As Theologists, Y4 have been gaining a further insight into the weekend rituals and traditions of members of the Jewish faith community and comparing them with their own.
The children firstly identified the traditional activities and rituals which commonly occur in one of their own typical weekend breaks. From lazy lie-ins, watching television, shopping, accessing the internet to undertake various activities, movie nights, visiting family, enjoying an occasional take-away to football, gymnastic and martial arts practice…the children certainly keep themselves busy and entertained.
We then compared our typical weekend activities with those of a Jewish family. We explored the traditional weekly family celebration of Shabbat which takes place every weekend and begins on a Friday evening at sunset and lasts until sunset on a Saturday evening (25 hours).
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- Shabbat is a Jewish ritual where people celebrate with their family.
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- Shabbat begins at sunset on a Friday and ends at sunset Saturday. The father performs a blessing over the bread and wine is drank from the kiddush cup.
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- Shabbat happens every weekend…they sing songs in Hebrew.
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- Prayers are said before they eat.
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- No electronics can be used…board games are played to entertain each other.
The children firstly found the inability to use anything electronic unimaginable but understood that the rituals and traditions of Shabbat in the Jewish faith community, which are recorded in the Jewish Torah as an agreement with God, allowed for some quality rest and family time to be spent together on the Jewish Sabbath day (Saturday)…something we all agreed was well worth forgoing the use of our electronic devices and the internet for!