When I attended the Synagogue last Friday night, there were many things that I noticed that were brand new to me. Those things included the booklet we were handed that had Hebrew language written from right to left, an entire Synagogue covered with wooden walls, and a few objects that were typed onto a projector. I was eager to learn about the many different things that were discussed in a Synagogue, and how they worshipped. When I arrived, all of the members there were very nice. There were different baskets full of different items we could take, and even wear. One of those items were a Kippah. Even though we briefly discussed what a Kippah was in class, I definitely learned more about what they were, and its origin, so I had to discuss it. Kippahs are small hat-like pieces of fabric that Orthodox Jewish religion believers wear. They cover the crown of your head, and some Jewish members wear them all the time, and some only wear them when praying, or when entering their building of service. The main …show more content…
This is called an Ark. The Ark, Ark or Law, or Aron, is an extremely important structure in the Synagogue. It is defined as a cabinet that reveals the sacred rolls of the Torah. They are shown to the members of the Synagogue during prayer or worship. This is significantly important because it “symbolizes the Holy of Holies from the ancient Temple of Jerusalem” (Britannica). The ark is placed in such a manner that resembles the location of Jerusalem. That way, after the scrolls are revealed, and the doors of the Ark opens and closes, all of the Synagogue is praying toward it, as if it were Jerusalem. It always faces in the direction toward Jerusalem. The Rabbi said this was because they always have to pray toward it. They see Jerusalem as their main source, or root, of holiness. So, whenever they must pray, the pray to the East to give thanks, and praise to where their roots truly
In the novel “Holy Land” and the essay “An Ordinary Place”, both written by the same author, D.J. Waldie, have the same description about the suburb area during his childhood, but has different meaning and style of the writing. In the novel “Holy Land”, he talks about the 1940s when the suburb area was build. He said white men worked hard every day and built over five hundreds house a week. In “An Ordinary Place”, he talks about how the suburbs are like in the present, also more diversity with different ethnicity lives there now. Both novel and essay is written by the same author but they also share some similarities and differences about his experiences in the suburbs and author writing style.
The fourth side (the East wall) holds the Ark(Aron Hakodesh), the focal point of the synagogue. It is a large cupboard covered by a curtain (parochet) and contains the scrolls of the Torah. Its name derives from the original Ark- a wooden box covered with gold that contained the Ten Commandments in the Temple. This Arkwas contained inside the Holy of Holies deep inside the Tabernacle and the modern ark of today is now in the shape of this. The Torah Scrolls (Sefer Torah) contained inside the Arkare the most holy object within the synagogue.
The People's Temple was a Christian doomsday cult founded and led by James Warren Jones (1931-1978). Jim Jones was not a fundamentalist pastor as many reports in the media and the anti-cult movement has claimed. He belonged to a mainline Christian denomination, having been ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ.
I have attended a Christian church my whole life. While I have attended various denominations, I have always considered myself to be non-denominational, not favoring one over the other. The only other churches I have ever attended were Catholic; I have had other family members practice this faith and so have always been a guest with them if I have gone and had the services feel fairly familiar. When we were given the project to go and attend a different religion’s church I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to attend a Jewish church since Judaism and Christianity believe some of the same fundamentals but are still separated, I thought it would be a good way to learn more about the church as well as be able to relate better to anyone I know who practices Judaism. Also this taught me what it feels like for someone who does not have any experience in church.
During this week’s reading I have found that it was surprising that Philip Roth is best known for his provocative and uncomfortable explorations of Jewish and American identity. He is known as a “bad boy of literature”, because he writes about things that others are not willing to. This surprised me because when reading “The Conversation of the Jews”, I felt that it was not about discussing uncomfortable issues about religion, but that they were simply asking each other questions about Jesus and other faiths. In his other writings, however, they maybe more confrontational, but this short story did not seem to
Jews And The Cultural Life Of Fin De Siecle Vienna. "Mythenbildung ist wie kristallisation in der gesattigten salzlosung: es ist Dann im decisivden augenblick Everything mythisch" Arthur Schnitzler (Buch der Freunde) (1). Viennese Jews proportionally had more representatives in the cultural sphere.
For Jews, it is the supposed Jewish site of the near sacrifice of Isaac, which the third image aids in visualizing. The Akedah, or"Binding of Isaac", is the account in the book of Genesis (22: 1-19)of Abraham, at the command of God, taking his son, Isaac, to be offered as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah. Abraham binds his son (hence "the Binding of Isaac") to the altar and is ready to perform the dreadful deed when an angel appears to tell him to stay his hand and to promise him that his seed will increase. This story is the reason that Mount Moriah, or the location of the Dome of the Rock, has retained its Jewish spiritual magnitude through the years. There are two reasons that Jews believe the Dome of the Rock to be the location of the sacrifice of Isaac: a)The sacrifice of ...
If one were to ask a New York resident in the 1950’s how many people he or she would expect to be living in New York sixty years from now, he would most likely not say 20 million. Among those 20 million, it is even more unfathomable that an estimated 1.7 million Jews reside within New York City, making New York home to over a quarter of the Jews living in America today . Amongst those Jews however, how many of them consider themselves religious? Seeing that only an estimated 10 percent of Jews today classify themselves as observant, how and when did this substantial dispersion occur? The period post World War II in America presents the many different factors and pressures for Jews arriving in America during this time. Although many Jews believed America would be the best place to preserve and rebuild Jewish presence in the world, the democracy and economic opportunity resulted in adverse effects on many Jews. The rate of acculturation and assimilation for many of these Jews proved to be too strong, causing an emergence of two types of Jews during this time period. Pressures including the shift to suburbanization, secular education into professional careers, covert discrimination in the labor market and the compelling American culture, ultimately caused the emergence of the passive and often embarrassed ‘American Jew’; the active ‘Jewish American’ or distinctly ‘Jewish’ citizen, avertedly, makes Judaism an engaging active component of who and what they are amidst this new American culture.
The morning Shabbat service began around 9 am. Upon entering the building, my friend Brandon reached out and touched the Mezuzah which was placed on the right side of the door. He explained that every door in a Jewish home or building has a Mezuzah. The lobby area displayed many intricate plaques on the wall commemorating past relatives. Before we entered the large room where the congregation was sitting, there were certain items we were required to take with us. The first was the yarmulke, which is a traditional head covering for the men. The second was a garment, which is a religious styled covering placed around the top of the members’ bodies. The garment had Hebrew letters on the rim of one side, which was the side where it laid around our shoulders and neck. Most importantly, we brought with us a leather bound book, which was a copy of the Torah in English.
I attended a Sunday Morning service at Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation. The Rabbi mostly spoke about Purim, popularly known as the "Jewish Mardi Gras". Purim is a holiday that celebrates a time when the Jews were saved from extermination in where. (insert story) For my research, I examine two religious specialists and the Jewish mindset and embodied values. I then applied the research of to further interpret my data. My data was gathered from observation, interviews and postings from the Rabbi 's blog "Getting Real with the Rabbi".
The most bizarre aspect after walking into the Jewish service was the clothing being worn by most individuals. Most individuals were wearing a scarf-type piece of clothing as well as little round hats on their he...
Overall, I enjoyed the experience of learning more about a new culture and participating in their cultural events. My original fear of being an intruder went away when people would be friendly and introduce themselves to me. I was surprised to enter the prayer room and see that people were sitting on the floor because I am used to people having a chair to sit on. I was also nervous about sitting on the floor for a long period of time because my body is not used to it and I am not as youthful as I once was. After about thirty minutes, I started to get really uncomfortable, but I continued to sit because I did not want to be offensive by standing. I was surprised to see volunteers cooking meals for the guest because that is not something that I am used to seeing at a
The altar tile can also be a location to place sacred items during a cleansing, consecration or
Judaism is one of the most ancient religions in the world. Abraham, his descendants, and Moses are believed to have been the founders. According to Jewish beliefs until Abraham man worshiped many Gods. The story begins with Abraham and his wife Sarah trying to conceive a child. When Abraham was 99 and Sarah 90 God came to Abraham and told him they would have a son. After the child was born God again came to Abraham and tested his beliefs by asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Isaac willingly went with Abraham to be sacrificed. Before Abraham could sacrifice Isaac God sent an angel down to stop him. As a reward for his faith God made a covenant with Abraham that he and his descendants would be protected as long as they continued to show faith in him and live a life that was wholesome. Also from this it is said God blessed Abraham with many children. His son Isaac had two sons Jacob and Esau, Jacob who changes his name to Israel had twelve sons. Israel’s had twelve sons they are the “12 tribes of Israel” and their descendants are later known as the Israelites also called Hebrews.
The people there were all extremely nice and would try to help me understand. They understood and accepted the fact that I wasn’t religious, but was showing interest in their faith. There were not as much people there as I had expected, but that might have been because it was a smaller church. It also wasn’t as racially diverse as I had expected. I thought that because it is the world’s biggest religion, that it