Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity

What Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity covers

Judaism: the practices, rites and communal life through which identity is expressed. Part of Component 2, sat only by students who take Judaism as their chosen religion.

The 8 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Who Is a Jew?Recall questions on the halakhic definition, why status passes through the mother, the American Reform decision of 1983 and the British progressive positions.Open →
• Circumcision, Bar and Bat MitzvahRecall questions on brit milah, the mohel and sandek and objections to infant circumcision, how girls are welcomed into the covenant, and the meaning and celebration of bar and bat mitzvah.Open →
• Kippah, Tzitzit, Tallit and TefillinRecall questions on the kippah, what tzitzit are and why they are worn, the two forms of tallit and what tefillin are.Open →
• The Dietary Laws and ShechitahRecall questions on the books setting out the laws, the permitted land animals and sea creatures and what shechitah involves.Open →
• Keeping ShabbatRecall questions on when Shabbat begins and ends, the two reasons in the fourth commandment, the thirty-nine categories of work, welcoming Shabbat and havdalah, the eruv and Reform practice.Open →
• The Synagogue and the MinyanRecall questions on the synagogue's names, the aron hakodesh and the minyan, Orthodox and Reform worship, its origins after the destruction of the Temples, and its roles and pressures today.Open →
• Yom KippurRecall questions on the Yom Kippur fast and who is exempt, Kol Nidrei, Neilah and vidui, what atonement for a wrong against another requires, and the three actions said to avert the decree.Open →
• Pesach, the Seder and the HaggadahRecall questions on chametz and its removal, what the seder is, the Haggadah and what the matzah represents.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Mishnah vs Gemara

  Mishnah: the codified oral law compiled around 200 CE. Gemara: the later commentary on it that together with it forms the Talmud.

• Mitzvah vs Minhag

  Mitzvah: a commandment of the Torah. Minhag: a custom that has acquired binding force through practice.

• Kashrut vs Kosher

  Kashrut: the dietary laws governing what may be eaten. Kosher: the description of food that conforms to them.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   According to Jewish law, who is a Jew?

   Model answer

   A person born to a Jewish mother, or a person who has converted to Judaism.

2. 2

   Why is Jewish status traced through the mother?

   Model answer

   The rabbis derived the rule from the Torah and from the certainty of maternity, and it has governed Jewish status ever since.

3. 3

   What did the American Reform movement decide in 1983 about descent?

   Model answer

   It accepted that a child of one Jewish parent, mother or father, is presumed Jewish where the child is raised with public acts of Jewish identity.

4. 4

   What is the position of the British progressive movements on descent?

   Model answer

   Liberal Judaism accepts descent through either parent, and the Movement for Reform Judaism has also recognised inherited status from either parent since 2015, though some Reform synagogues have not adopted it.

5. 5

   Why does the disagreement over patrilineal descent matter in practice?

   Model answer

   Someone accepted as Jewish by one movement may not be accepted by another, which affects marriage, burial and membership.

6. 6

   What is required for conversion in Orthodox Judaism?

   Model answer

   A long period of study, acceptance of the mitzvot, appearance before a Beth Din, immersion in a mikveh, and circumcision in the case of a man.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity revision questions

What does Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity cover in AQA A-Level Religious Studies?

8 subtopics: who is a jew?, circumcision, bar and bat mitzvah, kippah, tzitzit, tallit and tefillin, the dietary laws and shechitah, keeping shabbat, the synagogue and the minyan, yom kippur and pesach, the seder and the haggadah. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Judaism: Expression of Religious Identity organised?

By the AQA 7062 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.