ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

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Symbols

The Menorah  - The seven branched lamp that stood in the Jerusalem temple is, perhaps, the most important of Jewish symbols. The original menorah was made of solid gold to a design set out in Torah (see Exodus 25:31-40) . This was the original everlasting light, kept burning at all times to signify the presence of God. It is quite likely that the design of the Menorah was based on the shape of a tree.

To Jews, the Menorah is a general reminder of their relationship to Judaism.

The Star or Shield of David  (in Hebrew - Magen Dovid) is probably the most universally recognised symbol of Judaism, but has only been used by Jews as a Jewish symbol for a little over 100 years. The intertwined, six pointed star has been used as a good luck symbol in the Middle East since early times, but is quite unusual to find it in early Jewish works of art or literature.

It first began to be used as a decoration on the outsides of synagogues in the 17th century. It only gradually gained popularity as a Jewish symbol until it was chosen as the emblem of the Zionist movement in 1897.

Confusingly, it is not unusual to see star of David designs used in churches - often carved into the stonework.

The Mezuzah The first thing that a Jewish family will do when they move into a new home is to put up their mezuzot. A mezuzah is a small handwritten scroll on which are written 2 extracts from Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 & Deut 11:13-21) which form the first 2 of the 3 paragraphs of the prayer known as the Shema (pronounced Sh’mah) (among other things, these paragraphs tells us to remember God’s laws by writing them on our doorposts). The tradition is to have one on the outside of the door to each room. They are fixed on the upper third of the right-hand doorpost, sloped so that the top is nearer the room that the bottom.

To protect it from weather damage the scroll is enclosed in a small box or tube that is fixed to the doorframe of each door in the house. Mezuzah cases can be all sorts of shapes, sizes or materials a mezuzah case fixed to a doorpost will often be referred to simply as a mezuzah.

In the context of religion or faith, symbols are marks, signs, words, sensory experiences or actions that act as reminders of ideas or relationships. As in many other faiths, Judaism makes extensive use of a range of symbolism. Here are some of the most important or commonly encountered Jewish symbols:

Mezuzah cases are often decorated with the Hebrew letter SHIN which is the first letter of the word, Shaddai meaning Almighty, one of the names by which Jews refer to God. This letter is also symbolised by the hand gesture that accompanied the Priestly Blessing that was given in the Jerusalem Temple (Yes, it’s the same gesture that Star Trek’s Mr Spock used as the Vulcan Salute).

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