Jewish Trivia
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This Jewish trivia quiz has 130 free questions with answers and covers the whole of Jewish life, not just the holidays. Fifty-four questions run through Shabbat, Passover, Hanukkah, Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, Purim and Sukkot; kosher rules and classic foods from bagels to hamantaschen; the Torah, Talmud, Hebrew alphabet and Yiddish; the bar mitzvah, the chuppah and sitting shiva; and history from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Masada to Herzl, Golda Meir and the founding of Israel, with a few famous Jews from Maimonides to Sandy Koufax. Easy questions ask what a menorah is or where a mezuzah goes; the hard ones want the four dreidel letters, which two biblical books never mention God, and how old the first kibbutz is. It works for a Hebrew school class, a synagogue social, a Hanukkah party or anyone curious about Jewish culture. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the holidays, texts, foods and people involved, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, falls on which day of the week?
Saturday
Shabbat falls on Saturday. Because Jewish days run from sunset to sunset, it begins at sundown on Friday and ends after nightfall on Saturday.
Q 02How many nights does Hanukkah last?
Eight
Hanukkah lasts eight nights, beginning on the 25th of Kislev; it recalls the Maccabees' rededication of the Second Temple in 164 BCE.
Q 03A Hanukkah menorah has how many branches?
Nine
A Hanukkah menorah, the hanukkiah, has nine branches: one light for each night of the festival plus the shamash, the attendant candle used to light the others.
Q 04Passover celebrates the Israelites' escape from slavery in which land?
Egypt
Passover recalls the Exodus from Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved under Pharaoh; the story is retold at the Seder from the Haggadah, and leavened food is banned all week.
Q 05Which unleavened flatbread is eaten during Passover?
Matzah
Kosher-for-Passover matzah in the Ashkenazi tradition is made from nothing but flour and water.
Q 06Which is the holiest day of the Jewish year, marked by a full fast?
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, falls on the 10th of Tishrei; it is kept with a roughly 25-hour fast and a full day of prayer that closes with the Ne'ilah service.
Q 07Which instrument, made from a ram's horn, is blown on Rosh Hashanah?
Shofar
The shofar is a ram's horn sounded in a set series of blasts on Rosh Hashanah, and on weekday mornings throughout the preceding month of Elul as a call to repentance.
Q 08Apples dipped in honey are eaten on Rosh Hashanah to symbolise what?
A sweet new year
Dipping apple in honey voices the hope for a sweet new year, spoken in the accompanying blessing 'renew for us a good and sweet year'; the pairing is a custom first recorded among medieval European Jews.
Q 09Purim celebrates Queen Esther saving the Jews from a plot by which Persian official?
Haman
Haman, chief minister to King Ahasuerus, plotted to kill the Jews of Persia; when the Megillah is read, the crowd drowns out Haman's name with groggers.
Q 10On Purim, the gifts of food sent to friends are known by what name?
Mishloach manot
Mishloach manot, literally 'sending of portions', are the food gifts exchanged on Purim; the Book of Esther instructs sending portions to one another and gifts to the poor.
Q 11During the autumn Feast of Tabernacles, families eat in a temporary hut called what?
A sukkah
The hut is a sukkah, a booth with a roof of cut branches that recalls the Israelites' desert shelters; the Feast of Tabernacles begins on the 15th of Tishrei.
Q 12Simchat Torah celebrates the completion of what yearly cycle?
Public scripture readings
Simchat Torah ends the yearly cycle of public scripture readings: the final verses of Deuteronomy are chanted and Genesis begun at once, amid dancing circuits with the scrolls called hakafot.
Q 13Tu BiShvat is known as the new year for what?
Trees
It falls on the 15th of Shevat and is often marked today by planting trees in Israel.
Q 21In Orthodox communities, at what age does a boy become bar mitzvah?
13
In Orthodox communities a boy becomes bar mitzvah at 13, when he is first counted in a minyan and called up to read from the Torah.
Q 22A Jewish couple stands under what during their wedding ceremony?
A chuppah
A chuppah is the wedding canopy: a cloth stretched over four poles and open on all sides to symbolise the couple's new home; sometimes a prayer shawl held up by friends serves as one.
Q 23The Jewish mourning period known as shiva lasts how long?
Seven days
The word itself means 'seven', and mourners are said to be 'sitting shiva'.
Q 14Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah at which mountain?
Mount Sinai
Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai; it falls exactly seven weeks after Passover, at the close of the Counting of the Omer.
Q 15The Torah consists of how many books?
Five
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also called the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses.
Q 16According to rabbinic tradition, how many commandments are in the Torah?
613
Rabbinic tradition counts 613 commandments in the Torah, a figure first stated in the Talmudic tractate Makkot; it breaks down into 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions.
Q 17The Talmud is made up of the Mishnah and which commentary on it?
The Gemara
The Gemara is the rabbinic commentary on the Mishnah, compiled in the academies of Babylonia and the Land of Israel; the Babylonian version, completed around 500 CE, is the one usually cited.
Q 18A mezuzah is fixed to which part of a Jewish home?
The doorposts
A mezuzah is fixed to the doorposts of the home, on the right side as you enter; the parchment inside carries the Shema verses from Deuteronomy, which command writing them 'on the doorposts of your house'.
Q 19The small brimless cap worn by Jewish men is called a kippah or what?
Yarmulke
Yarmulke is the Yiddish word for the kippah, the skullcap that fulfils the custom of covering the head, especially during prayer; observant men wear one all day.
Q 20The Star of David is geometrically what kind of shape?
A hexagram
The Star of David is a hexagram, a six-pointed star formed by two overlapping equilateral triangles; its Hebrew name, Magen David, means 'Shield of David'.
Q 24Which of these animals is forbidden under kosher dietary laws?
Pig
The pig is forbidden: the Torah's food laws in Leviticus permit only land animals that both chew the cud and have split hooves, and the pig has split hooves but does not chew the cud.
Q 25The braided bread eaten on Shabbat and holidays is called what?
Challah
Challah is the braided loaf blessed at Shabbat and festival meals, usually as two loaves recalling the double portion of manna; it is not eaten on Passover, when leavened bread is forbidden.
Q 26The bagel originated in the Jewish communities of which country?
Poland
The bagel comes from the Jewish communities of Poland, where community regulations of 1610 are the earliest known mention of the beygl, given as a gift to women after childbirth; the ring is boiled before it is baked.
Q 27Latkes, the fried pancakes of Hanukkah, are cooked in oil to recall what?
The miracle of the Temple oil
Latkes are fried in oil to recall the miracle of the Temple oil: after the Maccabees rededicated the Temple, one day's pure oil is said to have burned for the whole festival; sufganiyot are eaten for the same reason.
Q 28The four Hebrew letters on a dreidel are read as an acronym for what phrase?
A great miracle happened there
The letters nun, gimel, he and shin stand for 'Nes gadol haya sham', 'A great miracle happened there'; in Israel the last letter is swapped for pe, changing 'there' to 'here'.
Q 29How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet?
22
The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, all consonants, written right to left; vowels are shown by optional dots and dashes, a system called niqqud.
Q 30Who led the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century?
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda settled in Jerusalem in 1881, raised his son as the first native speaker of modern Hebrew and founded the Hebrew Language Committee in 1890, forerunner of the Academy of the Hebrew Language.