Synagogue and Singing

On Friday night I went to my first Jewish Shabbat service.  I went with Aaron, my new LDS Hebrew U friend, and he had been to this synagogue before and liked the songs that they sang more than other places.  So this is how it works: Shabbat services last a little more than an hour, just like sacrament meeting, and the entire service is read from a prayer book in Hebrew.  But that isn’t quite accurate, because the service isn’t “read”, it is sung.  Apparently each synagogue will sing the same prayers, but the tunes that they use vary, which is why Aaron particularly liked this one synagogue. 

            In the synagogue, the women and men are separated, each on one side of the room and divided with a veil; this is to keep everyone focused on the service rather than thinking about how cute the boy/girl sitting in front of them is.  Can you imagine if LDS sacrament meeting was this way!  There is a male leader for the service who directs us in the prayers and often sings aloud passages that the rest of us listen to (I was wondering how this works because I imagine they always have to have a decent voice, are there tryouts for this sort of thing?). 

            The songs that they sing are hauntingly beautiful, I don’t know quite what it is about them but they touch my heart.  It brings me back to 5 years ago being in Jerusalem, we had a “Bedouin tent dinner” one night in the desert in southern Israel, and after the dinner a few Israelis sang some traditional Hebrew songs.  I remember clearly feeling a huge peace wash over me, being so touched by the songs and thinking, “one day, I want to sing these beautiful Hebrew songs”.  And here I am, 5 years later back in Jerusalem, sitting in Shabbat services and singing those “beautiful Hebrew songs”, isn’t it interesting how things come together sometimes?

            I had written in my journal after the experience at the Bedouin tent dinner, “I was feeling the Spirit I guess”.  Absolutely I was, just as I did again at Shabbat service, and just as I have many times been touched by the Spirit as strongly in other religious traditions as in our own.  Because the Spirit comforts, guides, and testifies of truth, in any of its forms.  Yes, I believe we have a high concentration of that truth in the LDS church, and yes, I believe that when we make and maintain covenants with God we are entitled to feel the influence of the Spirit more profoundly in our lives, BUT the same Spirit clearly comforts, guides, and testifies in all cultures and people, leading them to Christ because everything good comes of Christ.  So when I feel those wonderful happy feelings in foreign settings, I am not confused or disillusioned but rather grateful that the God I believe in loves all His children enough to give them truth and light.  And once again it was confirmed to me that at the very least, the Jews possess a unique, rich cultural heritage, and likely are in at least some senses of the word, a “chosen” people. 

Mitt Romney recently got himself in trouble over claiming that Israel’s economic advantage over Palestinians was in part because of their rich culture, and although I don’t agree with the underlying inference of an inferior Palestinian culture (there is so much depth and beauty to both cultures, you really can’t claim superiority on this one), I do agree with the message that there is something unique about these Jews.  Compared to the billions in the world they are nothing, just a speck, and yet thousands of years of history and miraculous events, the Jewish people are still around and the world still has its eyes on them.  What is it about such a small group of people that has caused such a stir?  I believe that part of it has to do with covenants made many years ago, promises from God that he would preserve and protect his people, the children of Israel.

            I also learned that I wish we would sing the Biblical Psalms like the Jews do; they seem to have much more meaning when combined with a melody.  After all, they were written not to be read, but to be sung; we should keep with the tradition and preserve the psalmist’s original intent!

            This was a scattered post with a bunch of thoughts, but that is how my mind works I guess and these are the things I have been thinking about since Shabbat.

Random pictures from the last few weeks:

This is most of my Hebrew Ulpan class, at a picnic we had our last day of class

Taylor, James the LDS guy, and James's wife Kindra

My good friend from Ulpan, Taylor!

Dinner with my new best friends, Patrick and Aaron

Playing in the water fountain one night with the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish kids 

(note the long sleeves and curly hair ringlets on the kids)