Picture on the top is of a Challah. It is made of raised dough and the loaf of the bread has a spiral shape to it. The bread is twisted and braided before it is bake in the oven. The braids represent the memories of the past memories woven into the lives of the Jewish Culture. It is served with honey on holidays to wish for a blessed upcoming year.Picture on the left is a typical jewish meal.
You have the wine, lox, the spread.
Picture on the right is of a Jewish ceremony in a synagogue.
I observed a military Judaic ceremony. Rabbi (Captain) Bruce Bublick led the ceremony. Like we had learned in class he read the Torah. It was weird to me having someone read from back to front. The ceremony featured spirited singing and prayer in both Hebrew and English. Listening to them sing and say their prayers took me back to watching "The Passion of the Christ" where the whole movie was in Aramaic. There was also a chant when the Torah was read. They call it the parsha (section of the Torah read each Shabbat) and haftorah, and an informal Torah study discussion. I thought that i would not be welcomed or looked upon well by attending the service since i was not Jewish. I felt awkward walking to the service. To my surprise i was welcomed regardless of my christian background. I still felt out of place though. The women and men were separated. I asked Captain Bublick after the service what kind of service that was he said it was a mixture of all the Orthodox, Reformed and conservative. He explained to me that because of the limited resources in the Guard they had to get a Jewish service focusing on a point of view for each form of Judaism. I would explain the service more but like i said most of it was in Hebrew. After the service we had some food during which the Jewish people who usually attend these services made me feel at home. I was told since it was during our military duty hours we could have real wine. So instead there was grape juice. They had a big bread called a Challah, bagels. One thing i tried and i did not like was the lox ( a thin sliced salmon). I'm not a big fan o sea food so i was disgusted by the lox. Also available to eat was pita, hummus, fruits, cookies and juice. Kosher was observed since there was really no milk or meat around. I asked Capt Bublick where were the bacon and eggs and he explained to me about Kosher and not mixing meat and dairy together. Overall i had a good experience with going to the Jewish service. I learned a lot about their way of serving God. Please post any questions or comments that you might have for me. Thanks and Shalom!!
2 comments:
Hello, Marcos.
I am sure you had your hands full with all different types of Kosher food, grape juice, challah bread, bagels, pita, fruits, cookies, and lox, after the service at the Jewish Synaquouge. I can see that you have learned up close and personal about their religious beliefs and customs, which is a good learning experience for you. This is a nice story!
Sincerely,
Chris!
Marcos, you've done a great job of writing honestly about your reactions to the service you attended. It must have been interesting to see a service where they try to combine the various forms of Judaism since there's so much range of diversity between Orthodox and Reform Judaism!
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