Living the Jewish life: Public acts of worship Flashcards
The nature of public worship
Worship is either homage or reverence paid to a deity. Jewish public worship
is where this worship happens in a synagogue with a congregation
of Jewish worshippers (the Orthodox would say with at least ten adult male
Jewish worshipers forming a minyan).
The purpose of public worship
Public worship in Judaism has several purposes. Worshipping with others in the synagogue:
- Gives a Jewish person a sense of belonging to a whole community of Jewish believers.
-Gives an opportunity to feel the strength of the faith.
-Gives an opportunity to make friends with others in the faith.
-Provides the opportunity to take part in those prayers which can only be said in a congregation (Shabbat prayers and festival prayers in
particular).
- Is important because the rabbis taught that there is more merit in praying with a group than there is in praying alone.
The purpose of public worship
Fulfils the requirement to worship publicly in the Temple. The rabbis take,
“How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people … I will sacrifice
a thank-offering to you and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord”. (Psalm 116:12–19)
to mean that Jewish people are required to worship God in public as
well as in the home.
Features of Jewish public worship (Friday)
Each Friday after the welcoming of Shabbat, synagogues should hold
Shabbat evening prayers when Shabbat is greeted like a bride coming to meet her husband – the Jewish people. After the service ends the rabbi takes a cup of wine and recites Kiddush(a prayer said over
wine to sanctify Shabbat) to thank God for giving Shabbat to the Jewish people.
Features of Jewish public worship(Saturday morning)
On Shabbat morning (Saturday), families go to the synagogue for the morning prayer, which is the main service of the week. The high point of the service is when the Sefer Torah(the scroll of the
Torah) is taken out of the Ark(large cupboard at the front of the synagogue where the Torah scrolls are kept) and carried to the bimah(raised platform in
front of the Ark from which the
scriptures are read) for the rabbi to read the sidra(the portion of the Torah
read at Shabbat morning service) (over the course of a year the whole Torah will be read). In an Orthodox synagogue, men are called from the congregation to recite a blessing at certain points of the reading, and at the end, a man is called to read from one of the books of the prophets. After the Sefer Torah has been put back in the Ark, the rabbi gives a sermon.
Features of Jewish public worship(Afternoon)
On Shabbat afternoon, synagogues have afternoon prayers, when the Sefer Torah is again taken out of the Ark and a short part of the following week’s sidra is read.
Features of Jewish public worship 4
Public worship also takes place for various festivals. In preparation for
Rosh Hashanah, Jews should worship in the synagogue each day of the
month of Ellul for the blowing of the shofar. Yom Kippur is the holiest
day of the Jewish year and there are
five prayer services in the synagogue
during this day. The great festival of Simchat Torah must be celebrated in
the synagogue to parade the sacred Sefer Torah around the congregation.
The rabbinic festivals such as Purim also have special worship services in
the synagogue.
Orthodox and Liberal/Reform synagogues have differences in their
services. In Liberal synagogues:
-prayers are said mainly in English, not Hebrew
- women attend all the services and sit with the men
- the rabbi may well be a woman
-there are some different prayers.
The importance of synagogue worship for community
Worship is important for Jewish people because the Torah tells them
“to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and
with all your soul”. (Deuteronomy 11:13)
Worship in the synagogue is important for the Jewish community because:
-To worship God with all your heart and all your soul requires people
to be able to worship in a community with other people who share the
same beliefs and values.
- It is needed for the Jewish community to enhance Shabbat properly.
- It provides the community with the opportunity to share in family
celebrations such as brit milah, Bar Mitzvah and weddings.
-It is required for the community to celebrate the great festivals such as
Pesach, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah.
The importance of synagogue worship for individuals
Worship in the synagogue is important for a Jewish individual because:
- Worshipping with others in the synagogue gives a sense of belonging
to a whole community of Jewish believers and an opportunity to feel
the strength of the faith and make friends with others in the faith.
- It gives order and purpose to people’s religious life.
-It also gives an individual the opportunity to reflect on the serious side of life, especially when worship gives an opportunity to think about the
meaning of life at times such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and
at sad times like death.
-It gives an opportunity to listen to the reading of the Torah and the rest
of the Tenakh.
-It also has sermons from the rabbi, which provide the individual with
the opportunity to discover more about what it means to be a Jew, and
how to live as a Jew in the twenty-first century.
