CHARLIE: The dates of all our festivals come from the Hebrew calendar, so instead of January, the Jewish New Year begins in autumn. We mark it with a two-day celebration called Rosh Hashanah. We've got apple and honey here and the apple and honey symbolises the sweet New Year. It tastes really nice. It's really sweet.
During Rosh Hashanah, we spend a lot of time in the synagogue.
One of the rituals there is the blowing of the shofar horn. It's a ram's horn and it's one of the world's oldest-known wind instruments. I want to see if I can get a note out of it, so family friend Ben is going to show me.
BEN: The shofar acts like an alarm clock. It wakes everybody up in the synagogue.So anybody that would hear it, would remember to do teshuva, to repent, to return to their maker for a good year ahead.
CHARLIE: There are different ways to blow the shofar horn. Some of the notes are really long.
BEN: You put that to your mouth. Tekiah is one note. Try and make it last the best part of about six, seven seconds.
SHOFAR RASPS
BEN: OK, tell you what. Do a raspberry. Yeah? Close. Go like this…That's it, that's all you have to do on the front.
SHOFAR BLARES
BEN: You've got it!
CHARLIE: Right, I'm going to try and do it for seven seconds.
BEN: Sure.
SHOFAR BLARES
BEN: That was awesome. That would have counted.
CHARLIE: Yes!
BEN: You will be a Ball Tekiah one day, I am sure.
CHARLIE: A bit hit and miss, but once it's there, I think it's quite good.
SHOFAR BLARES
CHARLIE: The blowing of the shofar starts a ten-day period. This ends with Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. Many Jewish people like my dad fast for 25 hours and spend most of the day praying. We believe this is a time of forgiveness after being judged by God during Rosh Hashanah. Bit scary, bit intimidating. That's how it feels to be judged by God. You can worry a lot that you might not be forgiven.It's also good cos then you know what to do good for next year and what not to do. After, I feel very happy. Definitely that a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and just look forward to the next year, which hopefully would be a good one.
Video summary
11-year-old Charlie from Manchester explains the festival of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year that he celebrates every autumn.
He shows us the sweet snack of apples and honey that Jewish people eat at this time.
He learns how to blow a Shofar, an ancient instrument made from a ram's horn, which marks the start of the 10-day festival. It ends in Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year.
From BBC Series My Life, My Religion: Judaism.
Teacher Notes
Ask the class, before they see the clip, which words or phrases we ought to say more often. Among others, there are four which usually come up: ‘Sorry’, ‘thank you’, ‘please’ and ‘I love you’.
Talk about why these words matter, but are often left unsaid. Tell the class that Jewish festivals include saying all four of these things to the Almighty, and to each other as well.
Ask them to watch the clip. Can they see, in the clip, any ways that ‘Sorry’, ‘thank you’, ‘please’ and ‘I love you’ are referred to, either directly or indirectly?
After watching, discuss what they noticed. The festival of Rosh Hashanah is all about saying sorry, but is also time to be thankful, and to express love.
Ask pupils to take large outlines of the four words / phrases, and fill in the letters with more words, or images and pictures that express what they think really matters about these four words.
You might discuss whether it would be good for the class and all our families if we said these words much more often, and even give it a try.
This topic is relevant to KS2 Religious Education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 2 Religious Studies in Scotland.
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