Jewish studies essay

Name:Dylan Steiner
Grade:9v

Nobody thought last year, when the whole Jewish community was sitting around a
dinner table together that almost a year later the world would change completely
from how we knew it ,families would now be sat around a table with other members
of their families far away due to lockdown.covid-19 has changed the way Jewish
community has to operate.

When COVID-19 arrived in South Africa in the early months of 2020 nobody thought
it would cause thousands of deaths and lose lots of families their money and jobs.but
further then that COVID-19 has effected the Jewish community in South Africa
immensely.when lockdown began shuls businesses were closed and cases started
to sky rocket but the thing that effected the Jewish community the most was the
lockdown enforcements as this means when we celebrated chaggim many families
were not together and therefore couldn’t celebrate together.this is very impactful as
the Jewish community love celebrating together as a family.so due to this many
family members were alone at home on Shabbat or even have to join a zoom call to
be with their family and this effected many mentally.

Due to COVID-19 people had to become creative in the ways they saw their family
members whether that was through a zoom call or Coming to someone’s gate but
never the less when lockdown restrictions came down everyone was very happy to
celebrate chaggim with their families

In Jewish studies and in Torah studies we learn a concept called mazel.in English
mazel means constellation.constellationa is a group of stars forming a recognizable
pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a
mythological figure.in jewduasim your star sign correlates to your birth day and
time.these star signs can often predict your future and what personality you will have
when you are older.the belief in star signs is a heavily debated topic in jewduasim
and many great rabbis say it’s not true and many say it is true.but when we look at
the context of COVID-19 we can see great strength from believing in these star
signs.my birth month is av which represents a lion.a lion represtents strength power
greatness as well as a lion is known for protecting his family .during lockdown I
looked at my star sign and it brought to me what my star sign depicts.for example
when I was very sad I would turn to my star sign and see it’s a lion and therefore i
would become more strong and get through lockdown.so we can use zodiac signs to
bring us strength and hope durning COVID-19

A lions man priories in his life is to protect is family and provide for his family we can
see a lot of similarities between g-d and a lion.as we see g-d protect us everyday of
our lives aswell as we see him provide for us when we need it most.a lion protects
and provide just like g-d does
Zodiac signs are a very interesting topic to learn about in school and I found it
fascinating to study my birth signs and see if it coralates to my personality as well as
even find out about my future.i think even if star signs are not true I think it still has
value as it brought me strength during lockdown by just reading about them because
I think just believing in them can bring a person hope and strength.so I hope many
people including skeptics to go reasearchtheir star sign and I hope they will find
great pleasure in looking amongs the stars.

Bibliography
-https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Leo/
- https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/269721/jewish/Is-Astrology-
Kosher.htm