Question What are the Biblically ordained festivals, and how many days are they celebrated?

Question Why is there a difference between the number of days the latter three festivals are celebrated in Israel and the number of days they are celebrated elsewhere?

Question Why then is there no difference between the number of days Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are observed in Israel and elsewhere?

Question What system was used for leap years before the current Jewish calendar went into effect?

Question What is Rosh Chodesh?

 

Question Why do Jewish holidays occur on different calendar dates each year?   

Question What is a day by Jewish law?

Question What is the smallest unit of time in the Jewish calendar?

Question What purpose do we serve when we pray? After all, does God need us to praise Him?

 

Question Pious Jews attend the synagogue twice daily. How many times a day is a Jew required to pray?

Question What are the names of these prayers, and where are these names derived from?

Question How does one define "morning," "afternoon" and "evening" in terms of the prayers?

Question The Jewish tradition requires a quorum of ten men, known as a minyan for communal prayers. What is the origin of that requirement?

Question Why do Jews face east when praying?

 

Question A person who visits the synagogue will notice that while most prayers are recited while sitting, some of them are said while standing. For some of the standing prayers, one must even stand at attention, with both feet together. Why these variations?

Question It is quite a common sight to see Jews swaying as they recite their prayers. Is there any ritual significance in this action?

Question What is the Shema?

Question The third paragraph of the Shema prayer refers to the commandment to place tzitzit - fringes - on every four-cornered garment. What makes this particular commandment so important that it is mentioned twice daily - in the morning Shema and the evening Shema?

 

Question When the cantor repeats the amidah prayer and reaches the passage of modim ("we thank You..."), the congregation recites a parallel passage beginning with the same words but with a different content. What is the origin of the two different passages?

Question What are the three parts into which the Jewish people are divided?

Question Why and when do the kohanim - the priests - bless the people?

Question When the kohanim - the priests - bless the people, they customarily cover their heads and hands with a tallit. Why?

 

Question Have the censorship laws of various states ever affected the classical Jewish texts?

Question How about the prayers? Were they affected by censorship?

Question In Judaism, the prayers are generally recited by each person individually, rather than in unison. Why then are the prayers couched in plural form?

Question What is the origin of the popular hymn Yigdal, recited at the end of the Friday night or Saturday morning service in many congregations?

Question Why do men recite a special blessing in the morning, thanking God for "not having created me a woman"?