Visiting A Jewish Day Service

Judaism is an ancient religion which originated in the Middle East and has spread throughout the world. Today the followers of Judaism have many tradition s and rituals in which are celebrated all year round in thanks and in praise to God. Shabbat is one of the most important rituals and is celebrated by nearly every variant of the Jewish Religion.

The religion I decided to do this interview on is Judaism. I have always been interested in this religion and was ready to learn more.

On the other hand, Judaism is a monotheistic religion and it endorses the worship and belief of one sole deity, God. Jews speak Hebrew and their holy book is called the Torah. There are two main beliefs in Judaism, that the Sabbath is holy, and that you must follow the Ten Commandments. The Sabbath takes place from sunset on Friday sunset sunset on Saturday, it is basically a day of rest from work "Six days you shall do your work but on the seventh you shall rest" (Exodus 23:12). They usually light two candles, and attend an evening service in the Synagogue and begin with a special liturgy called kabbalat Shabbat "welcoming Shabbat"(Goldberg 341-343).

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.

Originally published in 1951, The Sabbath is a book driven by the passion and eloquence of its author – rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The poetic style of Heschel’s writing depicts Jewish spirituality in a way like no other, as each word captivates the reader, projecting a powerful message that continues to resonate with the mind, even long after the book has been read. The book sets out its thesis in the prologue “Architecture of Time”, which projects the idea that Judaism is a religion of time, more specifically, “the sanctification of time” . The structure of The Sabbath compliments Heschel’s thesis as it is constructed in three parts, each comprised of two or more mini chapters. Each chapter has a unique epithet, usually in the form of an

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.

Regardless of the growing frequency of Jewish migrating to the United States, the community continues to confront the many issues as part of their assimilation. Through this process of assimilating,

Sitting in a comfortable leather chair on a cloudy January day, I sat in a house and interviewed Susan Gustavson, a life long Jew that is in her mid-fifties. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Columbia University, where she got an MBA in marketing. She told me about her opinions on the Judaism.

What made this assignment difficult for me is that I do not know any Jewish people. I was not aware there was a Jewish synagogue found in Beaumont, Texas, twenty miles from my home. Additionally, I was not aware that Houston had a museum dedicated to the Holocaust either. Furthermore, I am ashamed to admit I was not aware that Jewish

Great Book Ethnography Project about theTemple of Israel and the Torah Ethnography studies behavior of individuals in their natural setting, how they interact with each other, and the meaning they place on said interactions (Watson-Gegeo, 1988). Judaism is a monotheistic, sociocultural way of life and one of its central scriptures is the Hebrew Bible. The first part of the Hebrew Bible is the Torah, and it is the teachings, laws, moral, and rituals revealed by God to his chosen people (Professor Brummitt, PAR 125, Lecture # 7). One of the main focuses of this Great Book Ethnography was to observe how the Torah scripture was used during the Shabbat service and how the Rabbi and members of the Temple of Israel in Wilmington, NC practiced rituals

Shalom is has been used for centuries as a greeting hello, a farewell goodbye, and a blessing in the Jewish culture. Shalom is a Hebrew word that can be summed up simply by saying “peace” however, like most Hebrew words one English word is not sufficient to encompass its entire meaning. The meaning of shalom goes far beyond our simple definition of peace and goes on to mean an all-encompassing harmony where the person is in complete peace with him or herself and the environment around them. By using the word “shalom” I am reminded that subconsciously we are always trying to return to the peace and perfection of the garden (Garden of Eden). God created us to yearn for shalom because God is shalom. Throughout the Bible God is given a large variety of names and one of them is Sar Shalom, Prince of Peace. Shalom is one of the characteristics of God and it is natural for us as believers to want to be as close to God as possible,

Yom Kippur is a Hebrew name meaning the Day of Atonement. It is the holiest days in the Jewish Calendars that marks a day of fasting, prayer, and collective confession. It begins in the sunset of Tuesday, October 11, 2016, and ends at the nightfall of Wednesday, October 12, 2016. They totally do not eat food as it is a day of fast. Children younger than 13 years old and the ill are the only people allowed to eat. In addition to all the activities involving fasting, other activities entail no drinking, washing, no having sexual relationships, no wearing leather materials. It is a day when the Jewish go to the Synagogues to pray and read the book of life. Other go to memorial services called the Yizkor to honor the dead relatives. It is symbolized by white clothing and sneakers groomed with a dress. The official greeting is Shanah Tovah or hatima tovah meaning Happy New Year in Hebrew (Olitzky et al. 143).

I learned a lot of facts about Judaism that I had previously been ignorant to. I had no idea that we (Christians & Jews) maintained the same bible (The Old Testament) but that we interpreted certain events differently, such as Adam and Eve. “In Judaism, each and every human being is free to choose good or evil because each person stands before God in the same relationship that Adam and Eve did” (Esposito 77). I was unaware that Judaism did not believe in “original sin.” I had no knowledge of the fact that Jews did not believe that Christ was resurrected from the dead. I found it interesting how Jews have split into separate groups – Reform Jews, who believe that Judaism is a cultural inheritance and that neither the laws nor beliefs are

From what I could surmise, language played a large methodological role in the observed Shabbat celebration. The two primary languages were Hebrew and English. English was utilized for general conversation to the community, including: the greeting, the proceedings, the spiritual framework of worship, and the various stories of Jewish lore. Whereas Hebrew was more so used to convey ceremonial importance and to emphasize ritualistic practice. Those who have studied the Torah via rabbinical interpretation and gone through the Jewish rites of passage (Bar and Bat mitzvah) could understand this language when used in context, thus giving greater importance to its usage in ceremonial practice. As an outsider, I found the passages spoken in Hebrew to

The Seventh Day: - By this day, everything was created and put into shape and order. And God rested on the seventh day and he glorified it as a day of rest. Therefore we should work for six days and rest on the Seventh day, Shabbat, which God blessed and sanctified for all time to come. By observing the Shabbat day, we show that we believe in God as the Creator of the world.