Synagogue: An Intertextual Analysis

They have rock bands in church and singing and all together a different type of preaching then I grew up knowing. I learned that there is different ways non-denominational churches handle things compared to that of other Christian faiths. It was very upbeat and lively throughout the entire sermon where compared to that of a LDS sacrament service being more

When I visited my first Jewish synagogue, I expected it to be very different. My previous experience with religious ceremonies was limited to a few visits to Baptist churches. The most surprising thing for me at this one was, oddly enough, its similarity to Christian services and rituals. I went into the religious visit expecting an enormous difference in the customs and perhaps even in the attitudes of the people attending the service. What I found instead was a religious ceremony very reminiscent of the Christian ones I’ve been to before.

When given the opportunity, I am usually open to and enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone. This project allowed me to do just that. For my religious visit, I visited Shaare Emeth, Reformed Jewish Synagogue on Saturday June 20, 2015 for their Shabbat Morning Worship Service at 11 a.m. It is located at 11645 Ladue Rd, St. Louis, MO 63141.

One interesting concept that I learned was to stand the book straight up on the next available chair, instead of faced down or in any other position to accentuate the importance of the scriptures and prayers that the books consist of. The service started promptly at 9:00 pm in which the members of the Jewish Synagogue were already wearing a tallit, which is a prayer shawl that represents the six hundred and thirteen commandments, and silently prayer with a swaying motion incorporated. After asking the congregate that was aiding the observers throughout the service, he explained that Jews usually sway, rock, or shake because it is stated that the physical act is a way of connecting spiritually to God while praying along with other justifications within the Torah. My initial feelings regarding the acceptance of me as a visitor was kind of unsettling because I was the center of attention along with the two other observers. Some congregates would greet us warmly offering any help, while some others often discretely talked among their other fellow congregates about our attendance with some people staring for portions of the service. Besides, the interaction of the congregates to the clergy was very divided in the aspect of gender roles due to the fact that the table that two intricate cased Torahs were brought out on could only be seen by the men and recite by men only. As far as the division of roles, I found it interesting that some of the women explained to us that it was not a form of disrespect or act of degrading because they play their specialized role in the congregation, which is often misunderstood and in their perspective more liberating than most portray it to me. It was also explained to me that women are seen as separate but equal when stated throughput Jewish

At 10:00 on April 30th, I visited Temple Israel for the Shabbat service. It is a Jewish Synagogue in Canton, Ohio. The Shabbat service included praising God and honoring it as a day of rest for people and for God. Before I walked into the actual room of worship there was a table of Kappa’s. They are the little white hats you wear on the back of your head. I learned that it’s custom in Judaism to cover your head before going into the sanctuary as a sign of respect. There were also programs of information what’s going on in the synagogue. There’s also a rack of Tallit’s, Jewish adults wear these and before they put it on they say a prayer. In the actual sanctuary, there were pews, a Bimah which is the stage, an ark which faces Jerusalem where the Torah is held, and a light called Ter Namid which is an eternal light that is always on to represent God’s eternal watchfulness over his followers. In front of the pews there were Siddurs which is a Jewish prayer book. It contains daily and Shabbat prayers. They are in Hebrew and in English and since I am a non-Jew, I followed along in the English side that is printed alongside the Hebrew side. The Rabbi calls out what page they are on during the service in this book. This is similar to what priests do at church. There is also a Chumash which is what includes the five books and I learned that it is commonly the same book as the Torah. Out of a sign of respect, I had to stand whenever the Ark was opened or whenever the Torah was

I visited the Beth Samuel Jewish Center, in Ambridge Pa. While I was there I meet up with Barbara Wilson, who is a Congregational Administrator at the synagogue. Before taking the tour she let me know some of the background information about the synagogue. First she explained to me that the Beth Samuel Jewish Center was the only synagogue on Beaver County, where it is located. She then went on the explain that they have families from all over the county coming to their religious services. I then asked if the synagogue was more conservative or reformed. This is when Barb explained that since Beth Samuel is the last synagogue left in the area they have to cater to both sides of the spectrum. Barb explained, “On different days of the week we have

From all the clubs and organizations I am associated with, I consider the National Conference of Synagogue Youth my favorite extracurricular activity for the past three years. The National Conference of Synagogue Youth is a club that is growing internationally, especially when I was president last year for Dallas. The local club I was managing started off with a population in the low twenties to the mid-thirties with the help of popular events I created with the board and friends associated. For example, The board members of NCSY in Dallas successfully bring in a Holocaust survivor for the week pertaining to Holocaust day every year. I would spread the information through others with Instagram, text messages, and emails that would later be

In this unit of SOR the year 11’s have been focusing on Rituals. Earlier in the term the year 11’s visited St Mary’s Church & The Brisbane Synagogue. This led them to evaluate whether the designs of sacred sites facilitate rituals and reflects an approach to the divine. The Church present at the St Mary’s site was built between 1900-1904. The Brisbane Synagogue is the oldest Synagogue that is home to Queensland.

Growing up I never truly identified with my jewish community, yet I was forced to participate and be a part of it. From a young age I questioned the things that I was taught in school and by my family. I am very lucky that at the age of 8 my parent let me and my siblings decide if we wanted to continue practicing strict religion in our household or not. But although I had more freedom at home after that, I was still forced to attend religious schools, we still lived in a religious community and all my extended family still were extremely orthodox. Although I had the freedom to question things at home and get straight answers from my parents, at school I was not so lucky. Any question I ever asked any of my teachers eventually came back to the

When we walk into the sanctuary of any synagogue, the first sights we most likely see are the aron hakodesh, the eternal lamp, and every man in the congregation wearing a tallit, the ritual prayer shawl worn during weekday and Shabbat morning services. Now, we might also see women wearing the tallit, too. In more recent years, women in synagogue have begun to wear the tallit as a movement towards egalitarianism, taking religious practice into their own hands and projecting a personal style to boot. In this paper, we will explore the critical concerns surrounding the tallit’s male-dominated origins, the move by women to wear the tallit on practical and symbolic levels, and the tallit as a method of personal expression.

The overall attire that was worn during the services was business formal. Men wore a suit and tie while women wore either a white dress or skirt suit. The rabbi and cantor wore a white robe over their suit. Many of the congregants wore sneakers with their suits instead of the usual dress shoes. The men wore a tallit while very few women wore it. The men wore kippahs and a select few women wore head coverings.

     After going to the Baptist church I gained a new found respect for the Christian religion. It is not what I believe in but after going to the Baptist service I saw what it

Despite the efforts of everyone in attendance to make sure my friend and I did not feel out of place, I still found myself feeling out of place. There were chants in another language that I was not able to understand (I assume it was Arabic). Their rituals and customs of how to pray, what to say, and how to prostrate before God were all new and foreign to me because I had never actually attended an event such as this before. I had seen some of the traditions and customs on TV, internet, and such but there’s a different energy being there in person. They all seemed to be very dedicated and committed to the religion in which I could only respect. I was

One day in class with the professor Joseph Hoolbrok, I was thinking about which essay would be easier to do, but then I thought about how interesting would be to know about other religions, costumes and different traditions. One friend of mine works in events in a Jewish temple and I asked him if I could go there to do a site visit. The Jewish temple I went is called “Dor Dorim” and is ubicated in Weston, Florida. As Christianity is my religion, in this site visit essay I am going to talk about the Jewish ceremonies, their sacred days and their traditions.

As a group, they would read from the prayer books, which were small excerpts of the Torah, and prayed together. They bowed along and even turned their backs together, in unison, as a