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Originally Posted by ColonelSpecial
If I as a Catholic were to attend a Jewish synagogue service in the interest of curiousity, what would I expect as far as the service is concerned. Special seating, readings, sermons, etc. Basically walk me through a Jewish service.
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Well, it depends on several things. First of all, it depends on when you're going. A weekday service, a shabbat service, a festival service, or a service for the High Holidays. The liturgies for the different services, although the cores are in common, have a fair amount of distinction from one another, and different theological imperatives are given show at different times.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, it depends on where you are going: what kind of synagogue or independent group is running this service? First off, is it Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform; or is it Reconstructionist or Renewal or one of the small fringe movements; is the congregation Ashkenazi (that is, following the customs of Northern/Eastern Europe) or Sefardi (Spanish customs) Mizrahi (Middle Eastern customs, or is it a small, independent rite, like Yemenite, Damascine, or Italian? All of these represent potentially substantial differences in what you might see.
What I can tell you in all likelihood is that, if you are in the US, chances are your random Jewish friend will take you to an Ashkenazi synagogue, because those predominate in the US, probably on a shabbat, because most Jews who attend synagogue on anything like a regular basis go on shabbat, but not daily (and probably not every shabbat, and statistically you're more likely to see a shabbat service than a festival or High Holiday service). Statistically, your random Jewish friend is probably Reform, or maybe Conservative, if they identify with a movement.
Whichever movement's services you end up at, know that customs and rites vary somewhat from congregation to congregation, but fundamentally, the liturgy you'd see in the siddur (prayerbook) would be par for the course for whatever movement it is.
First of all, let me explain that there is a great difference between Jewish services and Christian services, at least as far as I have observed Christian services. Christian liturgy is much sparser and less dense than Jewish liturgy: in Protestant services I have witnessed, prayers are much more improvisational, and little seems formalized except for psalms, hymns, and The Lord's Prayer. Even then, the rites seem quite flexible in which psalms and hymns may be sung, and when or even if The Lord's Prayer is recited. Catholic or Eastern Orthodox services seem a little closer to the Jewish model, with specific set prayers at different times, a more formalized framework of which psalms are recited and when, what hymns are sung and when, when there is to be a recital of Pater Noster or Ave Maria, etc.
Jewish liturgy is fixed, and consists of psalms and (more or less) hymns set into a complex and lengthy framework of prayer, all serving as brackets for several key prayer-units, defined by the arrangement of formalized blessings or benedictions (micro-prayers invoking God's name, rulership of the universe, and usually, creatorship, plus some other relevant aspect of God's benificence, justice, authorship of some kind of phenomenon, etc.); the like of which is entirely lacking in Protestant, or even Catholic, analogue. I will try to attach an example, in translation.
This liturgy is quite fixed, and makes for a long service. By many Christian standards, an excruciatingly long service, although those who have defined it so to me have generally admitted it would be easier if they knew Hebrew-- as all traditional services are entirely in Hebrew, save for the sermon (though ours are mercifully brief by comparison to some I have heard at Christian services-- 10-20 minutes is average in Conservative synagogues, 7-15 minutes in Orthodox synagogues-- one case I heartily side with Orthodoxy). Some Christian services I have witnessed took barely an hour. The longest I recall was two. Shabbat morning services in a traditional synagogue (Orthodox or Conservative, or an independent unaffiliated body using traditional prayer customs) average 2 1/2 hours, and it is by no means unheard-of for them to run 3 hours, though generally not longer unless there is some additional special occasion, like someone's bar or bat mitzvah.
To be fair, if one knows Hebrew, the prayers are exquisite poetry. Since you likely won't want to learn Hebrew before going-- quite understandable, really-- your consolation will be that, though the translations are generally much drier than the Hebrew, much if not most of Jewish services are sung aloud, and I am told that the melodies are just as pleasant to non-Jews as we find them. At best, I have been told by non-Jewish, non-Hebrew-speaking friends who came with me that it was not unlike being at a community a capella concert.
The congregation all sings, but generally there is one prayer leader, sometimes per service, sometimes for the morning. This may be the rabbi, the cantor, the two of them in tradeoff, or one or more congregants.
On any given shabbat morning, there would actually be four separate services, although they would appear fairly seamless. The first, called Pesukei d'Zimra (more or less, "Phrases of Song") is mostly a collection of psalms and Biblical texts, making an introduction to the main service.
This is called Shakharit (meaning roughly, "Morning Service"), and consists of a couple of mystical hymns and a fair amount of poetic prose punctuated with blessings, which bracket two things, the first being the recitation of what might be called the Jewish credo, known as the Shma, based on the first word. This is a recitation of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (it begins with the phrase "Hear, O Israel: YHVH our God, YHVH is One," although this translation could be debated), Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41, which together constitute a single liturgical unit. The second bracketed liturgical unit is a prayer called the Amidah (meaning, "Standing Prayer," because it's said while standing. Sometimes we arbitrarily shun complexity, what can I tell you), comprised of a series of blessings invoking our covenant with God, praising God for his holiness, thanking him for the shabbat, and then for other good things, and then asking for peace. Versions of this prayer constitute the heart of every Jewish prayer service.
The next service is actually comprised of little prayer, but is rather focused on the ritual taking out of one or more Torah scrolls [public readings of the Torah must be done from a hand-calligraphed text written upon sheepskin parchement scrolls in the ancient style] from the Sacred Ark at the front of the sanctuary, and a portion of the Torah [Pentateuch] is then chanted aloud, while the congregation follows along in bound, bilingual copies of the
text. This is usually referred to as The Torah Service. Following that, a designated selection from one of the Books of the Prophets is chanted aloud. The Torah scroll/s are then ritually put back into the Ark, concluding this service.
It is customary in many, if not most, American congregations to have the sermon at this time. This is invariably in English, save in the most Orthodox of ultra-Orthodox synagogues, where it is still sometimes in Yiddish-- a sight you are, statistically, unlikely to see. In many congregations, the rabbi always gives the sermon. In a growing number, different congregants give the sermon each week.
Finally, we have what is known as the Musaf service. Musaf means "additional," and this is because during the times of the Temple, an additional sacrifice was made on shabbat, over and above the daily sacrifice. Since we no longer practice sacrifice, this has been replaced with an additional service. The bulk of this service is constituted by another variation on the Amidah prayer. Some congregations have the sermon at the end of this service, rather than before it.
Generally, at the end of the Musaf service come community announcements, news of births, deaths, marriages, etc. The service is generally followed, in an adjoining room, by the ritual blessing over wine-- wine is served, along with grape juice, and sometimes liquors-- the blessing over bread-- bread is then served-- and generally either a large snack or a light lunch is served.
Reform services are shorter, mostly in English, and generally feature longer sermons, and more often are led decisively by rabbi and cantor, rather than congregants. This is because most Reform Jews do not have the Hebrew skills for the full traditional liturgy, and in any case, the traditional liturgy was much edited by the early Reform movement due to its perceived incompatibility with Enlightenment sentiments (Reform Judaism is very much a product of the Enlightenment). Thus much of the traditional liturgy is severely abridged or absent from the Reform siddur, and there is much use of English translations of the traditional text, modern meditation texts, poetry, etc. Thus, the rabbi and the cantor often use the service as an opportunity for Jewish remedial education. Also, their services are geared toward a Reform theology, which is different from traditional in various ways we can get into at a different time, if there is a desire to do so.
That said, if you visited, you would be greeted, you would be free to take a seat where you liked (in Orthodox synagogues, men and women are separated, but in non-Orthodox synagogues, anyone can sit where they like). There would be a copy of the siddur available, and also a bound copy of the Torah. It is customary for men, and some in the non-Orthodox world say women also, to cover their heads during services, and kippot (yarmulkes, skull caps, beanies) are provided. Jewish men (and in the non-Orthodox world, also many women) wear tallitot (prayer shawls), but generally non-Jewish visitors do not do so. My guess is that you would find it an interesting experience, although occasionally frustrating in not knowing Hebrew, or the nuances of the service (although this latter point can be remedied by reading an introductory book or two on Jewish prayer prior to attending-- I can recommend a couple, if you like). Most likely, after the services had concluded, people would introduce themselves to you, ask after you, and inquire whether you had someplace to eat lunch (despite a light lunch often being served in the synagogue after services, many if not most people just snack a little and then go home for a 'real' lunch).
Although there is nothing wrong with just showing up at a synagogue on some random shabbat morning and just checking it out-- and please, do feel free to do just that-- my personal recommendation would be that you go with a Jewish friend, if you have one. It's good to have a guide, someone to help clue you in on what's happening, and so forth.
But if you go, I recommend going several times, to several different congregations, if possible. Go on shabbat. Go on some holidays. High Holidays are their own thing. Save them for your advanced education tour. But for example, Sukkot falls October 3-9 this year (I phrase it this way because Judaism works on a modified lunar calendar, so Hebrew dates don't always match up with the same Gregorian dates), and that's a fun holiday to watch. We build these little huts called sukkot, as a remembrance of our dwellings in the wilderness after the Exodus, and in remembrance of the harvest in the Land of Israel, when we built such huts during the wheat threshing that took place at that time of year. We eat and drink and study in these sukkot every day for eight days. And in synagogue, we sing Psalms 113-118, a service called Hallel (meaning "Praise"), during which we wave palm fronds which have been bound together with willow and myrtle branches, and we hold them with a citron (a fruit rather like a giant lemon), and we process around the synagogue, singing and waving the palm fronds (called
lulavim, or
lulav in the singular). It's very musical, and quite a spectacle. The palm ritual, BTW, is what people were doing in the story in Mark 11:8-10, Jesus' entry into Jerusalem-- it was Sukkot. In any case, if you have any interest, it's probably worth your while to see a couple of Jewish services. If you don't know any Jews, just show up to synagogue on shabbat morning. We're really usually pretty friendly. Let me know if you want me to expand on anything....
Sorry, there was probably more to this question than you expected....
PS- The attached translation of a section of shabbat morning services is mine, and is copyrighted to me. Please don't pass it around. Thanks.