Tzofim Book of Why

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What is the history of the latke and hamantaschen?

Fun food facts with Sydney, Lila, and Greta  (yay for aliteration)

Hamantashcen (and no one knows how to spell it);

           -The reference to the word was first used in a play, a comedy skit by someone with a Jewish sounding name (Yehudah Sommo)

           -People think that the triangles are references to Hamen’s ears, as they would have been cut off before his execution

            -Also refers to how Mordechai (Esther's cuz)) hid messages in the pastries he would make during the hard times so he wouldn't be suspected of anything (because who checks pastries?) that's why they are fillings

            -But many people believe that Hamen’s hat are hamantaschen but also that it could reference NAPOLEAN Latke (sour cream or applesauce?)

             -Originally from Italy’s version of potato pancakes (with cheese inside)               -Cheese was always a favorite, but it became harder to find

              -Add that to the increasing popularity of potatoes, and potato pancakes without cheese became more popular

               -REMEMBER that a bunch of other cultures  have a similar version of a latke

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Kippahs

A kippah is usually expected to be worn during a service nowadays , but many jews from different streams still wear them daily (mostly orthodox).

The word Kippah translated into English means skullcap. It is required to men to wear a kippah to show respect for G-d, it also shows “higher” civilization to the one who wears it.

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Is God Jewish?

God can be Jewish if you belive he is. The mind is a very wonderful thing that lets you think and believe whatever you would like. Because this is a free America anyone can think what they want to think or believe. You can believe that god is Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, or anything you decide he is. So take some time and comprehend to your own belief, is God Jewish?

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Does God Take Naps?

The most awful thing that has and maybe ever will happen to the Jewish people was the HOLOCAUST.  Millions of innocent Jews got brutally murdered for nothing other than being Jewish. This brings up a very important question. Why would god allow the HOLOCAUST to happen? Why would the God of the Jewish people, the God that brought the Israelites out of slavery, allow the Jewish people to be brutally killed in horrific gas chambers and concentration camps? So did God just take a nap at the EXACT time that the HOLOCAUST was happening? Here's the thing, there is no definite answer. But do we have a right to blame God? God gave us life and faith, and yet we ran around and ruined all of God’s hard work, like a drunk teenager who crashes their parents car and blame their parents for giving them the keys. We are blaming God for the HOLOCAUST. But I don’t think that we as humans have the right to blame God for allowing the HOLOCAUST to happen. But we do have a right to be angry at God because he didn't do anything to STOP the HOLOCAUST from happening. 

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What is currently happening in the West Bank?

In the 67 war, Israel conquered land which today is now known as the West Bank. Now in the twentieth century there is a lot of controversy between Palestine and Israel about who's land it is.

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Why was Hitler anti-semitic and what made him go against the Jews?

Hitler hoped that he could lead Germany out of its economic and political crisis. He believed that the Jews were responsible for WWI where 100,000 German soldiers were killed. There are theories that Hitler wanted to be an artist and applied for an art school, instead of him getting in a Jew did. In addition Hitler supposedly wanted to kill the monster (the Jews) who had killed his extended family in Poland. Therefore Hitler created the Nazi Party that discriminated mainly against Jews. 

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Why are sooo many Jews prone to diseases

In my research I found that there are many terrible diseases that some Jews have to go through. When a Jew has one of these diseases, and they then have kids, the disease gets passed on. Around the year 4000 B.C.E. most Jews got these diseases, but they were not harmful. Over that years the diseases evolved into the deadly diseases they are now.

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WHO WROTE THE TORAH?

Some people think it is unknown who wrote the Torah, but most people think that Moses wrote most of it, but not the whole Torah. Moses wrote the books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and most of Deuteronomy. The part he did not write was the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, that talk about how he died. Those eight versus were written by Joshua, which mean that both Moses and Joshua wrote the Torah. Another theory is the JEDP theory which says that four different people wrote the Torah: someone who describes God as Yahweh wrote most of Genesis, and parts of Exodus and Numbers. Someone who describes God as Elohim wrote parts of Genesis. A different source wrote Deuteronomy and Priestly wrote the end of Deuteronomy and other parts of the Torah that weren't already written.

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Does Judaism need updating?

In a twitter post online, an ultra-orthodox Jewish rabbi covered himself head-to-toe in clear plastic during a recent commercial flight, and apparently remained that way for the entire trip. Speculation is that the self-Saran Wrapping was done to uphold the orthodox tenet requiring men to keep themselves completely separated from women. 

In our progressive society, that is ever changing, seeing this begs the question; is Judaism outdated, and need updating? My answer, is yes.

 For example, in Exodus Chapter 21, It talks about rules in Judaism. One rule states that “if a bull gores a man or a woman and [that one] dies, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, and the owner of the bull is clear” basically meaning that if a bull attacks and or kills a person, it shall be killed, but the owner of it is clear of any charge. Why does there have to be rules specifically about bull attacks?! Even more random, is when it states “ And if a person opens a pit, or if a person digs a pit and does not cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit shall pay; he shall return money to its owner, and the dead body shall be his” IS THIS NOT OBVIOUSLY TOO SPECIFIC AND OBSCURE?! When EVER will a bull kill a person, but then get out of punishment by falling into an uncovered whole? 

Overall, Judaism while having many essential rules that help and guide our ways of living, it also includes many crazy rules that don’t apply to today, and or stops our free accepting modern lifestyles. Judaism needs updating,

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why is the number 18 so special?

18 is special because it means chai

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What is your question? My question is how did moses split the red sea

What brought you to this question? Mental obligation

How will you go about researching this question? I actually already knew this, so have a picture of a dog.

Who, what where when how why? Who: moses What: the REED sea When: ≈1200 BCE How: SCIENCE Why: convenience

In the torah, the words used to describe the sea that moses split was the sea of reeds, which is an incredibly tidal body of water, which during low tide, is indeed low enough to walk across on dry land. When translating, there is a common mistake that it is the sea of RED, which does not do this, and is also bordering Egypt.

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How Much Yiddish do Modern Jews Know?

We (Maren and Eliza) got this on the quiz:

How Much Yiddish Do You Know?

You got 4 out of 11 right!!

Oy gevalt. You know bubkes about Yiddish! Gornisht!

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What Do People Think God Looks Like?

Many people have some sort of image of God in their heads already. From reasearch, I have concluded that most people see a middle aged white man with a beard. I then wondered if this is a racial thing, but I'll talk about that some other day. About 74 percent of people believe in God, so of course there are a lot of ways one might expect God to look like. Possibly he looks like nothing, or at least nothing any of us have seen before, maybe he's black or Latino or any other race. In my head he doesn't look like anything that we've seen before. Perhaps, if the afterlife is real, then we might find out one day, but for now, we are left with no answer. Respond what you think God looks like!

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What’s the meaning behind the Israeli flag?

Well, from lots of research I have found that the blue color represents the dark sky, the two lines represent the tallit and the thing in the middle of the two lines is the Star of David.

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How big was the burning bush?

Was the burning bush a large tree or a small stick? Now you will finally know the answer. I looked everywhere. Wikipedia, bible.com (which was very useful), hermeneutics.com, but I couldn’t find an answer. I finally found Jewish encyclopedia. This told me that the burning bush was a thorn bush. Thorn bushes can grow to be pretty tall: 15 feet! I always thought that the burning bush was a small bush but no, the burning bush was a big bush 

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On the ire of the burning bush, st Catherine's monastery was built. The burning bush was later moved.  Now, it is said to have been lost. The location is unkown. When Moses was faced by god, he was asked to take off his shoes

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Why are Jews mostly in Brooklyn?

When the Jews first immigrated to the US, after being practically chased out by the Russians, because they had pogroms, (Violent acts against the Jews), so they had to flee and when they got off of Ellis island, the majority of them all decided to locate in certain districts in Brooklyn. To this day, a lot of the Jews in NYC are in Brooklyn.

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Religious

We are religious and this traces back to customs. This is because we need a higher power or g-d.  This is a custom. And this is a belief as well.