Which High Holiday is which?

What are Jews marking on Rosh Hashanah?

The beginning of the new year on the Jewish calendar, and the time when God opens the Book of Life for judgment.

The birth of biblical patriarch Jacob, who would later be renamed Israel

The day Noah built the ark

Fall harvests

Which of the following are often part of a Rosh Hashanah observance? (check all that apply)

Jumping over a fire to mark the entrance of the new year

Eating apples and honey

Going to synagogue

Hearing the shofar, a trumpet made of a ram's horn

Eating a seder of different fruits and vegetables representing hopes for the new year

Saying the shehecheyanu prayer, which is said over new things

Tashlich, a ritual in which observers cast off their sins into a body of water, often literally throwing pebbles or bits of bread into the water

Weaving a blanket for the coming winter

What is Yom Kippur about?

It's a day of collective mourning for the Holocaust

It marks God's fury at humanity when flooding the world during the story of Noah

It marks the day the Jews entered Israel after wandering through the desert for 40 years

It's a yearly day of atonement, in which Jews believe God inscribes souls into the Book of Life for the year

Which of the following are part of Yom Kippur traditions for many communities? (check all that apply)

Abstaining from bathing, sex, water and food, for those who are adult and healthy enough to do so, for 25 hours

Waving chickens over your head before slaughtering them to atone for sins on the evening before the holiday begins, in a tradition known as kaparot

Taking a very hot shower to scald the sins off your body

Wearing all white and avoiding leather shoes

Climbing a tree to get closer to God

Spending the day in synagogue ritually confessing and atoning for sins

Thumping yourself in the chest repeatedly while reciting sins

Cutting your hair

Why do Jews celebrate Sukkot? (check all that apply)

It's part of a plea to God for a gentle winter

It's a religious celebration of nature

It's biblically commanded as part of harvest observances, and to recall the Jews wandering through the desert for 40 years

To remember the Garden of Eden

What are the traditional requirements for Sukkot observance? (check all that apply)

Cleaning your entire house

Eating and sleeping outdoors in a little hut exposed to the elements

Building a little hut with a roof made of plant material known as schach

Waving a bundle of four plants known as the "four species"

Getting drunk

Wearing bright colored clothing made of natural fibers

According to the Talmud, what items make up the Four Species that are waved daily during Sukkot? (check all that apply)

The holiday cycle ends with Simchat Torah. What is being celebrated? (check all that apply)

The end of all of the holidays

A new cycle of Torah reading

The beginning of winter

The day King David was crowned

What activities often happen on Simchat Torah? (check all that apply)

The Torah scroll is rerolled back to the start

Married Orthodox women uncover their hair for one night

Cross-dressing

The Torah scroll is carried around the synagogue seven times, often including singing and dancing, and often spilling into the streets

Which High Holiday is which?

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