Hello and welcome back to my blog. Today I will tell you a little bit about what we learned in Jewish studies this term. Some things we learned about this term are:

1. How does life change once you reach the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah?
2. Why are the tallit and tefillin important? (What purpose do they serve)
3. How does life change once you reach the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

Lets start with how does your life change once you reach the age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah?

• When you turn 12/13, according to the torah you become a Jewish adult. Some things that change are: You become responsible for your own actions, you honor the elderly/wise community members, Giving tzedakah to the poor, Etc; you are also able to  participate in a minyan.

Now, why are the tallit and tefillin important? What purpose do they serve?

1. Tefillin= two square, black leather boxes (contain parchments of Torah verses). Attached to the boxes are leather straps, the two boxes represent the way in which we serve G-d.
2. The one on the head represents thought and the one on the arm represents action.
3. The tefillin is important because the three scrolls inside of the tefillin are very holy to the Jewish people.

1. The tallit is originally worn everyday by males.
2. After the destruction of the 2nd Temple a new tradition began where the Tallit was worn as a prayer shawl; typically made of wool or silk.

I think that the mystery of the chilazon (sea snail) is really interesting because nobody thought that it would be an animal until people researched it and found out it was a sea snail. They also thought it only appears every 70 years. But I still wonder why the tekhelet is so important to the Jewish people.