GCSE Religious Studies: Judaism

These questions describe what Jewish people believe and do. None of them says or implies that a belief is true or false, and where practice genuinely differs between communities the set says so rather than presenting one version as the Jewish position — which is also how the examiner wants it written.

It begins with the declaration recited twice a day, and with the distinction that carries the mark: it states the oneness of God and the duty to love God with heart, soul and strength. It is not a request, and the option treating it as a petition is the one students reach for because most of what they call prayer is asking for something.

Two covenants follow, doing two different jobs. The promise to Abraham — descendants, a land, and a sign carried in the body — establishes the relationship; Sinai gives it its content, the Torah and the undertaking to keep it. Treating them as one event told twice, or supposing the earlier promise lapsed, are both offered. The mitzvot then get the same treatment: six hundred and thirteen commandments covering duties owed to God and duties owed to other people, so the answer that they are all ritual does not survive.

Practice is asked about precisely. Shabbat begins on Friday evening with the candles and closes on Saturday evening with Havdalah, and Sunday is there as an option because it is the commonest single error on this topic. A synagogue is described through the ark that holds the scrolls, the light that is never put out, and the platform the Torah is read from, with "a replacement for the Temple" offered as the misdescription it is. Kashrut is given in full — permitted animals, how they are slaughtered, and the separation of meat and milk — against the version that reduces it to avoiding pork. Pesach is asked through the seder, where the foods are used to tell the story rather than simply to be eaten. And Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are connected by repentance, with Yom Kippur as a solemn day of fasting rather than a celebration.

The last two are the ones that need care. Orthodox and Reform are separated by how the law's authority is understood and applied, stated as a disagreement between people equally Jewish. And on life after death the accurate answer is that Judaism holds a range of views and puts its weight on conduct in this life, rather than on a single detailed account of the next.

No practice, text or festival is invented, and no quotation is attributed to any scripture. Nothing is reproduced from any exam board specification, past paper or mark scheme.

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• State what the Shema declares, and why it is not a request
• Distinguish the covenant with Abraham from the covenant at Sinai
• Describe the mitzvot as duties owed to God and to other people
• Say when Shabbat begins and ends and what marks each
• Name the main features of a synagogue and what each is for
• State what kashrut requires beyond the avoidance of pork
• Say what Pesach commemorates and what the seder does with food
• Connect Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through repentance
• Describe the Orthodox and Reform difference as one about the authority of the law
• Give an accurate account of Jewish views on life after death

Ten descriptive questions on Jewish belief and practice: the declaration recited twice daily, the promise to Abraham beside the giving of the Torah at Sinai, six hundred and thirteen commandments of two kinds, a day of rest between Friday evening and Havdalah, the ark and the ner tamid and the bimah, the food laws in full, the seder and what its foods are for, the days of repentance, the Orthodox and Reform reading of the law, and the range of views about what follows death. Twelve flashcards carry the vocabulary — Shema, covenant, mitzvot, Torah, synagogue, ark, bimah, Shabbat, kashrut, Pesach, seder, Yom Kippur.