Can you tell the end of the quarter is almost upon us? Never one to do things in advance that can be put off until the last minute, this morning I picked up Mia again and we headed to Temple Beth Am for a morning shabbat service and pretty much our last chance to visit a Jewish worship service before the deadline next Wednesday. I had intended to do this on my own or with a classmate, but we had two other people with us as I turned north toward the U-district, my daughters. My husband was called in to work around 10pm last night and got home after 7:30 this morning, making him an unfit caregiver until he's had some sleep. So I decided what the heck and brought the girls along. When I am teaching congregational development to Episcopal congregations I tell people that key insights into a community's life can be gained by attending to how they treat their children. I expected good things from this reformed Jewish community, and wasn't disappointed.
Church Attended: Temple Beth Am, in Seattle's U-District
Date: 5/19/2012
Description of worship space/meeting time: The weekly Jewish celebration of Shabbat starts at sundown Friday night and goes until sundown Saturday. Beth Am offers Friday night and Saturday morning prayer services and I chose the Saturday morning option, which began at 10:30. We arrived at 10:30 on the dot and the parking lot was almost full. We joined the stream of people entering and were handed a rather rumpled booklet that described what a shabbat service would entail. Of the three visits I have made for this project Beth Am felt the most like a "church" in the sense that comes to mind for me. It is a modern building, not heavily adorned and feeling like a protestant church/community center/school in its appointment. There is a generous entryway to the worship space with signs pointing to the bathrooms and childcare and wide open doors into the sanctuary itself. Inside the sanctuary(not sure if that's the correct word) are rows of chairs arranged to focus on a central stage with a choir loft off to the left hand side. A podium is center stage, from which Torah was read and prayers led. The seats were comfy, and the place was really full. We were handed a prayer book as we entered.
Number of People in Attendance: I would have estimated over 200.
My expectations/pre-conceived notions: My main exposure to Reform Judaism has been through our professor, Dr. Martin, who belongs to the Reform tradition herself. I have heard her say repeatedly that for liberal Christians this is the form of Judaism that we have the most in common with. So I wasn't expecting to stick out. I was expecting plenty of Hebrew in the service and wasn't sure otherwise. I knew there would be singing, but wasn't sure how much or when or what the structure of the service would be.
The Service: While the liturgy was entirely unfamiliar to me, the service felt very comfortable. We checked out the childcare when we first arrived but my oldest wasn't into it - she wanted to hear the music - so we went in to the service and sat in a back row. This was a good idea, as we were in and out a bit with the kids. Everyone had blue prayer books and the female rabbi who was leading the service always announced where in the book we would be at the beginning of each new prayer. Sometimes she would also add a word or two about the prayer, giving context or suggested meaning. Most prayers were sung, either chanted or in a hymn-like arrangement with choir or single vocalist leading and the congregation following. Most were accompanied by piano, but some had guitar or other instruments. The first section of the service was entirely prayers, some lively and others reflective. My kids lasted for about twenty minutes before my oldest, who is two and a half, decided to go play instead and we dropped her back at the childcare room. I kept the baby with me, as childcare was for kids age two and up. After the praying/singing portion of the service it shifted to a "Torah section" which involved the reading in Hebrew of the Torah and offering of interpretations. This is when Mia and I began to suspect that there was something special about this particular service - the readers of the Torah were all young men, around the age of twelve. When the scrolls were taken out from the special cabinet where they are kept one was given to each boy and they processed around while everyone sang, followed by their families. One of them had led a section of the prayers, which I thought was quite lovely, and now they were reading in Hebrew from the Torah and one of them even preached on the year of Jubilee from Leviticus. He was great, and from what we gathered this was part of, or just after the Bar Mitzvahs for these boys.
The Jewish shabbat service was by far the longest of the three services I attended for class. At one point I checked back in at childcare to see how my kid was faring (she was fine) and the attendant informed me that the service wouldn't be over until 12:30 or later - two hours after it began. This was a bit of a shock so close to the 35-40 minutes of the Islamic worship, and so we ended up scooting out close to the end, just after the Torah section was done. This was unfortunate - I would have liked to stay and mingle with people - however my baby was near the end of her rope by the time noon rolled around. I also noticed that she was the only baby in the crowd and drew some glances - both friendly and disapproving - as she began to tune up and offer her own commentary to the worship.
What I least enjoyed: There was no order of service, or indication of what was coming up next. This meant that the length of the service was something of a shock to me. Other than this it was all quite lovely.
What I most enjoyed: I loved seeing the boys participate in and lead worship and scripture reading. I loved the old man who played peek-a-boo with Salome (my baby) using his kippa. I really loved the procession with the Torah that symbolized the passing of Torah from generation to generation.
What I learned: This service felt the most comfortable to me of the three I attended, despite its length. (or maybe because of it - the Anglo-Catholice Episcopal church I come from does not produce brief liturgy!) The sentiments expressed all resonated with me, and with a couple small changes in attire the congregation could have been an Episcopal one - mostly white folk, well dressed, obviously well educated. But I did feel Holy Envy, and it centered around the strong and beautiful sense of identity woven into the prayers, clothes, and actions of the congregation.
What would I do differently if I attended again?: I would come without kids and sit closer to the front. It was nice and informative in some ways to bring the girls, but it definitely distracted from a deeper focus on what was happening in the service.
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