Judaism

A general overview of Judaism as a whole--material comes from http://www.religioustolerance.org/jud_desc.htm

Judaism is the first of the Abrahamic religions, which hold Abraham as a Patriarch who made a divine covenant with God. God promised that Abraham's descendants would become a great people if they followed certain laws He set for them. Jewish scripture details the servitude of the Israelites in Egypt, their deliverance by the prophet Moses, and the eventual claiming and settlement of the Promised Land of Israel. The next centuries saw the construction of a great temple at Jerusalem, followed by the breakup of the Jewish state and the scattering of its people around the world.

God's commands and other teachings are laid out in the Tanakh ( corresponding to the Christian Old Testament), which contains the Torah and other books. A later work, the Talmud, holds the works of various rabbis and is also studied extensively by Jewish scholars.

The central beliefs of Judaism were laid out by a medieval-era rabbi named Moshe ben Maimon. His 13 Principles of Faith include belief in the words of the Prophets, the uniqueness of God, and the importance of the Torah, as well as the eventual coming of the Messiah and resurrection of the dead. Many branches of Judaism add or subtract from this list depending on their attitude towards the religion.

Practice of Judaism involves adherence to Jewish law in everyday life, observance of the Sabbath as a day of resting, attendance at a Synagogue, and celebration of the various Jewish holidays.

Purim

Purim is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish people escaped slaughter by the Persians. The events are recorded in the book of Esther. To summarize the story, Esther, a Jew, was chosen by the king of Persia to become his queen. One of the king's advisers, Haman, asked the king to kill all the Jews, but Esther managed to convince the king to not listen to Haman. The holiday is usually marked with much joy and celebration. During a Purim service, noisemakers are often used whenever Haman is mentioned in the story. Other traditions are to give gifts to other people, donate to charity, and eat a type of cookie called hamentacschen on Purim.

Information and image from http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday9.htm

Passover

Passover is seven or eight days long to celebrate the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Passover happens on the fifteenth day of the month of Nissan. This holiday is celebrated for eight days if you are outside of Israel and you are not a reform Jew. The first two and last two days of Passover are celebrated with a festival. If you celebrate it for seven days the festivals are on the first and last day of Passover. The name Passover comes from the tenth plague when the angel of death went around and killed the first born of each family except the houses with the blood of the Passover lamb on the doorposts. The feast of Passover is to celebrate the liberation of the children of Israel who were lead out of Egypt by Moses. Matzo is the substitute for bread that you eat on Passover.

for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover

http://www.torah.org/learnin

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/holydays/passover_1.shtmlg/yomtov/pesach
Patterns of Religion Book

Messiah

In Christianity, Jesus is the Messiah, who is supposed to deliver the world from sin. Jewish scholars use the term "Moshiach" instead of "Messiah," to differentiate from the Christian idea of a divine savior. The Torah does not actually mention the idea of a Moshiach directly--his coming was predicted later by prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. These prophecies say that the Moshiach is destined to bring all the Jews back to Israel, where they will restore the land to its former glory and rule the world from Jerusalem. The Moshiach will be a great political and military leader who will observe all the laws of Judaism and usher in a utopian age for the world. Everyone everywhere will worship the Jewish God, and there will be no war, famine, disease, sin, or anything else bad.

Judaism puts few restrictions on who the Moshiach might be; basically, anyone who succeeds in doing what the Moshiach is prophesized to do is deemed to be the Moshiach. Some scholars debate the specific date or conditions under which he will appear, while others think it is foolish to try to predict this because a wrong guess would result in disillusioned Jews. Many people throughout history have claimed to be the Moshiach, such as Shimeon ben Kosiba, Shabbatai Tzvi, and the slightly-more-famous Jesus, but they were rejected on the basis of failure to produce an everlasting golden age for the world.

http://www.jewfaq.org/moshiach.htm contains this information and more.

Rosh Hashana

Rosh Hashana, also known as the Jewish New Year, is one of the major Jewish holidays. Since Jews use a lunar calendar for religious purposes, the exact day that Rosh Hashana falls on in a Gregorian calendar varies from year to year. Rosh Hashana is also known as the Day of Justice, because it ushers in a period of ten days, in which Jews think about their relationship with God. One distinctive aspect of Rosh Hashana is the blowing of the shofar, or ram's horn, as proscribed in Numbers 29:1. Traditionally, Jews eat various deserts for good luck for the new year. Furthermore, Rosh Hashana is also the day that Jews commemorate the creation of the world, therefore the holiday is sometimes referred to as the Day of Remembrance.

"Rosh Hashana." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite . Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.