The Jewish Side

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This website is to inform those who are not Jewish the of traditions, holidays, and cuisine of the Jewish faith.

Jews have many many traditions. Let's start with those when a child is born, since that is where it all begins. Before you can go in the house to see the new arrival, you need to kiss the mezzuzah on the right side of the front door. This religious article put on the doorway has a little scroll of prays inside of it. Mezzuzahs come in many different variations as you click on the link, you will see very modern with bright colors, you will see a little conservative with one color of white and you will see a fiddler playing as another variation, they basically all maintain the same size. If a baby boy is born, he has a bris which celebrates his circumcision. The practice of circucision is for religious and health reasons. The person who performs the ceremony and procedure is called a moyle. This is done seven days after the child is born. There is a small party celebration to follow. When a girl is born she is brought to the temple or also called a synagogue, there she receives a baby naming and she receives her hebrew name, she too has a celebration to follow.

When a boy is reaching 13 and a girl is reaching 12 years old they start preparing for a boy a Bar Mitzvah and a girl a Bat Mitzvah. Usually their caregiver arranges with a Rabbi for hebrew lessons. The day of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah the child is required to read from the Torah at the temple. When in a temple boys or men are required to wear a yarmulke and a tallit and a woman if married is to wear either a hat or the temple provides round pieces of lace held on her head with a bobbypin. Once the Bar or Bat mitvah is completed they are now required to observe the commandments. They usally have a large celebration that evening.

Now the child is ready to get married, both parents walk him or her down the aisle to the chupah which is a canopy under which they exchange their vows in front of their parents, bestman and maid of honor and other attendees. The wedding bands are to have no stones, just plain gold. If the band has stones and they should not be real, it is said that the marriage is beginning with lies.After the ceremony is performed by a Rabbi the groom is asked to step on a glass that is wrapped up in cloth and break it. This symbolizes the destruction of the temple that could never be put back together.

As adults, we know life comes to an end at some point. Many people of other faith's than Judiaism admire that Jew's do not have an open casket or "viewing" of the deceased. In fact, the person is burried 24 hours from the time of passing, unless it is a Friday or Saturday. Friday night at sundown begins the sabbath for Jews until sundown on Saturday night. The deceased would be burried on Sunday. Jews are burried in a pine casket and sometimes the body is dressed in a shroud. The reasoning for this is, that Jewish law states that the way you came into the world with nothing is the way you should leave. A Jew can not be burried in a Jewish cemetary if they have received any tattoos. At the cemetary, the Rabbi rips or gives a torn piece of black cloth pinned onto the clothing of the immediate family to indicate they are in morning. A tombstone is not put up right away. Usual custom is for a year to pass then it is put in place and an "unveiling" ceremony is performed by a Rabbi at the grave site .Jews do not believe in flowers, when they go to visit at the cemetary they take small stones and place them on top of the tombstone to acknowledge they were there. The night after the person is burried the immediate family starts sitting "shiva" friends and other family cover up all the mirrors in the house and visitors bring food for those that are mourning. The funeral director gives the immediate family each a candle that burns continuously for the week shiva is sat. Jew light a yarhzeit candle during the year to acknowlege the deceased, it burns for 24 hours.