One God,
and a covenant.
with an open mind.
One of the world's oldest faiths.
Judaism is the faith of the Jewish people, and it is one of the oldest religions still followed today — going back well over three thousand years. There are around fifteen million Jewish people in the world, with the largest communities in Israel and the United States, and a long-rooted community here in Britain too. Someone who follows Judaism is a Jew, and the faith is closely woven together with a sense of being part of a people with a shared history.
At the centre of Judaism is the belief in one God — and only one. Jews believe God is the creator of everything, who has no body and cannot be pictured or made into a statue. This belief in a single God was, in the ancient world, a striking idea: most peoples around them worshipped many gods. The oldest and best-known Jewish prayer, the Shema, begins with the words "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one."
Jews believe that God made a special agreement with their ancestors, called the covenant. In this agreement, God promised to care for and guide the Jewish people, and in turn they would live by God's teaching. Much of Jewish life flows from that one idea — a bond between God and a people, carried down the generations and renewed in every age.
The Jewish name for God is treated with such respect that many Jews will not write it out in full or say it aloud. In writing, some use "G-d" instead, so that a page carrying the holy name is never thrown away carelessly. Worn-out holy books are not binned at all — they are buried, like a person.
The Torah, and the wider library.
The most important writing in Judaism is the Torah — a word that means "teaching" or "instruction". The Torah is made up of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which tell of the creation of the world, the early ancestors, the escape from Egypt, and the laws God is believed to have given. Jews believe the Torah holds God's guidance for how to live.
In the synagogue, the Torah is not a printed book but a long scroll, wound around two wooden rollers and kept in the ark. It is treated with enormous care. Because the hands should not touch the holy text, the reader follows the words with a silver pointer called a yad — the word simply means "hand". The whole Torah is read aloud in the synagogue across the course of a year, a portion each week, and then begun again.
Beyond the Torah, there is a wider collection of holy writings. The full Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh — a name built from the first letters of its three parts: the Torah (the teaching), the Nevi'im (the prophets), and the Ketuvim (the writings, including the Psalms). Alongside this sits the Talmud, a vast record of rabbis discussing and debating how the teaching should be lived out — page after page of careful argument.
T–N–K. Torah, the five books of teaching. Nevi'im, the books of the prophets. Ketuvim, the writings and poetry, such as the Psalms. Put the three first letters together and you get Tanakh — the Jewish name for the whole Hebrew Bible.
Hebrew is written and read from right to left, and in a Torah scroll there are no vowel marks and no punctuation at all — just the consonants. Readers learn the proper sounds and pauses by heart, which is why learning to read from the scroll takes years of practice.
Shabbat — a day of rest.
Once every week, Jewish life pauses for a whole day of rest called Shabbat (sometimes spelled Sabbath). It runs from Friday evening, as the sun goes down, until Saturday night. Jews believe the idea comes straight from the Torah: that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, and that people are asked to do the same — to stop, rest, and remember.
How it begins
- Two candles are lit at home as Friday evening falls.
- A blessing is said over wine, in a cup called a kiddush cup.
- A blessing is said over two loaves of plaited bread, called challah.
- The family shares a special meal together.
What changes
- Many Jews do no work for the whole day.
- Some switch off phones, screens and cars — a real pause.
- Time is given to family, rest, and the synagogue.
- It is meant to feel like a gift, not a burden.
Shabbat is often described by Jews not as a set of rules about what you cannot do, but as a weekly gift — one day in seven when the rushing stops, the phone goes quiet, and there is time simply to be with the people you love. Some call it "a palace in time".
The plaited Shabbat bread, challah, is usually made with two loaves on the table. The custom remembers a story from the Torah: when the ancestors wandered in the desert, a double portion of food appeared the day before the rest day, so that none had to be gathered on Shabbat itself.
Inside a synagogue.
The Jewish place of worship and gathering is the synagogue. It is a place for prayer, for reading the Torah, and for the community to come together — the main service of the week is on Shabbat. A synagogue is led in its teaching by a rabbi, whose title means "my teacher". Below is a simple plan of the parts you would notice on walking in.
What you would see
- The ark — a cupboard at the front holding the Torah scrolls.
- The eternal light — a lamp kept always burning above the ark.
- The bimah — a raised platform from which the Torah is read.
- The Torah scrolls — dressed in cloth covers, often with silver crowns.
Some key words
- Rabbi — the community's teacher and guide.
- Kippah — a small cap worn as a sign of respect to God.
- Shabbat — the weekly day of rest, when the main service is held.
- Kosher — food prepared according to Jewish rules.
The lamp above the ark, the ner tamid or "eternal light", is meant never to go out. In ancient times it burned oil; today it is usually electric — but the idea is the same, a steady flame standing for a presence that is always there.
Three festivals to know.
The Jewish year is full of festivals, each carrying a story or a meaning. Here are three of the best known. Notice how each one keeps a memory alive — turning history into something a family can taste, see and do together.
Remembers the escape of the ancestors from slavery in Egypt. Families share a special meal, the seder, where the story is retold and flat bread (matzah) is eaten — there was no time for bread to rise as they fled.
The most solemn day of the Jewish year. Many Jews fast for a full day and spend it in prayer, asking forgiveness and looking honestly at the past year — a fresh start, taken seriously.
An eight-night festival remembering an ancient rededication of the Temple. A candle is lit each night on a special nine-branched lamp called a hanukkiah, until all are glowing.
At the Passover seder, the youngest child at the table traditionally asks four questions, all beginning "Why is this night different from all other nights?" The whole meal is built around answering them — a festival designed, on purpose, around a child's curiosity.
A long history, and many ways of being Jewish.
Judaism is not only a set of beliefs; it is also the story of a people. For much of their history, Jewish communities lived scattered across many countries, far from the ancient land their faith remembers — this scattering is sometimes called the diaspora. In many places and times they were welcomed; in others they faced great hardship and cruelty simply for being Jewish, which is called antisemitism.
In the twentieth century, under the Nazi government of Germany, around six million Jewish people were murdered in what is called the Holocaust — one of the darkest events in all of human history. It is remembered carefully, so that such hatred is recognised and never allowed to grow again. This is a heavy subject, and one worth talking through with Dad.
Today there is once more a country, Israel, that many Jews see as a homeland, and large Jewish communities across the world, including here in Britain. Just as importantly, there is no single way to be Jewish. Some Jews keep the old laws very closely — these are often called Orthodox; others follow them more loosely or in updated ways — often called Reform or Progressive. And some people feel deeply Jewish in culture and history while not being very religious at all.
When we say "Jews believe…", we are describing widely shared teachings — not a claim that every Jewish person thinks or lives in exactly the same way. Judaism is held across many countries, customs and levels of practice, and that variety is part of what it is.
The agreement with God.
The most important writing.
The day of rest.
The pointer for reading.
Name the parts of the synagogue.
You saw a plan of the front of a synagogue earlier — the ark, the eternal light, the bimah, the Torah scroll. Each is numbered below. Pick a label, then place it in the matching pin slot. Two of the labels don't belong in a synagogue at all — read carefully before you place them.
Match each label to its pin
The festival of escape.
The festival of lights.
The whole Hebrew Bible.
The community's teacher.
Why does Shabbat matter so much?
Have a go at this in your own words. Explain what Shabbat is, and why so many Jews treasure it — not as a list of rules, but as a kind of weekly gift. You might think about what a whole day of rest, away from screens and work, does for a family. Three or four sentences is plenty, Florence. No rush.
A few thoughts on what you wrote, Florence
strong You've caught the heart of it — Shabbat as a pause, a stopping, rather than just a list of things not to do. That is exactly how many Jews themselves describe it, and it is the most grown-up way to read the day.
try this You named the rest clearly. If you have room, add one concrete thing a family actually does — lighting the two candles, the blessing over bread, the shared meal. One small picture makes the whole idea land.
to add One move that lifts RE writing: phrasing beliefs as beliefs. "Jews believe…" or "Many Jews choose to…" keeps it fair and descriptive — and it's the habit examiners notice and value.
Ways into one of the world's oldest faiths.
Sit down with Dad for any of these, or pick one up to read. They open a window onto how Judaism is lived, and the long history behind it. Heavier titles flagged for a chat first.
The words from today.
- Covenant
- The two-sided agreement Jews believe God made with their ancestors — God would guide them, and they would live by God's teaching.
- Torah
- The most important Jewish writing — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, read from a scroll in the synagogue.
- Tanakh
- The whole Hebrew Bible: Torah, Nevi'im (prophets) and Ketuvim (writings) together.
- Shabbat
- The weekly day of rest, from Friday evening to Saturday night, when work stops and time is given to family and God.
- Synagogue
- The Jewish place of worship and gathering, where the Torah is read and the community meets, led by a rabbi.
- Kosher
- Food that is prepared and eaten according to Jewish rules about what is permitted.
Worth watching.
Three short films to watch alongside today's lesson — each shows you something the words and pictures can't.
You've met a faith of one God and a covenant.
You learned who Jewish people are, and the belief in one God at the heart of Judaism. You met the Torah and the wider Tanakh, the weekly rest of Shabbat, and the inside of a synagogue. You looked at three festivals — Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah — and saw something of the long history and the many ways of being Jewish. Hold it lightly and fairly, Florence — that is what RE asks of all of us.
Watch & read recommendations are factual reference only — see each title's own copyright owner.