Study Abroad in Beer Sheva, Israel
by Rosanna Shoup
These are my thoughts and experiences during my time at ...
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Bowing toward the Torah
September 21, 2009 @ 3:44 AM | Permalink
This weekend I celebrated Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem with my friend Staci. She is pre-college freshman at Brandeis and destined for rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College which has various locations across the U.S. but all of them require one year of study in Jerusalem. Before the holidays, she her rabbi had suggested she look into finding the HUC students. After she had found a place to stay, she asked me if I wanted to join her. She said that if I am ever going to go to synagogue eventually she wanted my first impression to be with the Reform movement of Judaism. I accepted enthusiastically and we left on Friday morning.
I enjoyed the service at HUC. It was very like a Christian service in its basic structure with its benediction, homily, and songs, while its actual content was wholly different. All the prayers were sung in Hebrew and led by the Cantor, one of whom was our host Amada. Everything was quite beautiful and the message for the day which dealt with the New Year and recanting of sins, very applicable and full of meaning for me. The only part where I felt uncomfortable was during the prayers that were directed towards the ark, where the Torah is kept. During these prayers everyone would bend their knees and rock back slightly before bending over and bowing toward the Torah. Looking back on this moment I remember a story from my bible professor at Kalamazoo:
“Where I grew up there were no Christian symbols or signs. For us, these items broke the second commandment ‘you shall have no other gods before me, you shall not make yourself an idol and worship it.’ When I came to the states and attended church, the first time we all turned towards the cross to direct our prayers I shuddered. I have since understood the meaning behind this action and no longer regard it as idolatry, but a symbolic action”
It's Ironic that I could not find it within myself to bow with the crowd towards the Torah becasue it felt like idolotry, when the Jews themselves criticize Christians for basically the same commandment. For the Jews and Muslims it seems that Christians pervert the unity of God by worshiping him in three 'forms' or 'parts.' And for Christians, Jews and Muslims place too much emphasis on the text.
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