Seven Keys to Jewish Life
Kategorie
(DVD)
ISBN(s): 9654780321Katalognummer UK70541
Artikelnummer: 999800016723
Label: Doko Media
What makes Judaism different from other religions? What are the
biblical
sources for enigmatic Jewish observances? What is the meaning of the
Hebrew blessings recited during each ritual? What does it all symbolize?
Certain
rituals, symbols, and practices have long been associated with the
Jewish People, but few non-Jews actually understand their biblical
origins and their continuing significance in modern times. "Seven Keys
to Jewish Life" explores the seven pillars of Judaism to reveal the
manner in which Jews still live to this very day and the meaning behind
their way of life.
Discover:
1. The Sabbath: Known as
"Shabbat" in Hebrew and "Shabbos" in Yiddish, the Jewish Sabbath is
observed every Friday evening from one hour before sundown until
Saturday evening one hour after sundown. It is a day filled with prayer,
Torah study, family, and peace that remembers the Seventh Day of
Creation, on which Jews are bidden to imitate the Lord's own rest. It is
an occasion for songs of freedom and social justice praising the Holy
One for removing the Hebrew slaves from oppression in the Land of Egypt,
and for abstaining from the 39 categories of "m'lacha", labor, which He
describes in His Torah.
"Seven Keys to Jewish Life" invites you
to spend a Sabbath with a Jewish family and to participate in the most
important rituals this People has observed every week since the Exodus
from Egypt.
2. What is kosher?: The video takes you into a Jewish
kitchen to clearly explain which foods are kosher and which are not,
the biblical sources for "kashrut" (the Jewish body of Law that
regulates the diet), and the practical observance thereof in modern
times.
Did you know that every religious Jewish kitchen contains
at least two (and many up to 6!) full sets of dishes? Did you ever
notice any myster- ious symbols on the packaging of popular foods you
purchase at the supermarket? These are the modern-day signs that the
Chosen People of God are still observing His "Mitzvot" (Command-
ments) even into the 21st century!
3. Chanuka: The "Festival of
Lights" is an eight-day holiday that celebrates, as many know, a miracle
of oil that occurred in ancient Temple times. Crucial to an
understanding of the festiv- ities, though, is the history of the
military victory of the Maccabees over the pagan Greek oppressors who
had invaded the Holy Land.
An evening with a Jewish family
elucidates the traditions, laws, songs, blessings of the lights and
thanksgiving for victory and miracle... even which Jewish specialties
are favorite Chanuka foods!
4. The Shofar: "Seven Keys to Jewish
Life" takes you to a shofar-maker to see the step-by-step fashioning of a
simple ram's horn into a majestic biblical instrument (the shofar)
whose sound pleased the Lord and awakened the souls of His People to
righteousness. Discussion of its biblical history and usage as well as
its employment in rituals today is pierced by the sights and sounds of
the blowing of the shofar in actual synagogue services.
5.
Mezuzah: "...and write them (these, My Commandments) upon the doorposts
of your house and upon your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:9). This is the
biblical source for those beautiful elongated boxes that grace every
Jewish door- way. Inside are hand-written parchments of Torah passages
that proclaim the Oneness and Majesty of God and this, His Commandment.
"Seven
Keys to Jewish Life" opens up the mezuzah case to reveal its precious
contents, travels to a traditional Jewish scribe to observe the writing
thereof, and even stops in at a Jewish house-warming party, where a
crowd of friends and family wait to enter until the blessing has been
recited and the first mezuzah affixed to the doorpost of a new Jewish
home.
6. Tefillin: "...Bind them as a sign upon your arm and they
shall be for frontlets between your eyes" (Deuteronomy 6:8). This
ritual, most often described as simply bizarre by outsiders, is perhaps
one of the most intriguing and symbol-rich Commandments that Jewish men
still observe every morning at prayer. The little black boxes, called
"phylacteries" in English and "tefillin" in Hebrew, contain similar
parchments to those housed by the mezuzah but are bound to the arms and
foreheads of Jewish men as opposed to the doorposts of their homes.
Open
up these little black boxes, read their parchments, witness their
binding, watch step-by-step the long and tedious labor that produces a
single set of phylacteries, discover the biblical source for the
Commandment, and hear the same blessings and prayers recited for
centuries every time a Jewish man donned his tefillin.
7.
Tzedakah: Often translated as "charity", "tzedakah" actually comes from
the Hebrew root that means "righteousness" and "justice". The Jewish
concept of charity is two-fold: by observ- ing the Commandment to give,
one comes closer to righteousness through performance of His Law, while
the giving itself contributes to the restoration of social balance in a
very unjust world.
Most people feel that all that really matters
is that one gives. But the Rambam (Moshe ben Maimon, the greatest
medieval Jewish rabbi and scholar) asserted that there are in fact Eight
Degrees of Tzedaka, and that some are indeed better than others. "Seven
Keys to Jewish Life" guides you up the Rambam's ladder of righteous-
ness and gives vivid examples from the Jewish experience to illustrate
how this Mitzvah (Com- mandment) has not only been an individual concern
for each and every Jew, but a whole social organization and way of life
for the entire Jewish People ever since their inception.
Rich
with biblical references and sources for each of the seven pillars and
clarified by the practice of real Jewish families, "Seven Keys to Jewish
Life" solves the riddle of modern-day Jewish observance for the curious
non-Jew. All of the blessings and prayers recited for each ritual are
shown transliterated (with the Hebrew words in English letters) and
translated in English on the screen as they are recited.
DVD PAL
Language: English, Hebrew
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 1 hour
