Visiting different religious communities
...he mentioned that the food we were eating was kosher and that there was not yeast in anything. She also informed us that there are thirty nine forms of work prohibited on the Sabbath. Examples of work prohibited are no writing or erasing which relates to the rule that there is no creation or destruction. Also there is not an offering given on the Sabbath because they do not allow money to be handled. I felt very welcome by her and the congregation as well. The service I attended was a regular “Shabbat” or Sabbath service the difference from any other Shabbat service was the reading from the torah because this service happened to fall during Passover. The services on the first and second nights of Passover tell the story of Passover. The day we visited was the Friday of the second day of Passover. The congregation was rather small and the rabbi had been worried that there would not be a minyan present. It is a Jewish law that a complete service including Kaddish (the prayer for the bread and wine thanking God for the fruit of the vine and bread of the earth) can only be done in the presence of a minyan, which is a minimum of ten adult Jews. There were about twelve middle class Caucasian adults and two children present when the service began. The prayer and song book was called, “The Gates of Prayer.” Hebrew reads right to left unlike English and because of this the books appeared to read backwards. Some of the readings were in English and some were in Hebrew. All of the songs were sung in Hebrew. For the first prayer the clergy turned to face the torahs as a sign of respect. For all of the prayers everyone was standing. The service was serious as all prayer in any religious center should be. Much of the service was very different from what I am used to, for example the readings in Hebrew are symbolic of Jewish heritage. There is choreography in the prayer, the people were moving in rhythm. One of the prayers translates directly to “I bend the knees and bow,” which is what they are doing. Jan Lyddon described to us that in Judaism the point of prayer is to involve your whole body and soul. During the reading of the torah, the rabbi held a yad in his hand. Yad in Hebrew means hand. The reason it is used is to prevent touching the torah with your hands because the oil on your skin would break down the pages which are made from the skin of kosher animals. There are no vowels or punctuation in the torah which means the rabbi must know exactly what he is reading because some words could be mistaken for others. An example of this given to us by Ms. Lyddon is “seder” which in Hebrew translates to “ritual meal” and “sedur” which means “order.” There was not a choir or instrumental music, only the voice of the cantor. Some of the members of the congregation were wearing yarmulkes. Jan Lyddon informed us that reformed congregations do not always do this, but wearing a yarmulke is a symbol of being a Jew and is also worn recognition of serving God. After the reading of the torah, the rabbi and clergy walked down the center aisle and the congregation moves to the inside of the aisle where they touched their prayer books to the torah and then kissed them. This is done as a sign of respect and also of recognition that the book and the torah are both sacred. The song at the closing of the service was in Hebrew and translates to “There is no one like our God, there is no one like our Lord, and there is no one like our ...