Ben Upbin- Jewish Traditions

 With holiday break rapidly approaching, and this class being all about myths and traditions, I thought I would explain some of the traditions in the Jewish faith for everyone (and because I’m running low on blog ideas).

Menorah: On Hanukah, we light the 8 candles on a menorah. The reason we do this is because of the myth of the oil lamp. The myth goes that one day after Moses and the Israelites escaped the Pharaoh and were walking through the desert, someone noticed that their oil lamp only had enough oil to last them through the night. Somebody went ahead to get more oil, and returned 8 days later, completely shocked that the oil lamp was still burning and everyone was alive. For this, we thank God by lighting 8 candles, 1 each night for each night of light he gave us.

Lighting yahrzeit candles: We Jewish sure do love our candles. Yahrzeit candles are known as memorial candles and are only to be lit on holidays of and other days of remembrance. A candle is lit on the sundown before the anniversary of a loved one’s death. On Yom Kippur, a candle is lit for each dead loved one (my family likes to race them to see which family line is fastest. It is not required). Once lit nothing should put these candles out.

Passover Seder: the Passover Seder is kind of like a long Christian prayer before a meal. The Seder discussed the story of Passover: what happened, what each piece of the Seder plate represents, all the plagues we sent the Egyptians, etc. This goes on for a few hours if you are religious, or until everyone is hungry for my family.

Religious traditions stem from some of the oldest myths. The reasons they are still done is to feel like we are in the same sacred time as the myth.