My Visit to a Jewish Synagogue Essay

When I visited my first Jewish synagogue, I expected it to be truly unalike. 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 relation to Christian servings and rituals. I went into the religious visit expecting an enormous difference in the customs and perhaps even in the attitudes of the people care the service. What I comprise instead was a religious ceremony in truth reminiscent of the Christian ones Ive been to before.To begin, I was nervous close to attending a service for a faith to which I did not depart and which was not even part of my heritage. Previously when I had attended Baptist worship, I had gone along or with a member of my family, who belonged to the church. I wasnt sure how people of a different devotion would react to having psyche who was not of their faith visiting their score of worship. How eer, as soon as we walked into the synagog ue, the people there were very friendly and not at each unused to having visitors. there was a collection of pamphlets instal out for anyone strange with the Jewish religion and with Sabbath services and there were nametags for us to wear. The people were very friendly, asking us if we would like to know anything more nearly the synagogue. There were people standing in sm altogether groups too talking and familial up with the happenings of the week before. Overall, the interior of the synagogue reminded me very much of a church. The sanctuary was round or possibly octagonal, with the seating also set up in a semicircle.Inside of the sanctuary the atmosphere was different from that in the lobby, more serious I would say. I thought that it was lovely, and littler than the chapel of any church Ive ever attended. We were given supplicant books as we entered, and when I leafed through mine I found that it was printed from right to left instead of left to right. This threw me off a little, in part because the text inside (the English translations of the Hebrew) were still printed left to right, though the book itself was read from right to left.I sat near the back, a erect thing because it was mostly the people participating in the service who sat at the front. I noticed that several of the women had a tallit, or prayer shawl, and only knew the significance of them because of our readings and lessons. Many of the men were wearing a yarmulke as well, though not all of them were. As I looked around the room I noticed the Ark, which holds the Torah scrolls. As I go along to scan the room I also notice the menorah (candelabrum).The rabbi began the service jolly casually, greeting the congregation in English. After the English greeting came a more conventional greeting in Hebrew, and then a mental strain to greet the Sabbath, or Shabbat, which is the word that was used at the synagogue. The Hebrew major power have been strange to me, but there were English tra nslations for just about everything in the prayer book, along with the prayers and songs written out in Hebrew. My in the flesh(predicate) favorite part of the service was the singing. There were two singers, one mannish and one female. all of the songs were beautiful, and caused me to consider the fact that many religions use songs and unison in order to convey their messages. I believe that this is a good practice, because music is a common language, one that everybody can look disregardless of whether they speak Hebrew, or any other tongue. Although Im not Jewish, I could appreciate the songs at the synagogue for their simple tunes and for the feelings and beliefs that clearly went into their indite and their performing. Also interesting was the way the rabbi tied many everyday events and plenty into the faith.He discussed baseball in relation to the seder, talking about how his stimulate had loved both things and had given him his own love of baseball and of the traditio nal supper. Again, though I dont share the religion, I could understand and relate too much of what he was saying, because our parents shape the way that we all grow and learn and change. After the service, we were invited to share in the refreshments that were provided for congregation members. All of the people present were very willing to answer questions and to discuss the religion and were very open and friendly toward me at all times.My experience at the Jewish synagogue was very fun and enlightening. I gained a weed of firsthand knowledge of a religion I had only analyse academically before. Im not sure that Ill ever have the chance to attend other types of religious services, but I may attempt to do so in the future. In my opinion, a visit like this one to another religions place of worship is the best possible way to learn more about a particular religion, no matter whether its for a phase or simply to further ones own individualized knowledge.