Bar and Bat Mitzvah

There he stood; assiduously swaying from side to side, his sincere eyes expressive in one protracted, searching gaze. As he led us through our daily hebrew prayers, all around me in the Beit Tefilah - the largest prayer site at URJ Camp Newman - other Jewish teens and children were actively singing along with his every word, as though the prayers he chanted spoke to them individually. And, as we sang, the encircling nature seemed to hum and whistle along with this rabbi’s ringing voice and the…

Religion is a tough subject to approach. So many people believe in different ideas of life and have different outlooks on what’s expected of them religiously. It’s often a confusing process to figure out what religion one is most closely affiliated to. There are those who have grown up all their life practicing what their parents have been taught. Then there are those who rebel and want to practice what they personally believe. But religion is becoming much less prominent throughout the world,…

A World’s Religions class permits the students to enhance their knowledge in terms of others people’s religions, in what others believe in and all the things they experience in their daily life, their customs and how we can all make connections to Catholicism. As a society, we all have the duty to accept each other, such as respecting each other's religions, in order to have a better quality of life. All Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam celebrate their truth in their own way and we should…

words the child’s ‘coming of age’. For example, people of South American descent often hold a party known as a quinceañera to celebrate a girl becoming a woman, and communities with Jewish backgrounds celebrate a child’s coming of age with a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah. Adolescence is another…

Christianity pulled away from Judaism and became its own religion after the crucifixion of Jesus from Nazareth. Even though Christianity originated from Judaism there are striking differences that sets the two religions apart. Christianity and Judaism both originated in Israel and are monotheistic religions. In Judaism, the concept of divine states that there is only one Being in the universe. There is no human being equivalent to one Being because it is incomparable. The nature of God is…

moderately Jewish household. We kept kosher, or tried to at least, have Shabbat dinner, and would go to synagogue moderately. The pre-k both my brother and I went to was a Jewish one where yearly we would return for Hebrew school until our Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. Year after year we learned about Rosh Hashanah or Purim or the creation of the world. But when I turned twelve, my appreciation for my Jewish faith faded and I no longer continued my quest for learning more about it. As a child you…

When I first looked at this question, I had no idea where to begin. What made odd numbers different from even numbers? From our first days in school we learned that an odd number was any number that wasn’t divisible by 2, which in turn means every number that isn’t even. But what really sets apart an odd number from an even number? I believe that an even number is a sign of perfection. Numbers surround us and the perfection that lies beneath what we perceive is generally found in even numbers.…

Shabbat Shalom! This was the introduction that I received when I entered a Jewish synagogue. When entering the synagogue it reminded of entering a typical church, there were pews and at the very front was a large stage. On the stage was a keyboard, a wooden podium with a blue cloth over it. Also there was a wooden ark behind the podium and if you opened up the ark you would see where the Torah was stored. An interesting fact about the placement of the ark is it is facing were Jerusalem is…

Myths and Other Stories: The creation story consisted of seven days. On the first day, God created light. He separated the light from the dark by calling the day by light and the darkness he called night. On the second day God created the firmament which he called heaven. There were lower waters and upper waters, below and above the firmament. God created dry land on the third day and he called it ‘Earth’ and he called the waters ‘Seas’. He separated the dry land from the water and he also…

Philosophy Essay #2 Different philosophers have had different thoughts on the idea of God and faith with regard to the need for proof or not. Spinoza believed that beliefs are foolish without proof. Bargman argued that sometimes it’s okay to have faith in something without proof. I stand more with Spinoza’s argument, however I am able to understand why some people will have faith in something that they cannot prove. Spinoza makes the argument that believing without proof is like mindlessly…