Judaism: Temple Emanu-el

1606 Words4 Pages

When looking at my options for religious sites, I decided to look up temples near my house, since there are four different temples in my neighborhood. I found Temple Emanu-el, Beth Israel Congregation, Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation and Temple Beth Shalom. Before this assignment I was unaware that there were different branches of Judaism, and different temples for each of those branches to accommodate to the persons specific belief in Judaism. Before choosing which temple I was going to visit, I did my research in the differences between all four of them; to see which I should go to for Friday night Shabbat and I found out that each temple was in different branches of Judaism.
Temple Emanu-El was a conservative temple. Conservative Judaism means that they maintain the idea that the torah came from God, but were conveyed by humans, so they have human elements based of the rabbis interpretation of the torah. Conservative Judaism follows the Jewish laws and the ideology of the Masorti movement, which is based on three primary principles. The first primary principle is the torah and mitzvot. The word “torah” means to teach. The torah is the Hebrew bible, which is composed of the five books of Moses and six hundred and thirteen commandments. The word “Mitzvot” is translated as “commandments”. The second primary principle is Tolerance and pluralism, which means they respect other people’s religions and they believe in a peaceful existence between adherents. The last primary principle is Zionism, which is a national movement for the return of the Jewish people to what they believe is their homeland in the territory defined as Israel.
The Beth Israel Congregation is an Orthodox Temple. According t...

... middle of paper ...

...judaism.about.com/od/sabbathdayshabb2/p/friday_evening.htm>

Maor, Moshe. “Israel Studies An Anthology: The History of Zionism.” Jewish Virtual Library. May 2009. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. 20 Feb 2014.

Menachem, Serraf. “What Is the Tzitzit and Tallit?” - Mitzvahs & Traditions. , 2011. Chabad.org. 22 Feb. 2014.

Rich, Tracey R. “Judaism 101: Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews.” Judaism 101: Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews. 2011. Jewish Charitable Organization. 20 Feb. 2014.

“Seven Shabbat Traditions - Mishpacha.” Seven Shabbat Traditions - Mishpacha. 2005. The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. 22 Feb. 2014.

Open Document