Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Pesach — Judaism

What the specification asks for

Paper 2, Section 2, 2.1 (Judaism). Assessed on AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (analysis and evaluation), weighted equally. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's indicative content — the point numbers are given so you can check every unit against your own copy.

1 · Understand it

The Haggadah does not ask anybody to remember the Exodus. It instructs that in every generation a person must see themselves AS IF they personally came out of Egypt. The seder makes the participant a character rather than an audience, and that grammatical demand is why it is the most widely kept festival in Jewish life.

What it means

Four festivals are covered here and each needs what it commemorates, how it is observed, and different understandings of its importance. Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, a day of judgement and of remembering creation, opening the Ten Days of Repentance; the shofar, a ram's horn, is blown as a call to repentance, apples and honey are eaten for a sweet year, and tashlikh casts crumbs into flowing water.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement: a full fast of about twenty-five hours spent largely in prayer, which atones for wrongs against God but not for wrongs against people until those have been settled directly.

Pesach remembers the Exodus — the plagues, the first Passover and the parting of the sea. Chametz, leaven, is removed from the home and searched for by candlelight the night before; at the seder the story is retold using the Haggadah, with the youngest child's questions beginning it.

Chanukah remembers the rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt and the miracle of the oil, marked by lighting one more candle each of eight nights, family gatherings, the dreidel and gifts. The rabbinic sources emphasise the oil rather than the military victory, which is worth noticing: the tradition chose the less martial story.

Why believers hold it

The reasoning is that Judaism transmits by re-enactment rather than by commemoration. The seder does not describe the Exodus, it stages it: bitter herbs eaten, matzah tasted, the story told in answer to a child's question, and each participant instructed to see themselves as personally freed.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur work the same way with repentance. The shofar summons, ten days are provided for approaching anybody who has been wronged, and the fast makes the day physically unlike any other. The structure means the holiest day cannot complete its own work unless the ten days before it were used.

The different-understandings clause has real material behind it. Pesach and Yom Kippur are observed by many Jews who do not otherwise practise, which can be read as festivals becoming cultural markers detached from belief or as continuity surviving in the forms that carry it best. Both readings are held and both are examinable.

Two objections need answers. A twenty-five-hour fast is physically hard, especially for the ill and elderly — and Jewish law exempts anybody whose health would be endangered, with the principle that saving life overrides observance requiring them not to fast. And the seder's effectiveness depends on families conducting it, since a seder attended without engagement teaches nothing.

Where it comes from

• The Torah — the Ten Commandments (Aseret ha-Dibrot) — Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (translated)

  Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

  The commandments given at Sinai, covering duty to God and duty to other people, and the basis of Shabbat observance.

  What it is doing here: Supplies the framework of obligation the festivals sit inside, and the Sabbath command whose rhythm the festival calendar extends.

• The Torah — Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 17:1–14 (translated)

  I will make of you a great nation ... and you shall be a blessing.

  The covenant with Abraham — the promise of descendants and land, and the sign of circumcision (Brit Milah).

  What it is doing here: Gives the covenant the Exodus fulfils, which is why the retelling at Pesach is about a people rather than about an escape.

• The Torah — Leviticus 19:18 (translated)

  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

  The command from which the surrounding chapter's social laws follow — fair wages, honest weights, care for the deaf and the blind, and the stranger.

  What it is doing here: Grounds the rule that wrongs against people must be settled with the people, which is what limits what Yom Kippur can do.

• The Torah; said in daily prayer — Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (the Shema) (translated)

  Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

  The central declaration of Jewish faith — the absolute oneness of God — said morning and evening, written in the mezuzah and the tefillin.

  What it is doing here: States the belief the festivals are all celebrations of, recited daily and therefore not confined to the calendar's high points.

Where it bites

Concretely: apples and honey, round challah and the shofar at Rosh Hashanah; tashlikh at a river; a full fast, white clothing and the closing Neilah service at Yom Kippur; the search for chametz by candlelight, the seder plate, four cups of wine and the youngest child's questions at Pesach; and the chanukiah lit in a window at Chanukah so that the miracle is publicised.

The window matters in an answer: the Chanukah lights are placed to be seen from outside, which makes it the one Jewish festival with a built-in instruction to be visible to neighbours — and that is part of why it has grown in prominence in minority contexts.

What people get wrong

People think: Chanukah is the Jewish Christmas.

Actually: It is a minor festival religiously, commemorating the rededication of the Temple, and its visibility has grown for contextual reasons rather than doctrinal ones. Calling it the Jewish Christmas inverts its status and misses the interesting observation about how festivals change in a minority setting.

People think: Yom Kippur wipes away all wrongs for the year.

Actually: It atones for wrongs between a person and God, and explicitly not for wrongs against another person until those are settled with them directly. The day depends on the ten days before it, which is a deliberate design rather than an oversight.

People think: Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.

Actually: Judaism is a living religion with its own scriptures and interpretive tradition. It matters here because the observances the specification names — the Haggadah, tashlikh, the chanukiah — are rabbinic and later developments rather than biblical instructions.

What the examiner expects you to understand

• Give what each festival commemorates AND how it is observed; the wording asks for both.
• Use the Haggadah's instruction to see oneself as personally freed, which is the strongest detail available.
• State that Yom Kippur does not cover wrongs against people until they are settled.
• Answer the different-understandings clause; it is where the AO2 marks sit.
• Do not describe Chanukah as the Jewish Christmas; it is a minor festival with modern visibility.

2 · Grade 9 Notes

Core belief / issue

The Issue 2 content for Judaism is unusually long here and covers four festivals: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as the High Holy Days, Pesach with the Exodus and the seder, and Chanukah with the Maccabees and the oil. Each needs what it commemorates, how it is observed, and different understandings of its importance today. The observances are specific and the specification names them, so vague answers lose easily.

Key terminology

Incandio's mark schemes credit the religion's own vocabulary; spelling variants are accepted, a vague paraphrase is not.

Rosh Hashanah (also Rosh Hashana)

The Jewish New Year; a day of judgement and of remembering creation.

Shofar

The ram's horn blown at Rosh Hashanah as a call to repentance.

Tashlikh (also tashlich)

The custom of casting crumbs into flowing water at Rosh Hashanah, symbolising the casting away of sins.

Yom Kippur

The Day of Atonement; a full fast day of prayer and repentance.

Seder

The ordered Pesach meal at which the Exodus is retold.

Chametz (also hametz)

Leaven; removed from the home before Pesach and searched for the night before.

Haggadah

The book used at the seder, containing the order of the retelling.

What Judaism teaches

• shared — Rosh Hashanah begins the Ten Days of Repentance: it is a day of judgement, of remembering creation, and of the shofar's call, with apples and honey for a sweet year.
• shared — Yom Kippur is a full fast of about twenty-five hours spent largely in prayer, and it atones for wrongs against God but not for wrongs against people until those are settled directly.
• shared — Pesach remembers the Exodus: chametz is removed and searched for, and at the seder the story is retold with the Haggadah so that each person regards themselves as having come out of Egypt.
• shared — Chanukah remembers the rededication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt and the miracle of the oil, marked by lighting one more candle on each of eight nights.

Why it teaches this

The reasoning is that Judaism transmits by re-enactment rather than by commemoration. The seder does not describe the Exodus, it stages it — bitter herbs eaten, matzah tasted, the story told in answer to a child's question, and the instruction that each person see themselves as personally freed. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur work the same way with repentance: the shofar summons, ten days are provided, and the fast makes the day physically different from every other.

Sources of authority

• The Torah — the Ten Commandments (Aseret ha-Dibrot) — Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (translated)

  Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

  The commandments given at Sinai, covering duty to God and duty to other people, and the basis of Shabbat observance.

  How to use it: The Sabbath commandment is grounded in creation itself, which is why Shabbat is described as sanctifying time rather than as a day off.

  What it does not settle: How strictly the commandments bind divides Orthodox from Reform Judaism, and that divergence is worth naming.

• The Torah — Leviticus 19:18 (translated)

  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

  The command from which the surrounding chapter's social laws follow — fair wages, honest weights, care for the deaf and the blind, and the stranger.

  How to use it: Reading it with its own chapter turns it from a sentiment into legislation, which is a much better answer than quoting the verse alone.

  What it does not settle: Shared with Christianity, so it is not distinctively Jewish.

• The Torah; said in daily prayer — Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (the Shema) (translated)

  Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

  The central declaration of Jewish faith — the absolute oneness of God — said morning and evening, written in the mezuzah and the tefillin.

  How to use it: It is belief and practice in one object: the words on the doorpost mean the household's whole life is meant to be lived inside the claim.

  What it does not settle: Uncontested across Jewish traditions, so it distinguishes none of them from another.

• The Torah — Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 17:1–14 (translated)

  I will make of you a great nation ... and you shall be a blessing.

  The covenant with Abraham — the promise of descendants and land, and the sign of circumcision (Brit Milah).

  How to use it: The covenant is the reason Jewish identity is a relationship rather than a set of opinions, and it is why Brit Milah is a covenantal act and not a custom.

  What it does not settle: The covenant's relation to the land is politically contested and the specification does not require that argument.

Different interpretations

• Rosh Hashanah read as a new year and read as a day of judgement; both are traditional and the second is what makes the ten days that follow urgent.
• The Chanukah miracle read as the oil and read as the military victory; the rabbinic sources emphasise the oil, and a strong answer notices that the tradition chose the less martial story.
• Different understandings today: some Jews observe Yom Kippur while observing little else, and Pesach is the most widely kept festival in the Jewish world — which is exactly the 'different understandings' the wording asks for.

Differences within Judaism

All four festivals are kept across the traditions. The differences are about the number of days and the form of the liturgy, not about whether the festivals matter.

• Orthodox Judaism — Full observance including two days of Rosh Hashanah and, in the diaspora, an extra day of some festivals.
• Reform (Progressive) Judaism — Generally observes one day where tradition has two, and has adapted liturgy while keeping the festivals central.

Application to the issue

Concretely: apples and honey, round challah and the shofar at Rosh Hashanah; tashlikh at a river; a full fast, white clothing and the closing Neilah service at Yom Kippur; the search for chametz by candlelight, the seder plate, four cups and the youngest child's questions at Pesach; and the chanukiah lit in a window at Chanukah so that the miracle is publicised.

Arguments supporting

• The seder is the most effective religious teaching device in Judaism. — It is built around a child's question, uses taste and gesture, and instructs each participant to identify personally with the freed. (judaism)
  Answered by: Its effectiveness depends on families conducting it, and a seder attended without engagement teaches nothing.
• Yom Kippur's requirement to settle wrongs with people first makes the festival do moral work. — The day cannot complete its own function without the ten days of approaches that precede it. (shared)
  Answered by: In practice many observe the fast without making the approaches, which is a criticism Jews make of themselves.

Arguments challenging

• Festivals have become cultural markers detached from belief. — Pesach and Yom Kippur are observed by many Jews who do not otherwise practise. (non-religious)
  Answered by: That is precisely the 'different understandings of practice and importance' the specification asks for, and it can be read as continuity rather than as failure.
• A twenty-five-hour fast is an unreasonable demand. — It is physically hard, especially for the ill and the elderly. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Jewish law exempts anyone whose health would be endangered, and pikuach nefesh requires them not to fast.

Evaluation

The hinge: Whether a festival's importance lies in what it commemorates or in what it does to those who keep it. Pesach is the strongest case for the second, since it instructs participants to place themselves in the story.

Defensible conclusions

• Pesach is the most important, because it is the most widely observed and because it enacts the founding event rather than recalling it.
• Yom Kippur is the most demanding and does the most moral work, and its dependence on the preceding ten days makes it uniquely structured.
• Chanukah is the least significant religiously and the most visible publicly, which is a real observation about how festivals change in a minority context.

Not defensible

• Describing Chanukah as the Jewish Christmas; it is a minor festival that has grown in visibility for contextual reasons.
• Saying Yom Kippur forgives everything, which misses the rule about wrongs against people.

Exam use

• Outline · 4 marks — Outline two practices associated with Pesach, or two ways Jews observe Yom Kippur. Two, each developed.
• Explain · 6 marks — Explain why Yom Kippur is important for Jews: the fast, the prayer, the atonement, and the requirement to settle wrongs with people first.
• Discuss · 10 marks — 'Festivals are the most important part of religious life.' Weigh festival observance against Shabbat, which happens every week.

Common mistakes

• Confusing the festivals or attaching the wrong practice to the wrong one.
• Describing observances with no mention of what is remembered.
• Omitting the different-understandings clause, which is where the AO2 marks are.

“Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.” — Judaism is a living religion with its own scriptures, its own two-thousand-year tradition of rabbinic interpretation, and its own account of what God requires. The Tanakh is not the Christian Old Testament in either arrangement or authority.

Write instead: The Tanakh has three divisions — Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim — and is read alongside the Talmud and rabbinic tradition. Jewish teaching about the afterlife, salvation and law is developed on its own terms. The scriptures overlap substantially, and the differences in ordering, canon and interpretation are real. Naming the Tanakh's structure is directly examinable at Paper 2 1.2.

Grade 9 insight

The Haggadah instructs that in every generation a person must see themselves AS IF they personally came out of Egypt. A Level 4 answer notices the grammatical demand: the seder does not ask participants to remember an event, it asks them to claim it in the first person. That is why the festival has survived as the most widely observed in Jewish life — it makes the participant a character rather than an audience, and it is the same technique the tradition uses whenever it wants something to be transmitted rather than merely known.

Carry on through Judaism

• Previous unit: 1.4 · One other significant Jewish figure
• Next unit: 2.2 · Pilgrimage in Judaism
• Side by side: The major festivals across the six religions — Which major festival does the specification name, and what does it commemorate?
• All of Judaism · Incandio Religious Studies · The 4RS1 specification