Synagogue Visit

Visiting the Synagogue today helped me to gain a better understanding of the Jewish lifestyle. The Synagogue we went to was conservitave compared to other Jewish Synagogues that are either orthodox or reform. This Synagogue holds firm to tradition, but it also brings in the modern world to be interpreted through the tradition that they hold so highly.

The main thing that I learned from the trip today was how much those of the Jewish faith held to traditions and rituals of the past. They keep kosher which would have to be hard for people of today's world. This makes them have to seporate meat and dairy products as well as only buy food that has been approved of as being kosher.
They also have to follow a lot of mourning rituals when a close loved one has died. They go through an initial 7 day period of intense mourning and then a 30 day period with less intense rituals and finally an 11 month period with yearly rememberances and prayes on the annaversary of the passing. During all of these times of mourning there are different prayers and actions to be done to praise God and remember the person who has passed. The funeral of the person who has died should be as soon as possible, even as soon as that afternoon. Something that I found particularly interesting was that the loved ones help with the actual burial at the grave site.

When the Rabbi and Beth opened up the Arc to bring out the Torah I definantly felt like I was seeing a sacred part of the Jewish faith. The Torah is such an intricate part of their lives, and they know it so well. The entire community helps out with reading the Torah and being a part of the Sabbath services. The usual service is about 2 to 3 hours long. When the Rabbi sang the Torah readings from the book, I was able to hear how beautiful the Hebrew language is. All of the commentaries and interpretations of the Torah have been to help bring the Jewish faith into the world today. Being conservitave Jews, the people of this particular community, have rooted themselves into the understanding and practice of the Torah's traditions with the help of the ancient as well as present interpretations.

The Jewish faith is so rooted in history, and it is part of such a large history with rich love and Godly reverence. I have been able to come to a better understanding of my own Catholic traditions and practices by learning more about my forefathers in fath, the Jewish community.