Essay --

Introduction Culture is characterized by language, religion, food, music, arts and social norms (Zimmermann, 2012). Just from that definition, this characterizes diversity from a standpoint of cultural value, consumer behavior, and market environment. South Africa is the epitome of diversity. It is made up of a variety of other cultures that are all housed on one country. This country has 11 different ways to communicate, which is a great reason why South Africa is important in the global market. With many avenues of trade and a big sample size to trade with, this leads to unlimited resources and a booming global market. (Introduction: Describe research purpose and address the reasons why the selected country is important in global markets.) Cultural Variables South Africa is a unique country that has access to 11 different language uses (SA-Venues). In order from most used, they consist of Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi or SiSwati, Venda and Ndebele. Zulu and Xhosa being the 2 most commonly understood. Afrikaans derived from he Dutch and was used in its region as the 1st or 2nd language. The white inhabitants who have come to start a new life use English, Sepedi is grouped with the Northeastern part of South Africa. Tswana is the language of Botswana and are apart of Southeastern African language. The Vatsonga people, who are divided among their region, speak Tsonga. Swazi or SiSwati comes from this and create their own name in the country. Venda is a language common to the royal region of Limpopo. Their speakers are very popular and their speech influences others to adopt it. Then you have Ndebele, whose language is slowly fading because the other languages in Zimbabwe are more p... ...a and Gap (Contributor 2012). South Africa is the ideal place for brand development because they are so developed and styles are easily accepted. There is also the fact that their youth, like other countries, are heavily influenced by western cultures. This brand preference is all about an image and fitting in with social norms. As for consumer trends, South Africa’s society has a buy, but not save mentality (Clark, 2012). They would rather buy for the now, and not save for the future, which is both helping and hurting their economy. Retail and electronics are always going to be in demand and are always going to be top needs for consumers. When it comes time to pay the bills, people struggle to pay because they didn’t save. This keeping up with the Joneses trend is detrimental when it comes to things the people need, but perfect to keep up with societies standards.

Has Devolution worked?

Abstract The purpose of this essay will be to consider whether the process of devolution in the United Kingdom since 1999 has been successful and consider some of the points of convergence and divergence, which have occurred in terms of policy development in the region, as well the impact which the austerity measures introduced by the Coalition government have had on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Introduction The process of devolution is one that can be considered as a response to widespread processes of restructuring in the forms of governance in the Western world and also a part of a global phenomenon (Rodriguez-Pose and Gill, 2005; Williams and Mooney, 2008; Keating et al. 2009). In the context of the UK, the process of devolution should be understood as the process of granting semi-autonomous legislative powers to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly of Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly on behalf of the UK parliament (Gov.uk, 2013). Devolution in the UK specifically should be considered as a phenomenon of the political climate which existed in the second half of the 1990s. The process of devolution itself can be considered as an alternative to the policy adopted by successive Conservative governments in both Scotland and Wales (Trench, 2007). In addition, it was aimed to challenge the agenda set by more nationalist parties in the UK, whose political ideas and manifesto s gained popularity at the time (ibid.). Even though the newly established governing institutions had their predecessors in the past, which exercised similar legislative functions, the fact that they were now recognised as autonomous and sovereign was a major historical precedent (Rose, 1982). As a result of referendums taking place in September 1997 in Scotland and Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh National Assembly were established. In Northern Ireland, as a result of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and following a national referendum in May 1998, the Northern Ireland Assembly was established (Birrell, 2009). In line with these developments in UK governance, the following essay will examine the impact which the process of devolution has had in terms of successful policy implementation. The impact of Devolution In the UK specifically, there are four different models of devolution, all reflecting the asymmetrical nature of the process and the different politics which characterise the different regions (Hazell, 2000). The Scottish parliament, for example, has a responsibility of developing policy in tackling the majority of domestic affairs without interference on behalf of the UK parliament. The Northern Ireland Assembly, on the other hand, has the capacity of passing legislation related to a wide range of issues; and the Welsh National Assembly has an elected assembly, which has been granted legislative powers following a referendum in 2011 (Gov.uk, 2013). In the rest of England outside London, where an elected mayor and assembly were established, the changes in administration were quite marginal and were reflected in the creation of Regional Development Agencies and unelected Regional Assemblies which have subsequently been abolished by the Conservative–Liberal Democratic Coalition Government. As this indicates, UK devolution is a process rather than an event (Shaw and MacKinnon, 2011). As a result of the implementation of UK devolution acts, the legislative competence over devolved matters and democratic representation and authority was transferred to the newly established devolved parliaments. Basing devolution on the functions previously exercised by the territorial departments served to reduce conflict over the distribution of powers and resources in the short-term, but at the expense of any long-term resolution of territorial imbalances and tensions (Jeffery, 2007). While Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own devolved institutions, England is governed centrally by the UK parliament, meaning that UK and English political institutions have effectively become fused. One of the unique features of UK devolution is reflected in the limited autonomy of the regions to raise their own taxes and be responsible for their re-investment (Gov.uk, 2013). T his contrasts with many other devolved or federal states in which the national and sub-national tiers share responsibility for both the raising and distribution of revenue (MacKinnon, 2013). Arguably, this could have a negative impact on the overall performance of the devolved regions, as it puts them in a subordinate position to the UK parliament in terms of financing and self-sufficiency, a policy problem which in the occurrence of the global recession has affected all three of the devolved regions. Devolution has important repercussions for public policy (Greer, 2007; Greer, 2009; Jeffery 2007; Keating, 2002; Keating 2009). In effect, the process of devolution has allowed the newly established governments to design and implement policies which take into consideration the specific economic and social conditions of the regions, thereby presenting localised solution to localised problems (Jeffery 2002). Despite the differences which exist among the regions, some commonalities in pol icy development can also be observed, namely in the provision of health care and tackling public health problems. The common economic challenges, combined with a tight fiscal policy means that the convergence of healthcare politics in all the devolved regions are likely to the preserved for some time (Smith and Hellowell, 2012). With the ongoing debates of more financial independence of the regions, however, it appears more likely than not that in the near future a more pronounced divergence in healthcare policy could happen in the nearby future (ibid.). To summarise this section, the process of devolution can be considered a success, as it has enabled the devolved regions to take the initiative of developing and implementing tailored policy decisions which take into consideration the specific conditions and challenges which exist in every one of the regions, despite the austerity measures and the impact of the economic recession. Devolution has also brought with itself a political reconsideration and reprioritization equality and human-rights in compulsory-phase education and how these are promoted, following the government’s commitment to mainstreaming (Chaney, 2011). With the different dimensions which devolution has in the UK, it appears plausible that the priorities of one government will not necessarily coincide with the priorities of another government. Moreover, within the different contextual settings, it is more than likely that different definitions of equality will be used (ibid.). Although there is still a long way to go in terms of promoting equality and human rights, devolution in the long-term could be the ground upon which more equal societies could be built. However, this is a fragile and slow process, and which, despite the progress achieved in the previous phase, largely associated with the policy of the New Labour, has come under threat by the politics of the Coalition Government, as the next few paragraphs will show. The process of devolution can be characterised by two distinct phases (MacKinnon, 2013). The first phase of UK devolution between 1999 and 2007 was characterised by common Labour Party government at the devolved and UK levels, stable inter-government relations and substantial increases in public expenditure (ibid). Over the period, the budgets of the devolved governments rose substantially between 2001/2002 and 2009/2010, (61.5% in Scotland, 60% in Wales and 62.6% in Northern Ireland) as a result of spending decisions taken by the Labour Government in London (HM Treasury 2007; 2011, as cited in MacKinnon, 2013). A new phase of devolution and constitutional politics has become apparent since 2007, defined by three distinguishing features (Danson et al., 2012). First, nationalist parties entered into government in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast in 2007 as either minority governments or coalition partners. Second, there is the changed context of UK politics following the defeat of Labour in 2010 and the formation of a Coalition Government between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Third, the economic context has changed radically following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the ensuing economic recession. In response, the Coalition Government adopted a programme for reducing public expenditure by ?81 billion by 2015–16, thereby eliminating the UK’s structural deficit (Lowndes and Pratchett, 2012: 23). This has meant that the introduction of austerity measures designed to address the UK’s budget deficit by the Coalition Government since 2010 has also had significant implications for the devolved governments, reducing their budgets and requiring them to administer cuts locally, although they have been vocal in their opposition to austerity and support of alternative policy approaches such as increased capital expenditure (McEwen, 2013). In this climate, the devolved governments have reaffirmed their commitment to social justice and solidarity (Scott and Mooney, 2009), with the Scottish Government, for instance, arguing that the UK Coalition Government’s welfare reform agenda threatens the social democratic values of ‘civic Scotland’ (McEwen, 2013). In summary, despite the fact that the process of devolution has been successful in several aspects, all associated with granting a certain level of autonomy to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this could all prove in vain unless more revenue-raising responsibilities are given to the regions. Conclusion The aim of this essay was to review the impact which the process of devolution has had in the UK. As it was noted, the nature of UK devolution should be considered as a long-term evolving process, rather than a single even. Economic and political conditions have changed markedly since the establishment of the institutions in 1999, particularly in terms of changes of government at devolved and Westminster levels, the onset of recession from 2008 and the introduction of a new politics of austerity. The underlying asymmetries of UK devolution have become more pronounced with the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales contrasting with greater centralisation and the abolition of regional institutions in England. These contradictions raise some fundamental questions about the territorial integrity of the state and the possible dissolution of Britain (Nairn, 2003) in the context of the Scottish independence referendum which is to be held in September 2014. As this essay ha s demonstrated, the process of devolution has achieved some notable successes in terms of public health, education policy and promoting equality, though it is impossible to predict what the future might hold in terms of further developments. Bibliography Birrell, D. (2009). The impact of devolution on social policy. The Policy Press. Chaney, P. (2011). Education, equality and human rights: Exploring the impact of devolution in the UK. Critical Social Policy, 31(3), 431-453. Danson, M., MacLeod, G., & Mooney, G. (2012). Devolution and the shifting political economic geographies of the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 30(1), 1-9. Greer, S. (2007) ‘The fragile divergence machine: citizenship, policy divergence, and intergovernmental relations’ (pp. 136-159), in Trench, A. (ed.), Devolution and power in the United Kingdom. Manchester University Press. Greer, S. (ed.) (2009). Devolution and Social Citizenship in the UK. The Policy Press. Gov.uk (2013) Devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/devolution-of-powers-to-scotland-wales-and-northern-ireland Hazell, R. (Ed.). (2000). The state and the nations: the first year of devolution in the U nited Kingdom. Imprint Academic. HM Treasury (2007) Public expenditure statistical analyses 2007, Cm 7091. London: The Stationery Office. HM Treasury (2011) Public expenditure statistical analyses 2007, Cm 8104. London: The Stationery Office. Jeffery, C. (2002). Devolution: Challenging local government. Joseph Rowntree. Jeffery, C. (2007). The Unfinished Business of Devolution Seven Open Questions. Public policy and administration, 22(1), 92-108. Keating, M. (2002) ‘Devolution and public policy in the United Kingdom: Divergence or convergence’ (pp.3-21), in Adams, J., & Robinson, P. (eds.), Devolution in practice: public policy differences within the UK. Institute for Public Policy Research. Keating, M. (2009) The independence of Scotland: Self-government and the shifting politics of union. Oxford University Press. Keating, M., Cairney, P., & Hepburn, E. (2009) Territorial policy communities and devolution in the UK. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2( 1), 51-66. Lowndes, V., & Pratchett, L. (2012). Local governance under the Coalition government: austerity, localism and the ‘Big Society’. Local government studies, 38(1), 21-40. MacKinnon, D. (2013). Devolution, state restructuring and policy divergence in the UK. The Geographical Journal. doi: 10.1111/geoj.12057 McEwen, N. (2013) Independence and the territorial politics of welfare The David Hume Institute Research Paper No. 4/2013. Edinburgh: The David Hume Institute. Available at: http://www.scotlandfutureforum.org/assets/library/files/application/Research_Paper_4-McEwen.pdf Nairn, T. (2003). The break-up of Britain: crisis and neo-nationalism. Common Ground. Rodriguez?Pose, A., & Gill, N. (2005). On the ‘economic dividend’of devolution. Regional Studies, 39(4), 405-420. Rose, R. (1982). The Territorial Dimension in Government: Understanding the United Kingdom. Chatham House. Scott, G., & Mooney, G. (2009). Poverty and social justice in the devolved Sc otland: neoliberalism meets social democracy. Social Policy and Society, 3(4), 379-389. Shaw, J., & MacKinnon, D. (2011). Moving on with ‘filling in’Some thoughts on state restructuring after devolution. Area, 43(1), 23-30. Smith, K., & Hellowell, M. (2012). Beyond Rhetorical Differences: A Cohesive Account of Post?devolution Developments in UK Health Policy. Social Policy & Administration, 46(2), 178-198. Trench, A. (ed.). (2007). Devolution and power in the United Kingdom. Manchester University Press. Williams, C., & Mooney, G. (2008) Decentring social policyDevolution and the discipline of social policy: A commentary. Journal of social policy, 37(3), 489.

Education Article Critique Essay example - 1097 Words

Amanda Tatarek 9/29/10 Article Review #1 The article begins by the author explaining that men have privilege over women. â€Å"Denials which amount to taboos surround the subject of advantages which men gain from women’s disadvantages. These denials protect male privilege from being fully acknowledged, lessened or ended,† (McIntosh, 1998. P. 1). Then the article proceeds to discuss how whites, whether they realize it or not, have a considerable advantage over other races. She lists twenty-six ways that whites have the upper hand. McIntosh explains that as a white person she had been sheltered from the privileges that she had. â€Å"I think whites are taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male†¦show more content†¦There is a black Ms. America and a Black Ms. America, yet the former Ms. America was black. There are sororities that are specifically for particular races yet regular sororities cannot discriminate on race but the race specific ones can. I feel that no matter what race you are you experience discrimination in your lifetime. Coming to Temple and living around Temple, I feel like the minority when I walk on the streets. I feel that it doesn’t matter what color skin you are, sometimes you will have the upper hand and sometimes you will have the lower hand. That is just how life is. As a teacher I am going to make sure all my children, no matter what race they are, receive equal amount of attention, knowledge, and opportunities within my classroom. I will do this by shaping the curriculum around a multicultural perspective. â€Å"Multicultural education, on the other hand, encourages a culturally responsive curriculum in which diversity is integrated throughout the courses activities and interactions in the classroom,†(Gollnick amp; Chinn, 2009, p. 72). I will not let my race overpower the way I write and deliver my lessons. I will use Race and Ethnicity within my curriculum to teach my students to be aware of all cultures and races so they aren’t blinded by the dominant culture of America. Any child can succeed and do well no matter where they come from.Show MoreRelatedThe Article Learning Through Play : Portraits, Photoshop And Visual Literacy Practices `` Written By Michelle A1020 Words   |  5 PagesThe article â€Å"Learning Through Pl ay: Portraits, Photoshop and Visual Literacy Practices† written by Michelle A. Honeyford and Karen Boyd,is about learning literacy through imaginative and visual play. The article gives a detailed look at an afterschool program that lets students learn about literacy while using creativity. Throughout this critique, areas of the article will be discussed that were successful and some that need improvement. One area of success is keeping creativity in education. 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The article explains how nurses view informed consent as not being essential to nursing care procedures. Problem Statement The clinicalRead MoreSchool Based Intervention Teams : Implications For Educational And Legal Reform896 Words   |  4 PagesThe article â€Å"A Comparison of School-Based Intervention Teams: Implications for Educational and Legal Reform† by Bahr and colleagues examines the practices of school-based intervention teams. The purpose of this research is to determine what makes school-based intervention teams more effective in their capacity to address the diverse needs of both educators and students. This paper will provide an overall critique of the aforementioned article and the research techniques involved in the research.

Augustine Reflection Essay - 1386 Words

The first two books of â€Å"Augustine’s Confessions† focuses primarily on his intellectual formation, his spirituality, and his education. Undoubtedly, Augustine is a very inquisitive individual, and obsesses over his sins. In doing so, Augustine poses all his questions to God, because he believed that our sole existence is to please God until we return to his presence. Moreover, Augustine’s primary lesson learned through his reflection, was that young Christians would benefit more from the study of Holy scriptures as apposed to the spirit defiling classical studies that have a tendency to promote sin. However, in order for one to reach the same conclusion as Augustine, one must consider his lessons learned from infancy, childhood, and†¦show more content†¦Although Augustine finds infancy repulsive and sinful, he realizes through infantile observation, that he learned to speak. He states, â€Å"So, as I heard the same words again and again properl y used in different phrases, I came gradually to grasp what things they signified; and forcing my mouth to the same sounds, I began to use them to express my own wishes† (Augustine 1.8.19). He learned to speak his demands of his own sinful needs. Now, his mother. Being a pious woman, felt anxiety about Augustine being baptized, so that he would be released from sin. However, Augustine fell ill, and his baptism delayed. Thus, he was left to his sinful nature. Clearly, Augustine has concluded that his lack of baptism played a significant role in his fall, and the importance of spirituality to protect one’s soul from grave peril. 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The Corporate Side Of American Public Education And The...

Diane Ravitch explores the corporate side of American public education and the reformists’ misled beliefs that the school system is in crisis. The school reforms in place are disguised as a means of improving public education, when in reality it has become an objective to â€Å"replace public education with a privately managed, free-market system of schooling† (Ravitch, p.4). Diane Ravitch supports her claim that the reformation movement has poor intentions with multiple sources of evidence. Among these facts she uncovers the truth behind test scores and the achievement gap. Furthermore, Ravitch exposes how the reform movement is a back-door way to privatize schooling with monetary motives in mind. In response to these problems, Diane†¦show more content†¦Another reality that Diane Ravitch sheds light on is the misconstrued theories about the achievement gap. Reformers often say that African American and Hispanic students have not made progress for decade s (Ravitch, p.55). However, after looking at the data from NAEP, it is evident that this assertion by the reformers just simply is not true. Rather, these students have shown dramatic increases in math. Many do not recognize this though because white achievement has also improved which keeps the gap at large. (Ravitch, p.56) Throughout different grades, African Americans and Hispanics have shown remarkable progress in mathematics. There has been improvement in reading as well, just not as dramatic as the progress shown in math. Ravitch states, â€Å"Today’s reformers often imply that schools alone can close the achievement gaps among different groups. The like to point to exemplary charter schools with high test scores to prove their point† (Ravitch, p.59). While the belief that a charter school could bridge the achievement gap and overcome the disadvantages of poverty, it simply is not a realistically feasible concept. Thomas B. Timar of the University of Cal ifornia states, â€Å"Yet the gap is the symptom of larger social, economic and political problems that go far beyond the reach of the school†¦ While schools are part of the solution, they alone cannot solve the problem of educational disparities† (Ravitch, p.60). Timar calls society to take action by

Low life expectancy free essay sample

Todays world is all about speed. Every single process is studied and programmed to be as quick as possible, with optimal efficiency. We are currently witnessing a fundamental transformation of the society that we can qualify as a robotisation, essentially in the developped countries. That could be beneficial for some countries, in some fields, for some people. But we all should be aware that there are humans that cannot follow this step. In fact, this new process is involving a wider gap between developped countries and the least developped countries concerning life expectancy. Life expectancy is an average number of year given to a person at his birth depending on the country he was born in, and it is a factor defining the health of a country. Diseases, war, famine, death rates in one hand, national economic prosperity, standard education and performant healthcare in the other hand, there are many factors affecting the life expectancy in each country, making it better or worse. People tend to have. a longer. life in western countries like Israel where the average expectancy life is 81 years old, instead of Zimbabwe, where the average expectancy life is 52 years old (CIA, 2012). This essay will assess two solutions to low life expectancy in the developping world. First, the. promotion and improvement of the health care system and infrastructure, then the development of appropriate education programs to instruct and educate the population of those third world countries. The countries where life expectancy is very low are country where death rates are very high. These death rates are caused by further facts as war, diseases, pandemics and outbreaks so we can notice that healthcare system and infrastructure are very important to maintain the population in a good shape. The difference between evelopped and developping countries concerning this matter has always been the economical issues. Developping countries, in order to improve their situation, must establish plans Wich will structure an efficient government budget, however because of their low or very low GDP, this budget could be extremely tight regarding. healthcare and infrastructures dedicated to that matter. For example in UK, the budget dedicated to healthcare represents eleven percent of the GDP, whereas Angola uses only 2% of public expenditure (WHO,2005). Due to such a low budget dedicated to Healthcare, developping countries are not able to provide efficient reatments and qualified medical staff to their citizens. The only solution to that issue for developping coutries is to increase their health care budget and place the ministry of health upper in their priorities. Increasing the tax rates on high income people would raise the budget and slightly rise the budget by 2% in the Gross Domestic Product. Government should aso work on the drug prices and user fees to make it more affordable , and control the parallel market to prevent fiscal losses. A reasonnable and efficient use ot ressources should imply an equilibrium in the third world economies and make them refill their budget. That would make the coutry eligible for a financial help from the world bank, the african development Bank or the IMF. Construction of new hospitals and purchases of drugs would then be possible perspectives. Moreover, the governments should focus on supportive private health care and introduction ofa health insurance that would help people keep their money and still get efficient treatments. Improving healthcare all over the world and especially in the developping coutries is actually one of the most relevant issues of the 21 rst century. The second part of the essay focuses on the educational kind of treatment that eople in the developping coutries should get in order to educate them to the new technologies that they will be facing, the new facilities that tey will be using. Education will also allow the medical staff to supply the knowledge and services that people are expecting. On top of that, education will improve peoples situation, working in better places and not being in contact with diseases and bacterias. They will earn more money and that is improving the situation of the country as well, by increasing the GDP. We can say that ducation is at the begining of the chain that will bring a country to prosperity. In order to improve the medical treatments quality, the ministry of education should organize training programs and. seminars for the. medical body (WHO, 2000). In a close collaboration with the ministry of Health and some associations, the Ministry of education should promote hygenie among primary schools, high schools, universities and other educational institutions through presentations, or conferences with medical bodies or even advertisement. The local associations should be also supported and prevention should happen mor often. Give soap a chance! (wash hands, 2012) is a slogan used by NHS in the I-JK, a world eading country in terms of health. Awareness of young people associated with scientific knowledge and prevention actions would be a great sanitary improve and could lead toa rie in the life expectancy rise. According to the previous sayings, we can say that life expectancy could be well improved by working on how to manage the budget to improve the sanitary system, and improving the educational system that will in a way rise the awareness of people concerning health care and science. Even if we focused on two aspects of low life expectancy solutions, we should mention that famine, war and natural disasters are lso issues that governments should work on. http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/rankorderguide.html http://www.who.int/whr/2000/media_centre/press_release/en/ http://www.who.int/hac/crises/ago/background/Angola_Dec05.pdf http://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/

Kabbalah Essays - Jewish Culture, Sephirot, Kabbalah,

Kabbalah Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. I. Creation A. Taught by God to a group of angels B. Hebrew Sources in Israel C. first centuries B.C.E. II. Scriptures A. Book of Zohar (Book of Splendor) B. Sefer Yezirah C. Genesis, Old Testament III. Beliefs A. World Can be grasped through numbers and letters B. Job to discover hidden meaning in numbers and letters of holy scriptures through traditional magick methods C. Sephirot Tree of Life 1. ten numbers are working principals of life organized and pictured in the S.T.L. 10 - Malkuth Kingdom - Divine (Exile/Physical) 9 - Yesod - Foundation (Union of Male and Female) 8 - Hod - Glory (Dependence/Vulnerability) 7 - Netzach - Firmness (Leadership/Conference) 6 - Tiphareth - Beauty (Balance/Harmony) 5 - Geburah - Strength/Severity (Discipline/Boundaries) 4 - Chesed - Mercy/Love (Compassion/Healing) 3 - Binah - Intelligence/Understanding (Differentiation/Repentance) 2 - Chochmah - Wisdom (Pure Thought/Connectedness) 1 - Kether - Being/Existence (Will/Selflessness) 2. 11th Sephirot - Between Chochmah and Binah - Daath - Knowledge (sex) found in the first chapters of Genesis 3. climb tree by means of magick D. God 1. fills Universe 2. all things, good and evil/immanent and transcendent 3. boundless IV. Rituals/Ceremony A. Coming of Age 1. Bar Mitzvah a. ceremony of admitting a boy (13) to the adult Jewish community 2. Bat Mitzvah a. ceremony of admitting a girl (12 or 13) to the adult Jewish community B. Hanukah 1. eight days 2. signified with the Menorah 3. commemorating the rededication of The Temple in Jerusalem C. Prayer 1. pray in Hebrew 2. Shabbat is celebrated as the day of rest (sundown on Friday night to sun down on Saturday) 3. bow before entering a Jewish worship service Conclusion: Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. KABBALAH Kabbalah is described as Jewish mysticism dating back to the beginning of time according to holy beliefs. Opposed to traditional Judaism, Kabbalistic beliefs are based on a different interpretation of the book of Genesis. Kabbalistic concepts consist mainly of a Sephirot Tree which organizes the ten basic principals of life and an organized Universe making this branch of Judaism very different than other mainstream religions. Kabbalists have faith that divine status can be reached through means of traditional magick to find the meaning in numbers and letters of the holy scriptures making Kabbalah very unique in it's beliefs. Kabbalistic practices are believed to originate straight from God. Kabbalists believe that the secrets of the holy scriptures were taught by God to a group of angels in Heaven. The angels then came down upon earth in human form and taught the religion to the people of Israel. Writing of the Kabbalah dates back to the first reordered centuries of the earth (B.C.E.) known to creationists. The scriptures of Kabbalah include the Book of Zohar or Book of Splendor. The Zohar is a five-volume mystical commentary on the Torah. Torah is the Hebrew word for law or teaching and it more commonly referred to as the Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; and Deuteronomy. It is traditionally said to be authored by Rabbi Shim'on bar Yohai, about 2000 years ago. Historically, it was probably put into written form in the fourteenth or fifteenth century by the Spanish rabbi Moses de Leon. Another scripture of Kabbalah is Sefer Yetzirah which means "Book of Formation". Sefer Yetzirah is a brief work on the Creation. It is traditionally ascribed to Abraham,