The Shabbat is a festival, which is celebrated from sunset on Friday night until the stars appear on Saturday night. This is celebrated every week and is a big part of a Jew's life.

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The Shabbat is a festival, which is celebrated from sunset on Friday night until the stars appear on Saturday night. This is celebrated every week and is a big part of a Jew’s life.

The Shabbat is celebrated in many different ways in different Jewish home’s and synagogues. Here are some of the most popular things Jewish families do throughout the Shabbat.

The Jews are forbidden to work because it is supposed to be a holy day and they should devote themselves to prayer and studying the Torah. Rabbi Saadi Gaon said, “ to achieve rest from the abundance of ones toil…” which shows his commitment to resting on the Sabbath.

Preparation, cleaning and cooking are done differently on the Sabbath because they have to prepare the meal and house before the Sabbath starts because cleaning and cooking is forbidden once Sabbath has started. “ God made the 7th holy day by resting after making the world” (Exodus 20:8-11) backs up this command from the Torah.

The mother lights candles before sunset because the home is central to Judaism and the mother looks after the house beginning on the Sabbath. “When I light the Shabbat candles I feel like God is blessing me” Berachan of God quoted. This shows the mother feels she has done her duties to God once the candles have been lit.

The Father blesses the children during Sabbath. This shows the father’s prayerful wishing that the children should grow up to follow the examples of righteous men and women of the Jewish history.

The Father then recites the Kiddush, which is a blessing to thank God for giving Shabbat to Jewish people.

Following this the family all wash their hands, which is an act of purification.

The Father recites blessing over Challot. It is normally a thank you blessing to God for ‘bringing bread out of the ground’.

The Challot is dipped in salt before being passed around. This is a reminder that bread is a result of efforts. This means salt is symbolic of sweat and toil.

The family sing songs and tell stories from the Bible. This strengthens the faith and is passed onto the children of the family.

The celebrations/events that happen in the synagogue are all based around reading and the Torah.

   A Sidra is read from the Sefer Torah. A Sidra is a certain portion of the Sefer Torah and a different section is read each week so that the complete scroll will have been read by the end of the year.

   The Ark is opened and everybody stands while it is being open. This is to show a mark of respect.

   During the reading of the Sidra, seven men give blessings.  

   After the reading of the Sefer Torah, the 8th man reads haftaroh, which is a portion from one of the books of prophets.

   After all of this has happened, the scroll is put back into the ark and the Rabbi gives sermon. This encourages congregation to keep to the Jewish religion.

These are some of the things that happen at home after the morning synagogue service.

   The lunchtime meal that follows a similar format to the meal they have on Friday night,

   On Saturday afternoon, the males in the family return back to the synagogue for another service and the females will stay at home.

   After dinner, the family may go over their Jewish studies together.

   In the late afternoon, the males go back to the synagogue and there they study the Torah until nightfall.

   While the males go to the synagogue, the females of the house will go to a neighbour’s house to study the Torah. The females take turns to host the study evening.

At the end of Shabbat here are a few things that happen.

The Congregation prays the weekday evening service in the synagogue. This is to show the star has appeared and Shabbat is over.

   Rabbi performs havdalah (separation). This is a Ceremony to mark the end of the holy day.

   They give blessings over a cup of wine to show separation of holy day from ordinary day, which is now completed.

   

Observing the Shabbat is an important part of the Jewish religion. It affects the life of a Jew in many ways. It makes Jews feel separate from other religions and they have to obey so many sacrifices to their life during the Sabbath, that Jews can’t lead a social life during the weekend. It allows Jews to physically rest and reflect on God.

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The life of a young Jew may by the Sabbath in many different ways. They would not be allowed to go out or socialize with friends on a Friday night and sometimes not on a Saturday night either. They would not be able to join any clubs, which meet or practice on a Friday or Saturday. This would cause them to only be friends with people from their school or Synagogue.

Young Jews would not have any money to spend on new clothes, trips out etc. because if they still go to school then the majority of jobs they would ...

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