Religious Traditions
The National calendar and holydays in Israel is based on Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people. The Judaism include the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people.
Intangible cultural heritage
Jewish religious traditions are based on halakhic traditions and by moral principles marked by values such as justice, truth, peace, loving-kindness (chesed), compassion, humility, and self-respect. Specific Jewish ethical practices include practices of charity (tzedakah) and refraining from negative speech (lashon hara).
Jewish holidays are special days in the Jewish calendar, which celebrate moments in Jewish history, as well as central themes in the relationship between G'd and the world, such as creation, revelation, and redemption.
Religious Holidays
The Shabbat
Shabbath is Judaism's day of rest and seventh day of the week. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night. Shabbat observance entails refraining from work activities and engaging in restful activities to honor the day. Shabbat is ushered in by lighting candles and reciting a blessing. Three festive meals are eaten: in the evening, in the early afternoon, and late in the afternoon. The Friday evening meal begin with a blessing on wine called kiddush and a blessing recited over two loaves of challah. Shabbat is closed with a havdalah blessing.
Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashana is a holiday from the Torah and is the Jewish New Year. It is celebrated today as a Jewish holiday on the 1st and 2nd of Tishrei. Rosh Hashana is considered to be the day of G'd's reign over mankind and the day of judgment in which the person is sentenced for the previous year and determined what would happen to him next year. The main mitzvah of the holiday is blowing the shofar. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are called the Ten Days of Repentance.
Yom Kippour
Yom Kippur is celebrated on the 10th of Tishri, and is centered on, repentance and forgiveness, and according to the commandment of the Torah, the torment of the soul is required. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting and repentance. It is not because of mourning or tribulation that there is a need to fast, but because of the great holiness of the day. In fact, Yom Kippur is considered happy because, according to the Torah, when Moses returned from Mount Sinai where he remained for 40 days, G'd forgave Israel the sin of the Golden Calf. Moses came down from the mountain to Yom Kippur with the new tables of the law.
Souccot
Sukkot, is a Jewish holiday celebrated from the 15th of Tishrei during 7 days. The religious significance is that of commemorating the Exodus and the dependence of the People of Israel on the will of G'd.
The Hebrew word sukkot is the plural of sukkah, which is a walled structure, covered with s'chach, intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Throughout the Sukkot week, meals are taken in the succah. Every day, a blessing is recited on the Loulav and the Etrog. The four species are four plants that the Torah orders to take from Sukkot a etrog, a lulav, a myrtle, and a willow. It is customary to bind the four species and to maintain it by shaking the four species in a special order that takes place during prayer.
Hanuka
Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is also known as the Festival of Lights.
Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar.
The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a Menorah with eight branches, called hanukkiah. One branch is placed above and is used to light the eight candles. This candle is called the shamash. Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Hanukkah festivities include playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods.
Tu bishvat
Tu BiShvat is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of Shevat. It is also called the "New Year of the Trees." In Israel, the kabbalistic Tu BiShvat seder has been revived, and is now celebrated by many Jews, religious and secular. Special haggadot have been written for this purpose. In contemporary Israel, the day is celebrated as an ecological awareness day, and trees are planted in celebration.
Tu BiShvat is the Israeli Arbor Day, Ecological organizations in Israel and the diaspora have adopted the holiday to further environmental-awareness programs.
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, the royal vizier to King of Persia Ahasuerus, who was planning to kill all the Jews. The story is recorded in the Book of Esther ( Megillat Ester ). Haman plans were foiled by Mordechai and Esther, Esther had risen to become Queen of Persia. The day of deliverance became a day of feasting and rejoicing.
Purim is celebrated among Jews annually the 14th day of the month of Adar, the day following the victory of the Jews over their enemies, by exchanging gifts of food and drink, donating charity to the poor, eating a celebratory meal known as ''se'udat Purim''. Public recitation of the megillah"of Esther, known usually in the synagogue. Customs include wearing masks and costumes, public celebration and parades (Adloyada), and eating hamantaschen ("Haman's ear").
Pessah
Pesach is a great Jewish holiday. The Jews celebrate the Passover in commemoration of their release by G'd, slavery in ancient Egypt and their freedom as a nation under the leadership of Moses. It commemorates the story of the exodus. Pesach begins with a special night known as Seder, in the evening of 14 Nisan, in communities in Israel, it is customary to gather the family as well as distant relatives, the poor and foreigners, all must come for pesach so that each person can eat the meal. On the evening of the Seder it is ordered to eat matzah and maror and the recitation of the Haggadah takes place in order to commemorate the story of the Exodus, also to eat Korban Pesach, haroset, eggs and karpas and drink four cups of wine.
Lag Baomer
Lag BaOmer is a Jewish holiday celebrated on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, which takes place on the 18th day of Iyar. This day marks the hillula (birthday of death) of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a Mishnai sage and main disciple of Rabbi Akiva in the 2nd century, and the day he revealed the deepest secrets of the Kabbalah in the form of the Zohar . This association has spawned many well-known customs and practices on Lag BaOmer, including the lighting of bonfires, pilgrimages to Bar Yochai's tomb in Meron, a city in northern Israel, and various customs. Another reason of the celebration is that Lag Baomer marks the day when the plague that killed Rabbi Akiva's 24,000 followers ended and Sefirat HaOmer's mourning period ends on Lag BaOmer.
Shavouot
Shavuot is a Jewish holiday that takes place on the sixth day of the Sivan, after the counting of the Omer, which begins the day after the first day of Pesach, seven weeks. This count of days and weeks is meant to express anticipation and desire for the gift of the Torah.
The three days before the week are called "the three days of limitation," commemorating the days when the Israelites prepared for the revelation on Mount Sinai. Shavuot commemorates the anniversary of the day when G'd gave the Torah to the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Tisha B'Av
Tisha B'Av is a day of fasting and the culmination of the mourning period of these three weeks. This fast commemorates the various calamities that have afflicted the Jewish people throughout the generations, with a focus on the disasters that occurred on 9 Av.
At the beginning of the fast, it is customary to read the Book of Lamentations and throughout the day, to recite lamentations about the destruction of the Temple and other disasters.
According to tradition, after the coming of the Messiah and the construction of the Third Temple, Tisha Be Av will become a day of celebration and joy, like the rest of the fasts of destruction. In the Talmud of Jerusalem affirms that the king of the messiah was born Ticha Be Av.