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.
Symbols 3
Foods can also be symbolic:
Salt When we make Kiddush on Shabbat or festivals we sprinkle salt onto the bread (or dip the bread in salt). This is symbolic in at least 2 ways:
Salt is used to preserve food and itself never decays -
In the Temple every sacrifice included salt. Now that there is no temple there can be no sacrifices. We are told that instead of the Temple altar, our tables are our altars and our prayers and actions are our sacrifices. Salt is a symbolic reminder of this.
Pesach Seder The Seder meal on Pesach (Passover) is a symbolic, ritualised recounting of the Exodus with a stress on God’s powerful protection of us. For details of the symbolism see the 2nd of my pages about Passover.
Chai This two letter Hebrew word means Life. It’s not uncommon to see it worn as a necklace ornament. Living a good life (ie good for the world and for other people as well as for yourself) and preserving life have primary importance in Judaism. All positive laws must be broken if doing so will help save a life (see my page on Ethics). The Chai symbol is a reminder of both the importance of positive behaviours such as kindness and generosity, and of the concept of Pikuach Nefesh (rescuing a life).
Because Hebrew letters are also used as numerals (in alphabetical order they represent
the units, 1-
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