This was a really nice article. Your friends should also see a Conservative service -- sort of half way between Reform and Orthodox (depending on the congregation). We have a joke here -- many people having bar/bat mitzvahs for their kids invite friends, neighbors and work associates. For many of them, its a new experience to see a Jewish service. In the Conservative world, many Saturday morning services are almost 3 hours long, but people meander in just in time to start the Torah portion of the service. Of course, our non-Jewish friends don't know that, and they typically show up at the precise starting time. We joke that at the start of the service, there are as many Christians as Jews sitting in the room. All the best!
Interesting. My nephew Max and I did the reverse in GA. Each Sunday we would visit a different Christian denomination to learn more about Christianity. I figured the best way to learn was not from book reading but from active participation.
Many take aways. Certain rituals can be off putting to a Jewish person. Slight understatement.
Yet understanding the meaning or meanings behind rituals takes more work than just church participation. And interpretation, a constant Jewish tradition, takes even more work.
Love that you incorporated your friend’s review! Your humor plopped in your Drops like dollops of sour cream in black bean soup (not borscht which I do not like) give me such joy.
we see things not as they are but as we are....I go back some years, and yes, the word goyim was and is off-putting. Why not Gentile, which is less abrasive and is somewhat like gentle?
I recall how strange it seemed to me to discover that the elite reform gathering place in NY--hint: on Fifth Avenue--had an actual organ !
Of course, an "outsider" ie non Jew, might be upset to discover that in Orthodox shuls, women sit apart from men. Does that mean women are second-class? Or so that male minds would focus on the service and not the babes?
And there is this, too: when the Church (Catholic) changed from using Latin to English, much of the "magic" of incantation, lost to the non-Latin mind, became pedestrian. So too an ancient language, when employed, stretches back over time and ties the present to the past.
The one constant in change? The building fund reminder.
Love this! Would go with you anytime. :)
This was a really nice article. Your friends should also see a Conservative service -- sort of half way between Reform and Orthodox (depending on the congregation). We have a joke here -- many people having bar/bat mitzvahs for their kids invite friends, neighbors and work associates. For many of them, its a new experience to see a Jewish service. In the Conservative world, many Saturday morning services are almost 3 hours long, but people meander in just in time to start the Torah portion of the service. Of course, our non-Jewish friends don't know that, and they typically show up at the precise starting time. We joke that at the start of the service, there are as many Christians as Jews sitting in the room. All the best!
Interesting. My nephew Max and I did the reverse in GA. Each Sunday we would visit a different Christian denomination to learn more about Christianity. I figured the best way to learn was not from book reading but from active participation.
Many take aways. Certain rituals can be off putting to a Jewish person. Slight understatement.
Yet understanding the meaning or meanings behind rituals takes more work than just church participation. And interpretation, a constant Jewish tradition, takes even more work.
Love that you incorporated your friend’s review! Your humor plopped in your Drops like dollops of sour cream in black bean soup (not borscht which I do not like) give me such joy.
we see things not as they are but as we are....I go back some years, and yes, the word goyim was and is off-putting. Why not Gentile, which is less abrasive and is somewhat like gentle?
I recall how strange it seemed to me to discover that the elite reform gathering place in NY--hint: on Fifth Avenue--had an actual organ !
Of course, an "outsider" ie non Jew, might be upset to discover that in Orthodox shuls, women sit apart from men. Does that mean women are second-class? Or so that male minds would focus on the service and not the babes?
And there is this, too: when the Church (Catholic) changed from using Latin to English, much of the "magic" of incantation, lost to the non-Latin mind, became pedestrian. So too an ancient language, when employed, stretches back over time and ties the present to the past.
The one constant in change? The building fund reminder.