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Jewish Worship Liturgy
141.11 Judaic Studies
November 3, 2004
Melissa Thiessen, Andrew Dyck, Karen
Anderson, Matt Neufeld, Matt Shantz
What's in a Name?

There are several different terms for a
Jewish “church”
– Orthodox use the German word “shul”
(meaning school)
- emphasizes the “church” as a place of study
– Conservative Jews use the word “synagogue”
- Greek translation of Beit K’nesset and means
“place of assembly”
– Reform Jews use the word “temple”
- consider every meeting place to be
equivalent to, or a replacement for The
Temple
Synagogue is a…

House of Prayer
- community prayer services

House of Study
- study is a lifelong task
- normally has a well-stocked library of sacred
Jewish texts

Social Hall
-for religious and non-religious activities
-matters of importance to the community can
be discussed
Social Welfare Agency
-collecting and dispensing money and other
aid to the poor and needy within the community
The Origin of Liturgical Worship in
Judaism

Grounded in the revelation of God
–
–
–
–
Beginning with Abraham
During the Exodus from Egypt
During the settlement of Israel and Judah
Though there were some foreign influences, the
worship liturgy developed in a relatively local context
– What was unique about Judaism was revealed by the
God "of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob"
– This included the specific details about the Ark and
the Tabernacle; it also included specific elements of
worship, and beliefs and practices that ranged from
"You shall no other Gods before Me" (heresy in a
pagan world) to the prohibition of human sacrifice
Outline of Morning Service

Morning Service (Shacharit)
–
Morning Blessings


–
Pesukei d'Zemira (verses of song),


–
includes a lot of Psalms and hymns
a warm-up, getting you in the mood for prayer in the morning
Shema and it's blessings and related passages

–
They deal with a lot of concerns with getting up in the morning,
and things we are obligated to do daily
some people do them at home before coming
oldest fixed daily prayer and consists of Deut. 6:4-9, Deut.
11:13-21, and Num. 15:37-41
Shemoneh Esrei


means "18" and refers to the 18 blessings originally contained
within the prayer and is the cornerstone of every Jewish service
3 sections: praise, requests and thankfulness
– Hallel,
 recite on certain holidays, which consists of Psalms 113-118
– Torah reading
 Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Sabbaths and holidays
 the Torah has been divided into 54 sections, so that if each of
these sections is read and studied for a week, the entire Torah can
be covered in a year
 every year The Torah is performed with great ceremony: the Torah
is paraded around the room before it is brought to rest on the
bimah (podium), and it is considered an honor to have the
opportunity to recite a blessing over the reading (this honor is
called an aliyah).
– Aleinu, Ashrei
 Psalm 145, and other closing prayers
* The above is from the Orthodox prayerbook. The Reform
service, although much shorter, follows the same basic
structure and contains shorter versions of the same prayers
with a few significant changes in. The Conservative version
is very similar to the Orthodox version, and contains only
minor variations in the content of the prayers.
_l_____________l___________l__
Orthodox
Conservative
Reform
There are a few significant differences in the way that services are
conducted in different movements:
1. In Orthodox, women and men are seated separately; in Reform and
Conservative, all sit together.
2. In Orthodox and usually Conservative, everything is in Hebrew. In
Reform, most is done in English, though they are increasingly using
Hebrew.
3. In Orthodox, the person leading the service has his back to the
congregation, and prays facing the same direction as the
congregation; in Conservative and Reform, the person leading the
service faces the congregation.
4. Conservative and Reform are rather rigidly structured: everybody
shows up at the same time, leaves at the same time, and does the
same thing at the same time; Orthodox is somewhat more free-form:
people show up when they show up, catch up to everybody else at
their own pace, often do things differently than everybody else.
Song in Liturgy
Singing in the Jewish tradition can be
traced as far back as Moses, whose song
of praise to God is recorded in Exodus 15.
 King David was a prolific songwriter, and
many of his psalms are used today in
Jewish liturgies.

Important Terms

Chazzar
– cantor (main singer who leads the congregation) – a
professional singer

Psalmody
– singing the Psalms

Cantillation
– singing a musical text (usually the Torah)

Precentor
– a lay chant leader

Piyyut
– Jewish liturgical poem, designated to be sung or chanted during
services.
Historical factors that influenced Jewish liturgical music:

Destruction of the temple and rise of the synagogue:
– Due to the destruction of the temple, instruments were
forbidden as a sign of mourning, Synagogues had a different
focus – not on sacrifices but on reading Torah and prayer

Development of the cantillation of Scripture
– Development of scales used for reciting scripture, and
different chants to be used.

Ascent of the piyyut
– New poems were written and inserted into the liturgy – this
caused some rabbinic unrest, but the people liked them.

Influence of Arab culture
– Arabic scales and modes, as well as poetic form influenced
Jewish music (use of the maqam)

Assimilation of non-Jewish ideas during the Middle
Ages
– Different types of songs were written corresponding to
popular types of song at the time – e.g. ballades, dirges
– Introduction of Yiddish

Introduction of Polyphony
– Polyphonic European art music influenced Jewish music at
the end of the 16th century – before this, most chant was
homophonic

Influence of Kabbalah and Hasidism
– Convinced that music had power to lift the soul, Kabbalists used music a
lot. They developed several rituals involving chant that became part of
their devotional life.
– Hasidic Jews were convinced that God was best worshipped out of a
sense of great joy. This meant that music and dance were the best way
to release the soul from the influence of evil.
– Hasidic niggun – melodies without words - a way to purify defiled
melodies.
Ritual Items in Worship

Torah Scrolls
– Hand-written on parchment scrolls
– When reading the scroll, you follow the text with a pointer,
called a Yad
 “Yad” means “hand” in Hebrew, usually in the shape of a
hand with a pointing index finger
– scrolls are kept covered with fabric and ornamented with
crowns on the handles of the scrolls with a silver breastplate
on the front
– stored in the “ark of the covenant”

Menorah
– oldest symbol of the nation of Israel and
their mission to be “a light unto the nations.” (Isaiah 42:6)
– a seven-branched candelabrum which is lit in the Sanctuary every
evening
– replaced by a lamp stand in today’s synagogues

Tallit
– four-cornered garment
– no particular religious significance, other than the fact
that it holds the tzitzit on its corners
– fringes at the corners of our garments as reminder of the
mitzvot (Num. 15:37-41)
– the method and type of knots contain religious and
numerological significance
Magen David
-Star of David, representing the shape of King
David’s shield (or the emblem on it)
 Scholars have attributed deep theological
significance to the symbol
- top triangle strives upward, toward G-d
- lower triangle strives downward, toward
the real world
- intertwining makes the triangles
inseparable, like the Jewish people

Things to Know During a Jewish
Service:

The “Siddur”
– the Jewish prayer book that includes within a
single volume, all of the prayers for all four
prayer services (Shacharit, Musaf, Minchah
and Ma'ariv).
– usually, the prayer leader will tell you when
you are skipping around, but sometimes they
will not. Watch for notes in the siddur that will
tell you to skip to different sections

Saying “Amen”
– It's sort of the Hebrew equivalent of saying "ditto":
when you say "amen," it's as if you said the
blessing yourself.
 Whenever someone else says a blessing
 hear someone say "Barukh atah..."
 the leader says "v'imru amen" (let's say "amen"), you join
in on the word "amen,"

Kissing the Torah
– In any service where there is a Torah reading, there
is ordinarily a Torah procession. A congregant holds
the Torah while it is carried around the synagogue.
As the Torah passes congregants, they touch the
cover with their hand (or sometimes with a prayer
book, or with their tallit) and then kiss their hand
(or whatever they touched it with).

Standing
– You should stand at the following times:
 When the Ark is open.
 When the Torah is being carried around the room.
 During the Shemoneh Esrei, from the beginning of the silent portion until after
the Kedushah during the reader's repetition (Kedushah is the part that
includes the "Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh" (Holy, Holy, Holy) blessing).
 During the Aleinu prayer, near the end of any service.

Bowing
– Judaism has a special procedure for bowing during prayer: first you bend
the knees, then you bend forward while straightening the knees, then you
stand up.
– Bowing is done several times during the service:
1. During the Aleinu prayer
2. During Torah readings, when a person recites a blessing over the Torah, this
same Borchu and it's congregational response are recited, with the same
bowing. Often, the bow here is less obvious: seated congregants just sort of
lean forward out of their chairs.
3. Four times during the Shemoneh Esrei
4. After P'sukei d'Zimra but before the Shema's blessings, the leader recites the
Borchu blessing, during which he bows. The congregation responds with
"Barukh Adoshem hamevorakh l'olam va-ed" and bows.
Sources
www.liturgica.com
 www.jewfaq.org
 www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
 http://groups.msn.com/judaismfaqs/liturg
yprayerbooks.msnw
 http://communities.msn.com/JudaismFAQs
&naventryid=129
