Jewish Observation Report

On Friday November 4th I visited the Congregation Sha’are Shalom, a Jewish synagogue in Leesburg, Virginia. The religious service I attended was Shabbat and I made the visit by myself. I was there for about 2 hours, 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM.
Trying to decide what religious service to attend was hard. The U.S. is a religiously diverse country where people can practice any faith freely. I started doing some research and found a Jewish synagogue nearby, about 4 miles away from where I live so decided that was the place I wanted to go. I wrote an email to the administration of the church to see if I was welcome to attend, if they were open to strangers. Later that day I received a very positive response from the Rabbi saying that I was welcome to attend

the service on Friday at 7:00 and that I should arrive 30 minutes early so we could talk. So I did, I arrived early and he invited me to join the kids service which was shorter and more kid friendly. All along I was surprised at how welcoming everyone was which made the experience even better. I’m not going to lie, at first I felt very uncomfortable. It was my first time being in a different religious service and so I felt out of place. Also, everyone prayed in Hebrew and the Rabbi only spoke a couple times in English. Compared to Catholicism were only certain phrases are in Latin. I had no expectations about how my experience was going to be, but it turned out to be great. The only thing I had in my mind at the beginning was not doing anything that could be considered disrespectful or offensive. The first thing the Rabbi did mention was that I had to use a Kippah which I knew already from friends that had mentioned it so he lent one to me which I wore the whole time. Surprisingly, I found Judaism to be similar to Catholicism. We both have a place where our main church is. Also I found interesting that many times the phrases where being singed just like we do in Catholicism. All around visiting the Sha’are Shalom congregation was a great experience which I will cherish forever.
The first thing I learned about myself is I am becoming a bold person. Since I moved to the United States I have become very introverted and shy, which I have discussed in previous Ice assignments. I learned this about myself after completing the museum activity and since then it has stuck in my head that I need to change. I don’t like this about myself because I am missing out on so many opportunities to get things done. I discussed in my previous assignment the “now what” of my shyness. I said I was going to start to make new friends and talk to people which I began to do and over a couple of weeks it changed my personality completely. I hadn’t realized this until I attended the service on Friday. I had to go by myself, no company from anyone which I’m not going to lie made me very nervous. When I got there I started freaking out because everyone just began to stare at me but my boldness got me through it so I sat down beside a family and asked one of the members of the synagogue for information. I believe this is important because to get things done, anywhere, you need to be bold and not shy away from anything. You need to be confident with yourself and get things done. It is also important because it matters to me, being shy or introvert is something I am not happy with, I hate it. It makes me happy to know that I am changing my life positively and I know this is only the start. Although I am currently building my boldness, I know I still have work to do. My next objective will be to start approaching people at Nova and start talking to them. Rather than sitting by myself at lunch in the cafeteria, I will start approaching people and hopefully in the future I can get to know them. The objective will be to talk to a new person every day for one week at lunch. Eventually I will stop being shy and become more bold and brave.
The second thing I learned about myself is I tend to assume, a lot! During my visit to the Jewish synagogue I realized that I tend to assume a lot, about everything. This is something I wasn’t conscious about and realized half way through the service. During the service, the Rabbi introduced us to everyone in the synagogue. Everyone responded with a kind “Hello and welcome” which I didn’t expect. This was because I assumed that every member of the synagogue was going to feel annoyed because we were interrupting their religious service. In fact, they were so welcoming and nice that they shared some juice and food with us at the end of the service. This is very important because for many years I have been assuming, landing conclusions without necessarily having any facts or evidence. I didn’t realize that when I assume I seem as an un-educated person that guesses a lot and I give the impression that I don’t make any informed decisions. If I keep assuming I will keep making an ass out of myself. This comes down to a previous issue I still struggle with which is “I tend to judge the book by its cover”. My objective now will be to stop assuming and over thinking. Starting next week I will sit down and have a conversation with one of my friends. It will be a different friend every time and the idea will be to filter any assumptions in my head and ask him questions. A lot of people have told me multiple times that you can never ask too many questions and today I understand what they really meant by that. I now realize that I don’t ask enough questions rather I assume a lot. I will do this for 3 weeks starting next week.
The third thing I learned about myself is I am a caring person. Before the service on Friday, the Rabbi kindly offered to give me a tour around the synagogue. We reached a room where there was a box full of winter clothes so I asked him what that was for. He said those where donations from members of the congregation that over the past couple of weeks had been collected. After he had told me that I felt like I had a duty to help but did not understand why this was. I then learned that I really cared about this and wanted to help. I learned that I am a caring person, something I wasn’t before. I used to be very selfish but now I realized I wanted to help others. So I asked him if I could help, even though I wasn’t a member of the congregation, and he answered with a loud yes! I believe this is important because being selfish is one of the worst qualities anyone can have. In my religion we believe that selfish people won’t receive anything in return because what you give comes back to you multiplied. Now that I know that I have changed and matured and become caring rather than selfish I am going to use this to make a difference. I already did some research and encountered Habitat for Humanity which I will join. My plan is to join Habitat for Humanity and for at least a month attend their offices every Saturday and offer to help in any way possible. I will be starting this Saturday, November 12th. I know that I can help so many people and really make a difference.
The fourth thing I learned about myself is I don’t know as much as I think I know.

During Fridays religious service I learned several thinks I thought I knew but where completely wrong and misguided on. This lead me to learn about myself that I thought I knew more about the world in general but I actually don’t know much. When walking around the synagogue with the Rabbi he told me a story about how his family and him live in a Jewish community in Maryland and how he commutes every day. The moment he said “family” I was surprised. I had to google it to see if Rabbi’s could actually marry and start a family. Research showed that not only can they marry, they are obligated to do so because “Being fruitful and multiply” is a command to all Jewish people. I was amazed that for many years I thought Rabbi’s couldn’t marry and so I kept researching and realized that catholic priests are among the minority where their religion doesn’t allow them to marry, it was very surprising to me. The second thing I didn’t know was how their religious service is mostly in Hebrew. It was important for me to realize that I don’t know as much as I thought I did because for many years during conversations with other people I acted as if I knew everything about the world and many times they would get annoyed. It’s good to know because every time more and more people lost interest in talking to me due to my attitude which led me to miss out in many occasions on communication. My objective now will be

to inform myself more so I can actually know more about the world not just say I know. I am going to start talking to my grandparents more. Both my grandmothers and grandfather are over 70 and have lived in different countries around the world so I know their knowledge is extensive. I will talk to them every day for two weeks starting Friday, November 11th and not only will I expand my knowledge but also build better relationships with them.
The fifth thing I learned about myself is I don’t like to get out of my comfort zone.

The moment I knew I had to attend a religious service that was different from mine I felt annoyed. I hated it because that meant I had to do research and get information about places I had to go and I knew I would have to go somewhere where I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t know why I hated that and realized after the assignment that it is because I don’t like getting out of my comfort zone. To me, being in m comfort zone is the best thing in the world because I simply feel comfortable in it. It was very important for me to realize this because at some point in my life I will have to leave my comfort zone and move on. Just thinking about this scares me. Since I moved to the U.S. I’ve tried to keep myself comfortable by not going out of my “safe zone”. This is having so many negative effects in my life because I am missing out on communication and life. I’d rather stay at home and chill than have to go out with some friends and practice communication. To get out of my comfort zone the first thing I will do is stopping denying my friends invitations to go out and start going out. Every Friday that they invite me and I will say yes and go out with them. I will do this for four weeks and after four weeks I will analyze my experience and see if I need to extend the time.
Ice 4 was a great experience I will cherish forever. It gave me the opportunity to learn multiple new things about myself. Although

some of them are negative I know I need to work hard to make them positive. Learning more and more about myself is allowing me to become a better person which in the long run will make me a better version of myself and better member of the world.

What I learned about Myself
1. I can be wrong, a lot!
2. I tend to judge the book by its cover.
3. I barely know anything about cultures.
4. I need to learn to listen to other people.
5. I am not open-minded as I thought I was.
6. I am confident with myself.
7. I am an introvert person.
8. I am missing out on communication.
9. I am not as motivated as I thought.
10. I am not emotionally strong.
11. I give up easily.
12. I am becoming a bold person.
13. I tend to assume, a lot!
14. I am a caring person.
15. I don’t know as much as I think I know.
16. I don’t like to get out of my comfort zone.