50 free Judaism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Judaism is the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths, a religion, a people and a legal tradition at once, and its calendar, texts and rituals have shaped Christianity and Islam as well as half the idioms in English. A single year moves from the shofar blasts of Rosh Hashanah through the fast of Yom Kippur, the lights of Hanukkah, the noise of Purim and the Seder table of Passover. These 50 questions cover the landmarks and the details behind them: the Torah and the two Talmuds, the 613 commandments and the 24 books of the Tanakh, Maimonides and his fourteen-volume law code, the Zohar and Isaac Luria, Joseph Karo's Shulchan Aruch, and the differences between Orthodox, Hasidic and Reform Judaism. There are questions on the Western Wall, the Arch of Titus, the Sarajevo Haggadah, Yiddish and its Nobel laureate, kosher fish and the six-hour wait between meat and dairy. The easy tier sticks to festivals everyone has heard of; the hard tier asks which forefather the Zohar welcomes on the last day of Sukkot. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which five-book collection opens the Hebrew Bible and is also called the Pentateuch?
Torah
The five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also called the Five Books of Moses.
Q 02On which day of the week does Shabbat begin at sunset?
Friday
Jewish days run sunset to sunset, so Shabbat ends when three stars appear on Saturday night.
Q 03How many nights does Hanukkah last?
Eight
It begins on the 25th of Kislev and commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple after the Maccabean Revolt.
Q 04Which holiday celebrates Queen Esther saving the Jews from the vizier Haman?
Purim
Its name means 'lots', after the lots Haman cast to pick the date of his planned massacre.
Q 05What is the common English translation of Yom Kippur?
Day of Atonement
It falls on the tenth of Tishrei and is marked by a roughly 25-hour fast.
Q 06What does the name Rosh Hashanah literally mean?
Head of the year
Despite being the New Year, it falls on the first day of the seventh month, since Jewish months are counted from Nisan.
Q 07What is the Hebrew term for the leavened food forbidden during Passover?
Chametz
Many households sell or burn their remaining leaven the morning before the festival begins.
Q 08According to rabbinic tradition, how many commandments does the Torah contain?
613
Tradition splits them into 248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions.
Q 09In Orthodox communities, at what age does a boy become bar mitzvah?
13
Girls become bat mitzvah at 12 in Orthodox practice; most other movements use 13 for everyone.
Q 10Which festival falls fifty days after Passover and was called Pentecost by Greek-speaking Jews?
Shavuot
Rabbinic tradition links the day to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai, and dairy foods are customary.
Q 11A shofar is typically made from the horn of which animal?
Ram
It is blown on Rosh Hashanah, at the close of Yom Kippur and on weekday mornings through the month of Elul.
Q 12The Temple menorah described in the Hebrew Bible had how many branches?
Seven
Exodus describes six branches extending from a central shaft, decorated with almond-flower cups.
Q 13Which Roman monument depicts the Temple menorah being carried off as spoils?
Arch of Titus
The relief from the 70 CE triumph is the most famous ancient image of the menorah and inspired Israel's state emblem.
Q 21Which biblical book is read in synagogue on Tisha B'Av?
Lamentations
It is followed by kinnot, dirges that have grown to include the Crusades, the Spanish expulsion and the Holocaust.
Q 22Purim is celebrated on the 14th day of which Hebrew month?
Adar
In leap years it moves to Adar II, and walled cities such as Jerusalem celebrate a day later on Shushan Purim.
Q 23Besides the Babylonian Talmud, what is the other, earlier Talmud called?
Jerusalem
The Babylonian version, compiled around the sixth century, is longer and treated as the more authoritative.
Q 14The Star of David became a distinctive Jewish symbol in the 17th century in which city?
Prague
Before that the hexagram was mostly a decorative motif, found on synagogue arches and even the Leningrad Codex.
Q 15Geometrically, what shape is the Star of David?
Hexagram
It is two equilateral triangles superimposed, and it appears on the flag of Israel.
Q 16A mezuzah is fixed to which part of a Jewish home?
Doorposts
Inside the case is a parchment with passages from Deuteronomy that also form part of the Shema.
Q 17The Mourner's Kaddish is recited for how many Hebrew months after a parent's death?
11
It is also said on the yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death, and traditionally requires a minyan.
Q 18Which medieval scholar wrote the Mishneh Torah and served as physician to Saladin?
Maimonides
Born in Córdoba, he ended his life in Egypt, where his thirteen principles of faith were also formulated.
Q 19Which ruler is believed to have begun the Western Wall's lowest, largest stone courses?
Herod the Great
Above the Herodian blocks sit medium Umayyad stones and small Ottoman ones, a timeline in masonry.
Q 20Tisha B'Av mourns both Temples; in which year did Rome destroy the Second Temple?
70 CE
The First Temple fell to Babylon in 587 BCE; tradition holds both disasters struck on the ninth of Av.
Q 24Who compiled the Mishnah in its current form in the early third century?
Judah ha-Nasi
He did so in Beit Shearim or Sepphoris, fearing the oral traditions of the Temple era would be forgotten.
Q 25How many books make up the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible?
24
Christian Old Testaments reach 39 by splitting books such as Samuel, Kings and the Twelve Minor Prophets.
Q 26Sephardic Jews are associated with the historic Jewish communities of which region?
Iberian Peninsula
The 1492 Alhambra Decree expelled them from Spain, and Portugal followed in 1496; many carried Ladino with them.
Q 27Ashkenazi Jewish communities consolidated in the 10th century in which region?
Rhineland
They moved there from places such as Italy, and their name comes from a biblical figure later identified with Germany.
Q 28Yiddish developed as a vernacular based on which language?
High German
It is written in the Hebrew alphabet and was spoken by over 11 million people before the Holocaust.
Q 29Which Yiddish-language writer received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978?
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Bellow, who won two years earlier, had translated his story 'Gimpel the Fool' into English.
Q 30Who first publicized the Zohar in the 13th century?
Moses de León
He claimed it recorded the teachings of the second-century sage Shimon bar Yochai.