Six weeks ago my knowledge of different religions consisted of a little more than their names. I could not tell you one thing that would be considered knowledgeable. I would feel embarrassed due to my lack of knowledge regarding the various religious practices in our world. For example, why do people pray and why is it a necessary part of their daily lives? Now, I am very grateful to say I have gained a better understanding and respect for the different religious practices and beliefs. Not only do I feel more informed about the religions studied and, but I also found a new topic that interests me. For my last assignment I attended the Beth Tikvah Congregation in Chicago, Illinois. The synagogue was a stand. However, the experience I had once …show more content…
It is my understanding that most of these songs were written by King David. As they were singing, I heard the same three words over and over, “Baruch Atah Adonai.” I later found out that it meant “blessed you are God.” The psalms sung were prayers to God dealing with peace, love, his protection, and guidance in their lives. The ceremony continued with the Rabbi opening the sacred Ark and removing the Torah. I thought it was interesting that the two members carried the Torah around the synagogue and each member tapped the Torah with their prayer book and then kissed the prayer book. According to Chabad.org, the Ark is located along the Eastern wall of the temple because when you are looking at the Ark, you are facing towards the holy city of Jerusalem. Steve told me the Ark is the holiest place in the synagogue. Also, the Ark is only opened for the removal of the Torah scrolls and other specials prayer ceremonies. At certain points throughout the ceremony the members were bowing as a sign of respect to God. The atmosphere was very joyous with great energy. The people all seemed extremely happy to be celebrating God with each other. As an outsider, I could tell they all wanted to be at the service and that it was very important to …show more content…
Either the Rabbi or another senior member normally does the readings. The Torah is read in order, over the course of a year. Once completed they go back to the beginning. Today’s reading was from the book of Numbers. The reading from Numbers dealt with the Koran. After the reading, the Rabbi gives an instructional speech related to the reading. His speech at the service revolved around Elie Wiesel. He talked about how the wisdom of Elie Wiesel was a very powerful and influential person who helped the world understand the tragedy of the holocaust and how we can rise above those forces of evil that try to suppress others. He taught us about love and was a light to us all by showing us way God wants to live. Two of Elie Wiesel’s quotes that really stood out to me are:
• “No human race is superior; no religious is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.”
• “Even in darkness it is possible to create light.”
The second one took me back to our studies of the Holocaust and made me think about Wiesel’s book, Night, where the prisoners would sing and praise God despite all the suffering and death around them. Elie talked about how the Jews adapted to their situation throughout history. It was their conviction and beliefs in their way of life that allowed them to survive. They stayed strong together as a
In the memoir, Night, author Elie Wiesel portrays the dehumanization of individuals and its lasting result in a loss of faith in God. Throughout the Holocaust, Jews were doggedly treated with disrespect and inhumanity. As more cruelty was bestowed upon them, the lower their flame of hope and faith became as they began turning on each other and focused on self preservation over family and friends. The flame within them never completely died, but rather stayed kindling throughout the journey until finally it stood flickering and idle at the eventual halt of this seemingly never-ending nightmare. Elie depicts the perpetuation of violence that crops up with the Jews by teaching of the loss in belief of a higher power from devout to doubt they endure.
...altar through the royal doors, and censing the altar. I found this part to be very interesting. Everyone stood while the censing was taking place and the offered up prayers and crossed themselves as the Priest and Bishop walked by.
In his memoir “Night”, Elie Wiesel recalls his experience leading up to, in the middle of, and immediately following his forced servitude during the Holocaust. One of the most remarkable parts of Wiesel’s story is the dehumanization that occurs over the course of his imprisonment. In a system built to take away the identity of its subjects, Elie constantly grapples with his sense of self during the Holocaust and even finds himself lost by the end of the book. This loss of innocence and selfhood is a key element of Elie’s physical, emotional, and spiritual journey throughout the story.
It is so strenuous to be faithful when you are a walking cadaver and all you can think of is God. You devote your whole life to Him and he does not even have the mercy set you free. At the concentration camp, many people were losing faith. Not just in God, but in themselves too. Elie Wiesel uses many literary devices, including tone, repetition and irony to express the theme, loss of faith. He uses tone by quoting men at the camp and how they are craving for God to set them free. He also uses repetition. He starts sentences with the same opening, so that it stays in the reader’s head. Finally, he uses irony to allude to loss of faith. Elie understands how ironic it is to praise someone so highly, only to realize they will not have mercy on you. In Night, Elie Wiesel uses tone, repetition and irony illustrate the loss of faith the prisoners were going through.
When a person's faith is also an alternative for their culture and morals, it proves challenging to take that sense of security in that faith away from them. In Night, Elie Wiesel, a Jewish student living in Sighet, Transylvania during the war of 1942, uses his studies in Talmud and the Kabbalah as not only a religious practice but a lifestyle. Elie and his fellow civilians are warned, however, by his Kabbalah teacher who says that during the war, German aggressors are aggregately imprisoning, deporting, and annihilating millions of Jews. When Elie and his family are victim of this aggression, Elie realizes how crucial his faith in God is if he is to survive the Holocaust. He vows after being separated from his mother and sisters that he will protect he and his father from death, even though as death nears, Elie gradually becomes closer to losing his faith. In the end, to Elie's devastation, Elie makes it out of the Holocaust alone after his father dies from the intense seclusion to malnutrition and deprivation. Elie survives the Holocaust through a battle of conscience--first by believing in God, then resisting his faith in God, and ultimately replacing his faith with obligation to his father.
Elie Wiesel not only spoke on his behalf but also on behalf of all the victims of the Holocaust. His words do not only pertain to his situation but to the situations of every world crisis that has been failed to be acknowledged. Elie’s words can be related universally and makes you question, where were these people that are supposedly suppose to be the voices for the silent? The world thrives for equality but how can a world grow and unit if the people are silent. Elie makes valid points throughout the novel that can be referred to other situations in the past and are to come in the future.
Religion and philosophy greatly affect life in many different cultures. Some of these cultures include those of the Ancient Indians and Ancient Chinese.
They started the service by blowing of a horn called the Shofar. It took me by surprise because I am used to an opening of prayer at my church and where we also have a contemporary ...
A night. A camp. A belief. A question that changes the life of Elie for years to come. Night by Elie Wiesel describes the ups and downs in his religion and when he lives as the warm water out in the Artic cause the water change warm to cold? When Elie becomes thirteen the world exists as a warm happy place and he learns the wonders of his religion, but when the world turns cold and heartless it seems less likely for Elie to learn or believe in his religion anymore especially in the time of the Holocaust. The thesis matches the background knowledge by explaining the horrors of the Holocaust shatters more than a man’s life but their religion too. Night holds treacheries for Elie he starts living and believing, when the end of the year comes he starts to ask some questions, and when Elie finds an answer it leads to a decision that stays with Elie for almost forty years.
...t also with acceptance as one of their own, although I never wore a Tallit or Kippah. This was a very peculiar position since I have never been so accustomed to this sort of kindness. By the end of the Jewish service, not only did I respect and appreciate their faith much more, but, in a way, I began to grow a love for it as well. While I felt no negative feelings towards the service, the most positive aspect would, most definitely, be the warmth I felt from everyone inside the Synagogue and from the presentation of the building itself. At first glance, I was not able to fully appreciate the decorations in the room, but the longer I observed I began to realize each decoration represented something significant. Overall, if I learned anything important this day it is that one thing holds true: I can still appreciate ideas and concepts even if I do not agree with them.
Mr. Wiesel had intended this book to describe a period of time in his life that had been dark and sorrowful. This novel is based on a survivor of the greatest Holocaust in history, Eliezer Wiesel and his journey of being a Jew in 1944. The journey had started in Sighet, Transylvania, where Elie spent his childhood. During the Second World War, Germans came to Elie and his family’s home town. They brought with them unnecessary evil and despair to mankind. Shortly after young Elie and thousands of other Jews were forced from their habitats and torn from their rights of being human. They were sent to different concentration camps. Elie and his family were sent to Auschwitz, a concentration and extermination camp. It would be the last time Elie sees his mother and little sister, Tzipora. The first sights of Auschwitz were terrifying. There were big flames coming from the burning of bodies and the crematoriums. The Jews had no idea of what to expect. They were not told what was about to happen to them. During the concentration camp, there was endless death and torture. The Jews were starved and were treated worse than cattle. The prisoners began to question their faith in God, wondering why God himself would
Elie Wiesel spent thirteen years of his life seeking God through prayer, study, and examination of the goodness of those around him. In a few short months, Adolf Hitler managed to destroy all of things that made up the foundation of Elie’s life. The physical scars, the hunger, the sickness all healed with time, but Wiesel still is missing the most important pieces that were taken from him during his stay in Nazi concentration camps – his faith in his Lord, his trust in father and friend, and his knowledge of the essential goodness of humankind.
In today’s society, there are roughly around 4,200 religions that exist on this planet. Some define "religion" as a cultural system of behaviors and practices that help people make important decisions in life. Out of the many religions, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism have many similarities that connect them to one another. Themes of morality, justice, love are found through both the Buddha's teaching and the Hebrew and Christian Bible.
... curated community called, ArtSetters, that is focused on encouraging and promoting the artwork of local emerging artists to a global audience. For me, this lecture was in many ways very interesting. This type of lecture would for one never happen in a Catholic mass, but as well was very nice to see a congregation welcome back a member. Allowing Wyner to speak about her passion for art was inspiring as well an informative. It was refreshing to see a community supporting each other as the congregation welcomed Wyner and applauded her accomplishments. The service was let out after the finish of Wyner’s lecture. While some of the lay lefts shortly after, I noticed a good majority of the congregation stayed behind and talked with each other. The service at Temple Israel was an unlikely comforting and fascinating service that gave me a greater appreciation for Judaism.
My definition of religion has mostly stayed the same, but my perception of it has changed. At the beginning of the class, I assumed religion was something you believed based on your moral principles. I now believe that those moral principles are based on the religion that you believe in. Your religion changes your perception of the world and how to go about in it. Your religion tells you what is right and wrong in the world and answers all of the big questions one asks. Religion according to our book is, “A pattern of beliefs and practices that expresses and enacts what a community regards as sacred and/or ultimate about life” (Van Voorst 6). That definition was one thing that really got me thinking about my own personal idea of what religion