Religious Worship -- Visit to

¶ … Religious Worship -- Visit to a Synagogue Observations in Alternate Religious Worship My visit to another religious service consisted of attending synagogue services on the Jewish Sabbath or "Shabbat" at the Bet Briera Or Olom synagogue. The name of the synagogue means "House of Choice Light of the World." My girlfriend and I attended a Conservative service at the synagogue that caters to both Conservative Jews and Reform Jews, largely a reference to their relative degree of adherence to Jewish religious law.

Among Jews, there are Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform sects that vary in their practice from the extremely strict adherence of the Orthodox to the minimally or "ceremonially" observant Reform Jews. Generally, Orthodox Jews do not worship at synagogues that also hold services for Conservative or Reform Jews. Just as in the case of the Catholic services with which I am familiar, there appeared to be a significant social component of the services.

There were many greetings and conversations between people who have apparently known one another or been members of the same congregation for a long time. Once the services started, my girlfriend and I were separated because men and women occupy separate sides of the synagogue during services. Their respective sections are also shielded from one another's view by a curtain. One of the first things I noticed about the ceremony itself is that it focused substantially on the actual Torah (Jewish Bible).

In Catholic worship, the priest reads from the New Testament, but there is no direct attention to the physical embodiment of the Bible itself. In the Jewish services, the entire Torah is actually paraded out with considerable reverence and ritual. The scrolls were approximately four feet long and wrapped in felt covers and topped with very ornate silver caps.

A rabbi carried the scrolls through the isles to give the worshippers the chance to reach out and touch it gently with their fingers, after which they kissed their fingers that had touched the sacred scrolls. When the scrolls reached the pulpit, they were carefully uncovered, blessed, and unrolled by several helpers. It was explained to me that all of the individual chapters in the Five Books of Moses are read in chronological order, one chapter every week during the Sabbath services.

During the Bar Mitzvah ceremony marking the thirteenth birthday of males, the Bar Mitzvah service consists of that individual taking the podium and reading the chapter for that week's service instead of by the rabbi. The Torah is not so much read as it is sung; apparently, this is a practiced skill involving reading the coded symbols printed among the passages. During the reading, various members of the congregation were permitted to come up to read portions of the service.

Nobody actually touched the pages; instead, they used a long thin apparatus called the yad (Hebrew for "hand") that had a small metallic hand with a pointed finger at the end to track their place. The pages are advanced by carefully rolling the two rolls each of which is controlled by a long wooden handle protruding from the Torah scroll. The Torah represents the Old Testament which corresponds to the New Testament used in Catholic religious services.

Christians recognize the Old Testament as being part of the Holy Bible but that is not reciprocal; was told that Jews generally do not recognize the New Testament as the word of God at all. According to Jewish beliefs, the entire Torah consists of the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), together with the Book of Prophets and the Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah represents the word of God as communicated through Moses by divine inspiration 1,300 years before the birth of Christ.

The Jews believe that Jesus was a historically significant figure but they do not believe that He was the Son of God. On one hand, much of the prayers and the Torah reading have a musical component much the same as in Catholic churches. On the other hand, there are no hymns in Jewish services at all, only actual prayers. In Catholic (and other Christian) services, there are hymns that are sung by the choir and by the congregation in addition to the actual prayers.

It seemed to me that something in that respect was "missing" in the Jewish services and it seemed that it was less of a communal feeling once the actual services started than I am accustomed to with Catholic Services. Philosophical Differences From my understanding, Jews do not believe in Heaven and Hell per se, although they do believe that their actions on earth are judged by God. I was surprised to learn that some Jews do believe in Heaven and Hell while others do not.

Their teachings about human morality focus more on the quality of actions in life than on their effect on the individual afterwards. In general, Jews believe that God does reward and punish but in a much more general and undefined sense than those concepts are taught in the Christian traditions. Some Jews believe only that God will reward those who deserve reward in the afterlife with resurrection by the Messiah when he arrives in the future.

Jews do not believe in the concept of Original Sin and believe that the moral quality of their lives is determined by their actions on earth. In that regard, the Bar Mitzvah ceremony actually marks the transition from the pre-moral responsibility period of life to the stage of moral responsibility. According to Jewish teachings, children younger that twelve years of age (for women) or thirteen years of age (for men) are not responsible for their sins.

Their parents are responsible until the Bat Mitzvah at twelve (for girls) and the Bar Mitzvah at thirteen (for boys). The Torah details 613 commandments of which 365 are negative restrictions and 248 are positive deeds. Jewish religious tradition and law greatly emphasize the value of human life; they believe that any person who saves a single human life has accomplished.