Unit 2 - Discussion: Religions/Judaism(Years 6 & 7

[viola]

It wasn't anything that she followed, but Annemarie found it incredibly important to be well studied within it, along with the many other forms of religion. Religion was an important part of her life, and though they had already gone over the basics of Buddhism, Catholicism, and Muslim, today was time for Judaism. She leaned back on her desk as she examined the one of many symbols that directly related to the religion. The Star of David held a significance with it that was equal to the significance of even a cross. Though the religion was close to her own, in the sense that God was believed in and for the most part the same God, it was also highly different. The differences would be what they would be discussing that day, for after the three major religions were covered, along with some others, then Paganism would be covered...

But today, it was only Judaism. Annemarie nodded, only wishing she knew how to spark up the life of the class she was teaching as she had the younger years, but she could think of nothing to celebrate the learning of a religion. Not unless all were apart of it, and even she was not. So, there was no ideas that came into the Slytherin head of house's mind.

Turning, she pulled out her chair and sat down, waiting for the students to arrive. She could only hope that their behaviors kept up as it seemed to be improving throughout the duration of the year. Of course, it had only been three months... time would only tell.

((All, please make sure to take another look at the seating chart. Some changes have been made. Thank you.))

[Dante Vroom]

Great, first to enter the class. Dante hated drawing attention to himself in the classroom and being the first to enter was a great way to get noticed. It meant the professor was more likely to notice he was there, because there was nothing to draw her attention away from him. Not that there was much wrong with. Sitting in the front of class did not help either. It interrupted his daydreaming for sure, and that's what he hated the most. But at any rate, it was just another day in Muggle Studies.

Entering the room he made a quick sprint to his chair, not running, but a quick pace none the less. He threw the bag upon the desk like it weighed a ton, though it was actually fairly light, not much in it this year aside from paper to draw on. Pulling out his chair and sitting between the two empty chairs wondering when Happiness and Al would arrive. Until that point he took out his paper and a pencil and began drawing. If he wasn't going to get much daydreaming and doodling done in class, at least he could get some real work done before it began. Continuing to look down at his paper he mumbled his “glad to see you yet again Professor, what is the agenda for the day? Some religious stuffs right?”

[Felicity Hjort]

Taking a nice slow paced walk, Felicity had walked over the grounds for a little while, missing her class before because she wanted to be outdoors. The weather was bringing the cold air that went hand-in-hand with snow and the blonde couldn't wait. She loved being in the snow, loved the feel of it, and how no matter how numb she was on the outside, everything kept working and was comfortable inside. Not to mention how pretty it was, especially in the right lighting. Fairy lights and candle lights were new to her in the snow, but she really liked both when Drew had shown her them.

Entering the classroom, Felicity made her way right over to her newest seating partner. She still wished she was closer to Alexander, but she liked Dante so far. Or at least, he hadn't been a total prat the times they'd spoken about things.

"Hi Dante," she greeted the boy softly, slipping into her seat beside him. Another thing she decided she didn't care for about the school uniforms were that the skirts girls were supposed to where made her legs really cold when the weather was colder, and the seats only made her that much colder too.

[viola]

Annemarie watched as two of her students walked into the classroom. It didn't surprise her that it was a Ravenclaw, or her not so favorite Gryffindor, but all the same she was pleased over all. At least she had students, which was more she could say for some of her colleagues. "Good Day, Mr. Vroom, Miss. Hjort." Annemaire smiled as pleasantly as she could muster and then nodded at Mr. Vroom.

"Yes, today we're going to be continuing the religion unit, and discussing Judaism. It should be rather interesting, for that a long with the religions we have discussed previously, will lead us into Paganism. Which, by muggle standards, is about as close as they'll ever come to being witches and wizards." She nodded, excited for that lesson, for she really couldn't wait... or maybe it was more that she couldn't wait for her class to be laughing slightly at the muggles ignorance. She couldn't help herself but want to laugh sometimes as well... at least there would be laughter in her class about something.

[Tristan Howard]

Felt like it was raining, Tristan did. Walking in the classroom like he had pride. He couldn't believe it. It was already November. Was he shocked of the month, oh yes he was. Three months have already came and it felt like last week was September. But, it was really cool the last three months though, he got to be friends with most of the new Gryffindor first years. And his nights of patrolling have been quieter. And he has gotten loads of sleep time, so he was wide awake for every class today.

Searching around the room to see who was here. Was just two students. Some ravenclaw, and his prefect companion. Hearing about the religious unit today. Not sure of what that might be, the symbol of course. But he had a good idea of what it might be. His late grandfather had shown him a symbol like this, he just had to remember what it was.

He walked up to the professor and saluted her. "Hello, Professor Aller!" he greeted, then he went to seat that he had been sitting all semester. He put his books down on the desk, and started to kick back in the seat, waiting for class to start.

[Charlie Jones]

Charlie had heard the topic of the day as she came in, and suddenly her ears perked up at the idea of Judaism. Of the very few girlfriends her brother Dan had, one of them had actually been Jewish. It wasn't an extraordinary topic, but for a magical family that liked to open their minds to the Muggle world, she was glad to hear what she could about Judaism.

And so she kept herself to her usual corner of the room, a corner of extreme privacy, and tilted her chair back and forth on its hind legs. She didn't look at all excited for the lesson, but she was actually more attentive than she let on.

[Josh York]

"Thirteen....thirteen," Josh mumbled his number over and over in his head as he walked into the Muggle Studies classroom. He counted the desks, finding thirteen and taking a seat in his assigned desk. Rows of desks in general were not Josh's favourite thing and having an assigned seat was almost enough to make him not want to be there. It was just stupid, but Josh wasn't the type to argue with a professor over something he didn't like.

When he sat down, Josh took out his notebook and quill out, ready to take notes. Muggle Studies was something Josh was actually good at and enjoyed, simply because it was go easy. Even though he didn't like it sometimes, a Muggle family did have its benefits.

[Lucas Smith]

Religion wasn't ever anything Lucas had any interest in. He believed you lived your life as best as you could and your reward at the end was no more than the good feeling you had when you've done something good. He didn't know if there was such a thing as Heaven and Hell and he didn't know if he should believe in it. His mum had never forced a religion on him before and Lucas had grown up believing what he wanted to; make a difference in someone's life and you've achieved a great goal. But today, Judaism was going to be studied and Lucas wasn't sure how this was going to go. He'd learned early to keep his mouth shut about religion because there were some people who believed strongly and would look down on you for not believing the same. He didn't care what other people believed; that wad their business. So he wasn't sure what kind of discussion would happen here today.

Coming into class, Lucas took his seat in number 6, opening his notebook and getting ready to take notes.

[cronon]

It was amazing that class hadn't started yet by the time he had entered the classroom. Seemed as if Professor van Aller was distracted, so Alexander quickly, but quietly made his way down toward the front of the class to his seat next to... Dante? Seemed as if Cane wasn't in the class, and frankly, Alexander was a bit saddened by this. He didn't know why, but the girl was nice enough and he enjoyed having to sit next to her. This guy on the other hand.... Alexander rolled his eyes and just took his seat as per usual; he flashed a smile at Felicity, but dared not say anything. The class was bound to start soon and he just wanted to get on with it...

The lesson...Religion.....not his favorite topic, for Alexander really wasn't sure if he believed in such things himself. He understood that this wasn't a lesson on whether or not one believed, but rather what certain religions were. Like most classes and lessons that had to do with Hogwarts, Alexander just didn't care. He wanted out, and couldn't wait to graduate... that was basically it. So, another class... another lesson.... another day done.

[viola]

Class was there, and ready for action. Standing, the blue marking on the board behind her started to glow just slightly and Annemarie smiled brightly. "Good day, ladies and gentlemen," she walked in front of her desk and sat on it just slightly. "Just as we have gone over other religions within the class, today will be just as normal but with a new religion. Judaism. Knowing how hard it is to discuss a religion in the brief time that we have to do so, can anyone first begin to tell me what this marking is behind me on the board?" Annemarie gestured to the board and nodded her head. "Anyone?"

((CLASS HAS BEGUN. ALL THOSE STILL NEEDING TO ENTER, PLEASE DO SO BY SAYING THAT YOU WERE ALREADY HERE. LATENESS WILL BE PROSECUTED PROPERLY.))

[Dante Vroom]

Dante was quick to answer the question. He recalled learning quiet a lot about the symbol from a family trip to Israel. “It's the Magen David, one of the most important symbol of Judaism, and part of the Israeli flag.” That was about all about the symbol that Dante knew however, so any more about it would have to be mathematic. After all the symbol was essentially two triangles inverted one into the other. Twelve outer sides with six lines to create them. It's meaning was lost to the boy, he did not think in terms of religion, and had no set religious beliefs of his own, and did not care much to learn about other religions. His family had originally traveled to Israel not to study Judaism, but instead follow family heritage through the crusades, as his mother was a big history fan, and enjoyed following the heritage and finding interesting stories. For Dante though, the side information leaned at the museums about the various symbols different religions used was interesting enough to make the trip worthwhile.

This was going to be a boring class to be sure. After answering the question Dante pulled out a second piece of parchment and began to draw on it. One for notes, and one for drawing. Dante thought, though he was pretty sure he'd end up drawing all over both pieces of paper by the end of the lesson. And so it began, perhaps a lighthouse to warm up his creative skills.

[viola]

Annemarie smiled when the quick response was had, unfortunately it was from a Ravenclaw, but all the same it was given. "Indeed, Mr. Vroom; three points to Ravenclaw for being right. It is the Magen David, or more commonly known as the Star of David. It was supposedly the emblem worn upon King David's shield..." Annemarie waved her wand and the notes fluttered and started to write themselves on the board. "Of course, King David is a very historical figure from the Jewish religious texts... the Torah, of course being the collection of texts. Or rather, to make it more simple, the Old Testament from the Holy Bible...." Annemarie paused to allow the students to take some more notes before continuing.

"Of course, when I'm simplifying it and saying that, we must realize that it is not just the Old Testament, and some things in the Torah such as all of the books one may find within the Holy Bible's Old Testament, are not within the Torah... just five of the books are within the Torah. Can anyone here name the five books of the Torah, and what their names are in Hebrew? Hebrew of course being the language of the Jews." Annemarie stopped, her writing on the back of the board, however, continued starting to write out the books that were included within the Torah.

"And of course, the Torah is also called Tanakh, as well."

+ 3 Ravenclaw