I had no idea that there was a Jewish synagogue right around the corner from my house. The Kol Ami synagogue is located on 2300 E. and Just off of I-80 and is has the membership of roughly 350 family units, which is about ¼ of the Jewish population in Utah. (1) Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman has been at the Kol Ami since 2010 and has a very cultured past including schooling from: the University of Virginia (English and Religion degree), Ben Gurion University (Hebrew studies), and the Hebrew Union Colleges- Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and Cincinnati. (1) This particular Sunday that I visited Kol Ami there was a Bar-Mitzvah, which is also the topic of this paper, more specifically: What is the meaning of a Bar-Mitzvah. We will be going over what it means, some history, and how the actual Bar-Mitzvah ceremony is like.
I have to admit; I was a little hesitant to go into the synagogue at first. But when I entered the doors, I was immediately met by smiling faces. None of the families in the front area greeted me, but after smiling at me, they walked down a hallway. After following them, I was met by three guys who handed me two pieces of paper – which turned out to be a program and a weekly calendar, a Kippah, and two books, one red, one blue. One is the Siddur,
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which is full of prayers, and the other is the Chumash, which is the Five Books of Moses, in Hebrew and English. At the beginning of the service, Rabbi Schwartzman explained that these books are sacred, because they have God’s name in them, and should not be put on the floor. I thought that it was interesting that the binding of these books were on the left hand side, instead of the right, which we are used to in America. Inside both books there was Hebrew and English versions of everything, which was nice to be able to follow along. The actual building was not exactly what I expected. After going to a Catholic church for my first service paper, I was kind of expecting something more like that, however I was very wrong. Not to compare, but the building reminded me more of an LDS church building. The reason for this is that there were many rooms along the hallways, I’m not sure if they are used for individual classes or something different. I also walked past a kitchen, with several ladies making and dishing up food. The kitchen was across from a large room with tables and chairs set up, I’m assuming for the family to eat after the service. Jewish synagogues do not have any statues or artwork that would distract from the service. They did, however have a large statue of a menorah that was really cool. Although a ceremony isn’t required for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, it is very popular to have one, followed by a party afterward.
During the Bar Mitzvah I went to, I noticed that almost the whole service was dedicated to him. He participated in many readings, and was up with the Rabbi for a lot of the meeting. There was also a lot of his family going up and doing readings, and telling stories. Traditionally, the service includes: Leading specific prayers or the entire service during a Shabbat service, reading the weekly Torah portion, reading the weekly Haftarah portion, giving a speech about the Torah and/or Haftarah reading, and completing a tzedakah (charity) project leading up to the ceremony for charity.
(2) In Hebrew, Mitzvah means law, or commandment. Bar/Bat means Son/Daughter, so Bar/Bat Mitzvah is directly translated to son/daughter of commandment. Someone becomes a Bar/Bat Mitzvah when, if it’s a boy, 13, if it’s a girl, 12. Becoming a Bar/Bat Mitzvah means that person is now obligated to do everything that the older people do. For boys, it means performing Mitzvot, which are commandments. Although these Mitzvot’s can be done before he turns 13, he is only responsible to do it after their Bar Mitzvah. Examples of the Mitzvot are: wearing tefillin, participating in the Yom Kippur fast, and doing acts of charity (tzedakah). The boy also has more responsibilities when it comes to the religious services. He is able to count as one of the 10 people able to perform a prayer service, called a minyan. Girls have many of the same new responsibilities, however different sections of Judaism argue if females should be able to publicly read from the Torah or lead a prayer if there is a minyan available. Every person preparing for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah will learn different lessons based on their education goals, and learning styles. They will each learn the melodies and be able to recite the Torah portion, prepare for their speech on the Torah section. Their family also needs to prepare for the Bar/Bat Mitzvahs too. They each need to work on reciting the portion of the Torah they are going to read. In the Bar Mitzvah I went to, the boys parents spoke, as well as several cousins, and a couple family friends. The Ark is where the Torah scrolls are kept. The ark is always built facing toward Jerusalem, and always has a light above the door. During prayer, the congregation always faces toward the Ark, but when people are reading the scrolls, they face towards Jerusalem. The Torah scrolls are so sacred, that it is forbidden to do anything considered disrespectful in the presence of the scrolls. As I saw when I went to the Bar Mitzvah, everybody stands while they bring out the scroll. They also walk around the room with it so that every one can kiss it. I didn’t see anyone actually kiss it, they just touch it with one of the two books or their tefillin, then hold it up to their mouth. While I was at the Bar Mitzvah, I was able to sit down next to a very nice older man, named Ed Ireland. He was very helpful during the whole service. Ed helped explain what exactly what was going on. The Rabbi was also very good at explaining everything that was going on because she knew that there were a lot of non-Jewish people present. After the service, I asked Ed if I could ask him a couple questions about his own Bar Mitzvah. He explained that his Bar Mitzvah was very similar to this one, which was actually for his brother’s grandson. He said, “Even though my Bar Mitzvah was decades ago, we did almost exactly what they did today.” He explained that he almost didn’t have a ceremony but decided to because his mother really wanted him to. He didn’t have a party for his friends though, like he said most kids do. His family just had a lunch at their house. Even though some see becoming a Bar Mitzvah as the age where you become a man, they are only considered men because of the responsibilities they gain when it comes to church services. At this age they can also be held responsible for their actions and knowing right from wrong. At 13 they still would not be able to get married until they are 18.
...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.
James Howe’s short story, “Jeremy Goldblatt Is So Not Moses” is about a young boy’s thoughtful act of selflessness during his Bar Mitzvah. A Mitzvah is a Jewish ceremony that usually occurs between the ages of twelve and thirteen, which marks the child “becoming an adult”, or basically becoming independent. Many of his colleagues and even his own mom don’t understand why he acted that way in his Bar Mitzvah and even judge him for it. Usually, after his Hebrew classes at the temple, Jeremy would tend to hang out with “Candy Andy”, a homeless man who sat outside the synagogue. During his Bar Mitzvah, Jeremy allowed Andy to hold the Torah, which is a highly valued and sacred object to the Jewish religion. While most people were offended that he did that; since, Candy Andy
The Essential Features in an Orthodox Synagogue Recall, select, organize and deploy knowledge of Jewish belief and sources of authority, practice and organisation. The main function of the Jewish synagogue is worship, with the emphasis on prayer and reading. For Jews the synagogue is not just a building the word synagogue also refers to the community or congregation. The main features of all synagogues, especially the symbols, are designed to help people to worship God. The layout of the building is rectangular, with seats arranged on three sides.
So what it is Bar Mitzvah? According to The Oxford English Dictionary Bar Mitzvah is “the initiation ceremony of a Jewish boy who has reached the age of 13 and is regarded as ready to observe religious precepts and eligible to take part in public worship”. Of course this is a very vague explanation in terms of getting to the bottom of this ceremony’s significance. What is crucially important about both Bar and Bat Mitzvah is that this ceremony is absolutely essential for every Jewish person actually practicing the religion. As it was mentioned before, this ceremony is some sort of emancipation for Jewish children. Consequently, the way the ceremony was conducted has a very important meaning in the life of a child and his or her parents. Prior to Bar Mitzvah his parents were supposed to take under control their child’s cultural development. Every kid, by the age of 13 (or 12, which is the full-age for girls) supposed to ...
Judaism." Proc. of 1999 Pittsburgh Convention Central Conference of American Rabbis. A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism - CCAR. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Fellner, Judith B. & Co. In the Jewish Tradition: A Year of Food and Festivals. The. New York: Michael Friedman Publishing Group. 1995. The 'Se Raphael, Chaim. Festival Days: A Jewish History.
Lacking the ready opportunity to visit a unique congregation while stuck, carless, on campus over break, I instead focus on a "field trip" that my churchs' Sunday School class took one Sunday morning last summer. Picture if you will a group of white Presbyterian teenagers hopping into a shiny church van and cruising 15 minutes south, into the poorer, blacker reaches of inner-city Memphis (where neighborhood segregation is still very much the rule). Our destination was relatively near our own church, and yet worlds apart, too. Ours was the area of stately old homes with well-kept lawns along oak- and elm-lined streets, homes filled with the genteel, white urbanites of the city. A mere handful of blocks to the south, however, lay a land of equally old but far more poorly maintained homes, streets long since denuded of any trees they may once have sported. We had left our comfortable zone of neighborhood watches and block clubs, choosing instead to spend our worship hours in a part of the city instead known for its special police precinct and its multitudinous economic redevelopment zones. Thus did we find ourselves at the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church.
New York: William Morrow. Lipsett, S. M. & Co., P.A. and Ladd, E. C. (1971) The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon "Jewish Academics in the United States: Their Achievements, Culture and Politics." American Jewish Yearbook -. Cited for Zuckerman, Harriet (1977).
At the time of our Bat Mitzvah, we as Jewish women are encouraged to look to influential and inspirational Jewish women, such as Esther, for guidance and strength. A Bat Mitzvah is a Jewish ritual in which a female immediately upon the age of 12 becomes an adult or a “daughter of the mitzvah” (Cahabad.org, 2016) (Pelaia, 2014). This ritual marks the beginning of a lifetime of devotion to the Jewish religion and with this comes the exploration of your own personal purpose that was given to you by God (Rich, 2011). Esther, a woman of the scripture, exemplifies what it means to be a Jewish woman and therefore would be an appropriate addition to my Bat Mitzvah ceremony and following this will continue to provide inspiration as I journey through life.
My Jewish learning. Web. 10 Sep. 2011. Jewish_Family.shtml.>.
Perhaps one of the most well-known traditions of the Jewish faith is the celebration of a young man’s Bar Mitzvah. The ceremony began as a graduation for a schoolboy who had completed his religious education. The focus of study was typically the Hebrew Bible along with other Jewish literature, history, customs and ceremonies (Oxtoby and Segal 110-111). Today, the ceremony is often known as a coming of age celebration for 13-year-olds. During the festivity, the young man reads scripture from the Torah for the first time aloud and may also chant from one of the Torah scrolls (Oxtoby and Segal 61). This significant Jewish tradition is now also widely celebrated for young girls as well, known by the name as a ‘bat mitzvah’.
Once the service started, my friend showed me where the schedule for the service was and what each number meant. There were different colors of numbers in the book and those indicated what section the reading or song was coming from. This was different from the church that I attend because we have a choir and a band that plays the songs and if you wish to join in you can but for the Catholic Church there is, no choir and the members of the church are the ones who sing. After some singing, the priest came up to talk and this is very different from what I expected. I was used to flipping through the channels and seeing the catholic churches with the priest who were a ...
The church external appearance was quite different than other churches that I have seen. It was basically a big white stucco block with a gold dome on top and four decorated spikes on each corner of the building that surrounded the dome. The people of course were all Greek and were very well dressed. Most of the men and boys all wore suits, and If not they had some kind of vest on. I don’t know if this was some kind of rule or tradition, but it mostly seemed as a respect to God. The women all wore the basic dresses, and all the skirts fell down below the knee. Everybody was proper and ordered. As I walked in the church I entered a lobby of some kind. What I saw hear was something like social hour. Everybody was in there. They were all speaking Greek, and I felt as if I was in a family reunion party. The children were all together; the adults talked together and the young adults all were together. The way they all socialize is when someone comes up to say hello, they give each other a kiss on the cheek and a hug. These people are all very close to each other. It seems as if the church is the center of their lives. I admire that trait as well. To enter the auditorium you must enter this little room, which has a piece of garment from St. Constantine and St. Helen. Also there were candles lit. As they walked through this little room they lit a candle and knelt down for a moment to pray, and then touched each garment and made a cross over their chest.
Mail, A.S. (1997). An Exploration of the Impact of the Israel Experience upon Bar/Bat Mitzvah Students: Rites of Passage for Progressive Jewish Teenagers. Journal of Progressive Judaism. Nov97, Issue 9, pg59-82.
... 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.