Judaism

The second oldest religion that started 4000 years ago is called
Judaism. Judaism was the religion that helped make Christianity
and Islam. The first to believe that there is only one God. This
religion has fifteen million followers called Jews. Jews believe that
they are the chosen people from god but they still think we should
respect each others. There is more one denomination of jewish
falk. There is the Orthodox Judaism which are the ones that follow
all the ten commandments. Reform Judaism which make the ten
commandments into more modern. Finally, the Conservative
making the rule modern but still follow them. And Jews have been
in terrible situations of persecution.
Jews, as all other religions, has a story about how it started
behind it. For Jews it began when Abraham, the father of Judaism,
showed God Canaan(Israel) and God called it the Promised land.
Years past and the people Abraham looked after did not have
food, so he moved them into Egypt. The Pharaoh let them stay
but he made them slaves. They worked all night and day, Moses
knew his people were tired so he asked Pharaoh to let his people
go. Pharaoh did not want the people to go so he said no. Moses
talked with God and God sent plagues down over Egypt. At last
Pharaoh let them go because one of the plague killed the son of
Pharaoh and many other children who lived in Egypt. Later the
Pharaoh changed his mind and went out looking for them. Moses
stopped at a river and God made a dry pathway for them. They
ended up in a desert. The people of Moses wanted to come home,
Moses went out to look for God's help. When Moses came back
with slabs he saw his people pray for a golden cow, he got really
cross that he broke all the slabs into pieces. The people said sorry
and did what God told Moses to write down which are called the
ten commandments. The ten commandments are the same as the
Christians ten commandments. One, worship god only. Two, do
not worship false idols. Three, don't use God's name to do wrong.
Four, keep the sabbath holy. Five, respect your parents. Six, do
not murder. Seven, don't steal someone else's wife or
husband.Eight, do not steal. Nine, don't tell lies. Ten, do not want
things that are not yours. Jews believe that they are the chosen

people from God, but they still believe that everyone should be
treated respectfully and equally.
Where do Jews worship? Jews worship in a synagogue. In a
Synagogue there is an Arc, which is a wall that holds the Torah.
The Torah is a bible that is written on scrolls. The Torah cannot be
touched with fingers or hands, if a Jew needs to read it then they
get a special reading stick. Most religions have a leader in a place
of worship, Jews have a Rabbi. Jews pray in the morning,
afternoon and before sunset, when a prayer time starts
sometimes the Rabbi blows into a shofar, a male goats horn. Jews
are expected to wear nice clothing when praying. Some religions
separate men and women while praying, in orthodox Judaism they
do this too. Men wear a Kippah, a kind of cap worn when praying.
Jews only eat animals with split hooves and which eats grass.
People are only allowed to kill an animal if the animal is not
stressed. Also, Jews dont like having meat and dairy mixed
together. This food is called Kosher food.
Christianity celebrates christmas, Buddhism celebrates Vaska and
Hinduism celebrates Holi. Judaism celebrates Passover and
Chanukah. The Passover is celebrated to thank God for not giving
them the plague he gave to Egypt. It is celebrated by having a
special meal with all kinds of food that represents the trip to find
Israel in the desert. Chanukah is a night when the Jews put out a
Menorah, which has eight candle holders which represents the
little oil that Jews had to light up the night and with luck it ended
up lighting eight days and nights. In the holiday or when they
have free time they go to the West Wall. The West Wall is a wall
that was believed to be a wall from a temple a long time ago.
Jews go there and write a wish on a piece of paper and put it into
the wall. There is one belief that there one day will be a Messiah.
A Messiah is a son of God who might bring all the Jews together in
Israel.
Every religion had or has been in a bad situation. For as the
Jews,a well known story is of Anne Frank, the girl who was a Jew
and was killed in a concentration camp. These bad years were
called a holocaust. The holocaust was about Hitler , a Nazi bad

man, who had killed six million Jews in concentration camps just
because that he hated Jews. He told people that they would take
all the jobs, so that made some German people so scared that
they wanted to get rid of them.