Essex County Council

Support materials for

Religious Education

Key Stage 1

Y
JEWISH STORIES

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Y JEWISH STORIES

I. Stories from the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament)

-  A story about how the world began

-  A sad day: the story of Adam and Eve

-  Noah’s wife and the great flood

-  How Abraham came to the Promised Land

-  The story of Joseph and his multicoloured coat

-  The story of Moses (told in three parts)

II. More stories from the Jewish Bible (the Old Testament)

-  The story of Ruth

-  Two stories about Samuel: servant of God in childhood and old age

1.  Samuel and the voice in the night

2.  Samuel announces the man who is to be king

-  Three stories about the early life of David

1.  David: shepherd boy, poet and musician

2.  David fights Goliath

3.  Best friends: the story of David and Jonathan

-  Elijah and the ravens

-  Jonah and the big fish

I. Stories from the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament)

A story about how the world began (Genesis 1.1 - 2.4)

The Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) starts with two creation stories, each originating in a separate tradition. Here is a retelling of the first of the two stories, about the six days of creation. One of the key messages of the story is that human beings, who were created last, have been given power over the world and all that it contains; but with that power goes responsibility. Human beings have a duty to care for the world and to ensure that its goodness and beauty are safeguarded for future generations. The story also explains why the seventh day (the Jewish Shabbat and the Christian Sunday) is a day of rest.

Long long ago, before the world was made, there was nothing; nothing at all. There were no people, no animals, no plants, no sky, no sea, no roads and no buildings: not one single thing anywhere. Everything was dark. Everything was silent. Can you imagine what it was like?

Then out of the stillness came a sound. It was God’s voice and it said, “Let there be light.” Suddenly the world lit up as bright as a million candles burning in the darkness. “That’s better,” said God.

The next day God spoke again. This time he said, “Let there be sky up high and water to flow underneath it.” And there it was: a clear blue sky with fluffy white clouds, and below it the sea splished and sploshed and splashed. God was pleased with what he had done.

On the third day God made the earth. He made dusty deserts, soggy swamps and mighty mountains reaching high into the clouds. God said, “Now we need some colours to make the earth look beautiful,” and flowers, grass and other plants burst up through the soil. There were plants that were pretty to look at: big yellow sunflowers, bright red poppies and cherry trees full of pink blossom. There were sweet-smelling plants, like roses and honeysuckle. There were plants bearing tasty things to eat, like crunchy apples and juicy blackberries. The plants made seeds, the seeds spread over the whole earth, and forests and meadows began to grow. The world was beginning to look very good and God was really pleased.

On the fourth day God made the sun and moon and twinkling stars to hang in the sky. And so time was invented: morning and night, months, seasons and years. The sun warmed the plants and helped them grow, and at night they closed their petals and went to sleep beneath the silver moon and the sparkling stars. As God watched the colours of the sunset at the end of the fourth day he said, “That looks really good.”

The world was indeed very wonderful to look at, but like a beautiful picture it was still and quiet. So God said, “Let the seas be filled with fish and other living creatures.” The oceans were instantly filled with creatures of all sizes and shapes: whales and turtles, sea-lions and sea-horses, dolphins and sharks, and shellfish, whose homes you find washed up on the beach when they have finished with them. In the rivers and streams there appeared newts and sticklebacks, otters and frogs, and waterboatmen.

Next God looked at the empty sky and said, “Let there be birds to fill the air.” Straightaway across the sky there flew sparrows and robins, eagles and owls, swallows and brightly coloured kingfishers. As the fifth day ended, the whole world was filled with the sound of birds cheeping and chirping. “That sounds really good,” said God.

On the sixth day God made animals. He made camels and snakes to live in the deserts. He made polar bears and arctic foxes to live in the arctic regions. He made crocodiles, monkeys and tigers to live in the rainforests. He made giraffes and lions to live in the grasslands. He made yaks and pumas and goats and llamas to live in the mountains.

Most of the animals stayed awake in the day, but others, like hedgehogs and badgers, came out at night. Some animals were big and some were small. Some animals were soft and furry, and some were rough and prickly. There were animals that walked, animals that crawled, animals that hopped, animals that slithered, animals that climbed, and some that could even swim. The whole earth was filled with strange new sounds as the animals explored their new home.

The sixth day had been a very busy day, but God was not finished yet! He needed something to look after everything he had made: the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and the creatures and plants of the earth. He wanted someone to care for all these things as much as he cared for them. So can you guess what God made next? It was people!

God made Adam and Eve to take care of all the beautiful things he had made. He put Adam and Eve in charge of the world and they gave a name to every living thing they saw. God looked at everything that he had made and said, “This is just how the world should be.” And God blessed the earth and everything on it.

And do you know what God did on the seventh day? He had a good rest. I think he deserved it. Don’t you?

A sad day: the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2 - 3)

The Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) starts with two creation stories, each originating in a separate tradition. Here is a retelling of the second of the two stories, about the first man and woman. The story vividly expresses a fundamental truth about the human condition: that we have the freedom to act as we choose and that we are conscious of that freedom. When we do wrong, however, we have to live with both the knowledge and the consequences of our wrongdoing.

Have you ever done something you knew you shouldn’t have and then, when it’s too late, wished you hadn’t? Well, that’s just what happened to me.

My name is Eve, and I once lived in a beautiful garden with a man called Adam. First God made the garden; then he made Adam; and then he made me. The garden was our home. It was called the Garden of Eden and it was perfect. It was filled with wonderfully-scented flowers, coloured with all the colours of the rainbow. Lush green trees offered us welcome shade from the heat of the sun, and to keep us company there were all sorts of animals. There was plenty to eat, too: juicy pears, soft plums and crunchy nuts from the almond trees. There was only one tree from which we were not allowed to eat, and that was the tree in the middle of the garden. God told us not to eat the fruit from this tree because it would be bad for us.

As you can imagine we were very happy living there, until one day something happened that spoilt everything. This is how it happened.

One sunny afternoon I was collecting food, enjoying the sunshine and minding my own business when a snake came slithering up to me. Snakes are thought to be sly creatures full of trickery, but I didn’t know that, so when it spoke to me I stopped to reply.

“Why don’t you eat the fruitsss of thisss tree, the one that growsss in the middle of the garden?” the sneaky snake hissed.

“Because,” I replied, “God has told us that the fruit from this tree is bad for us.”

“That’sss rubbish,” snorted the snake. “The fruit on thisss tree isss very tasssty. If you eat thisss fruit, it will make you very wissse. It will make you underssstand thingsss you don’t underssstand. If you don’t believe me, take a bite and sssee.” And with that the snake slithered away, before I could ask him how he knew this.

I thought about what the snake had said for a long time. It was true, the fruit did look delicious, and it would make a nice change to eat something different. But God had forbidden it. Then again it did look so juicy and so sweet; perhaps a tiny piece would not matter …

Cautiously I took the tiniest bite, hardly a mouthful. The snake was right! It was the tastiest thing I had ever eaten. Of course it would have been greedy to keep it all to myself, so I called to Adam and gave him some to eat too.

Then a very strange thing happened. Just as the snake had said, we began to understand things we had not understood before. We had never done anything wrong before, but now we realised that by eating the fruit we had done something that we should not have done. We had disobeyed God, and we felt really bad about that. We felt so guilty and ashamed that when we heard God coming we hid from him.

God knew at once what we had done and he was very disappointed. I felt terrible, especially when Adam said that it was all my fault. That wasn’t true: it was the snake’s fault really. God said that because of what we had done we had to go away from the Garden of Eden and never come back. In the garden everything we needed was provided for us, but now we have to work very hard to grow our own food. I spend my days working in this dry, dusty field in the scorching sun, and there are no leafy trees to shade me. Out here, away from the garden, we have to build our own shelters.

If only I hadn’t listened to that sssnake. If I ever see him again, he’s in big trouble!

Noah’s wife and the great flood (Genesis 6 - 8)

Here is re-told, from the perspective of his wife, the well-known story of Noah and his ark. This re-telling emphasises the fact that Noah stuck to his convictions despite being ridiculed by all of his neighbours. The Biblical story of Noah’s ark has much in common with an ancient Babylonian flood myth which comprises part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. This epic originated in Mesopotamia, the land between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. There is plenty of evidence to confirm that in ancient times this region suffered from frequent and devastating floods.

Poor Noah’s wife. She didn’t know what to do. Everyone was laughing at old Noah. Sometimes even Noah’s wife wanted to laugh too. Do you know why they were laughing? No, Noah wasn’t telling funny jokes. Noah was building a boat.

Now what is so funny about that, you might ask. But the people who lived in Noah’s village thought that it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. And the reason they thought it so funny was that there was no water anywhere near the village.

There was not a sea or a lake or a river in sight big enough to float the enormous boat which Noah was building. “Look at silly old Noah!” they said. “And look at his silly old boat!”

Noah’s wife felt sad for Noah when she heard everyone laughing at him. She said to Noah, “All boats need water, but there is no water anywhere near here. Why are you building this boat?”

“Well,” replied her husband, “I am sure that this is what God wants me to do. I don’t know why, but I am sure it is the right thing to do, and I really don’t mind if people laugh at me.” And with that he carried on building.

At last the boat was finished. It was like a huge floating house with a roof on top and it smelled of new, fresh wood. Noah was very tired but very proud of his boat. He called it the ark.

But that wasn’t the end for Noah’s wife. No sooner was the boat finished, than Noah told her to pack as many clothes as she could and as much food as she could because they and their sons and their sons’ wives were going to live on the ark.

And that wasn’t all. They were also going to take all their animals with them, two of each kind: two cows, two sheep, two goats, two chickens and so on.

What a sight it must have been and what a squash and what a noise! With the clucking and the mooing and the bleating, poor Noah’s wife sometimes had to cover her ears. She hadn’t any idea why Noah wanted them to live on the ark, and the people of the village thought that Noah was funnier and sillier than ever.

That was until one day … Drip, drop, drip! Splish, splash, splosh! It started to rain. It rained and it rained and it rained. “Will it ever stop?” thought Noah’s wife. And finally, after forty days and forty nights, it did.

When Noah’s wife looked out of the window she could not believe her eyes. Outside everything was still and quiet. There was nothing to see but water. No land, no trees, no houses, just water. Now she knew why Noah had built his boat. He was not so silly after all. He had not minded that people laughed at him. He had done what he thought was right and now he and his family and the animals were all safe.

Then as Noah’s wife looked, she saw the most beautiful sight she had ever seen: an archway of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet stretching right across the sky. It was a rainbow, put there by Noah’s God to tell everyone that such a great flood would never cover the earth again.