First Time in Synagogue

Today I had visited a service in a synagogue. Our daughter has a friend at school who is Jewish and she invited her and us as her parents to her Bat Mitzvah ceremony today.

I have been to service at various Christian churches: orthodox, baptist, protestant, etc. For me attending a Jewish ceremony was a very interesting experience.

The connection between Judaism and Christianity felt really strong, there were lots of Old Testament verses quoted in their book. They spoke of the same stories of the Babylon tower as well as Noah's Arc and others.

But obviously there are plenty of differences, one of the major differences that is really apparent is that while Christianity had its roots in Jewish religion and adopted the old testament and the novel concept of monotheism, Christianity feels like it was designed for mass appeal, while Judaism is very much for Jewish people only.

Judaism helps Jewish people to maintain their culture, traditions and language anywhere in the world. Their book reads right to left and had their language side by side with quotes from the Bible with verses numbers in English.

The songs were all in their language and were beautiful and were mostly performed by a man playing a guitar. But there was also English translation. When praying they asked everyone to stand up and face to the Jerusalem, which feels really odd when you are in Lynnwood, Washington state, USA...

I was also very impressed by the Rabi. She was a Jewish woman in her forties who drove a Toyota Prius. It is extremely rare to find a female priest in the Christian churches. It seems like Jewish religion despite being older than Christianity is a lot less male dominated.

Though it might be a flawed perspective based on my single experience in a synagogue. But regardless the Rabi was very articulate, relatable and obviously intelligent.

She used very clever positioning. For example she called us friends of the Jewish community and allies. What a clever way to positively predispose your audience towards you.

In general I walked away feeling more positively towards Judaism and Jewish people. She also was very clever to say that Jewish people have different views on what is going on in Israel and that it is hard to be a friend of Jewish people in light of the current events.

I also found it quite interesting that Jewish traditions consider girls going through this ceremony at the age of twelve to thirteen years old to be adults. That seems awfully early.

In general I found it to be an interesting learning experience. The second part was in a winery in Woodinville where the girls did a masquerade party, dinner and karaoke, etc. We were not part of those festivities so we walked over to the Willows Lodge next door and had a meal at the Fireside Grill.

You can see the fireplace next to our table at the Fireside Grill in the cover picture. My wife ordered soup and salad with a non alcoholic cocktail, while I went for the Willows Lodge Old Fashioned, hot butter rum drink and a burger with sweet potato French fries.

We also ordered a dessert which we really enjoyed. It was a nice short date while the kids had fun at the party.

Full day for me and an interesting first time experience at the synagogue. I really didn't know what to expect and I think it went better than I have expected.

This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io

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