayers are in a language called Hebrew. Unlike English, Hebrew is read from right to left. It's composed of different symbols and vowels, and we are taught it from a young age.
However, this does not mean we all speak Hebrew (Or, "Jewish," as somebody once asked me).
You need to know what Bar/Bat Mitzvahs are.
A Bar Mitzvah is when a boy becomes a man in the Jewish community, and a Bat Mitzvah is when a girl becomes a woman in Jewish community.
We go through months of extensive study, learn a portion from the Torah and a Haftorah (basically a Torah portion, only longer and easier to read because it has vowels), and lead services all by our self. We also carry the huge, heavy Torah around, which I have to say was the scariest moment of my 12-year-old life - remember the Torah and how sacred it is? And how you can't drop it?
It’s a lot of work, especially for somebody so young – girls typically have their Bat Mitzvah at age 12, and boys have their Bar Mitzvah at age 13. But then we get an awesome Bat Mitzvah party, so it’s totally worth it.
We have two other major holidays, besides Hanukkah, that you should be aware of.
Our three major holidays are Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Hanukkah (or Chanukah). Everybody knows what Hanukkah is because it's the most like Christmas. But we have several others that actually contain religious significance.
Yom Kippur, which is arguable the most important, is the Day of Atonement. It’s the day of the year where we say sorry to everybody we have wronged, and ask God to put our names in the Book of Life for the next year. We also fast from sundown the night before to sundown the next day.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. We blow the Shofar, eat apples and honey. A Shofar is an instrument of sorts made out of a lamb's horn, and it requires tremendous breath support to play. We also have a nifty little ceremony named Tashlikh, where we throw away bread in a river or body of water, which signifies throwing away our burdens and sins from the year.
We also have several important holidays like Passover, Purim (which is kind of like Jewish Halloween in my mind) and Sukkot, but those three will do for now.
We do not like stereotypes.
Not all Jews speak Hebrew. Not all Jews are cheap. Not all Jews look a certain way. Not all Jews are doctors or lawyers. And although we have a great list of comedians to our name (I really miss Jon Stewart), we do not always appreciate jokes that mock popular stereotypes about us.
For example, I did not find it funny when I was speaking to a classmate about Christmas and he said: "I bet if Santa Claus were Jewish, he would keep all the presents." I appreciated it even less when the whole class laughed. And I did not find it funny when that same classmate joked "Don't let your nose hit the door on the way out!"
We are different and we are few, but we are a proud, dignified people that deserves nothing but respect.
This holiday season, be mindful and understanding of not just the Jewish faith, but all faiths.
