I realized the other day that, in addition to services at school, I have been to four religious services in the past two weeks for a variety of reasons and from a variety of faiths (so much religion. so. much.). I wanted to share a bit about my experience in a short post for while I usually end up in Reform services, I've been pushed these past few weeks to try a variety of things:
Friday afternoon, 3/15 -- Jummah prayer, the major weekly Muslim prayer service. Upon hearing about the horrific shooting in New Zealand, where a man went in and killed 50 Muslims as they were at their weekly prayer, many folks around the world (and especially here in Philadelphia in the Jewish community) felt a need to show support by going to Muslim prayer services in solidarity. There were so many Jews I know at the service at our local Muslim center, it was overwhelming in a moving way. The imam gave a lengthy sermon, during which he acknowledged that us as Jews were there with them. (An article with a photo of one of my teachers, Rabbi Linda Holtzman, near whom I was sitting.) While it was not my first Muslim prayer experience, it was powerful to be there as one of many Philadelphia Jews coming together in support of our Muslim sisters and brothers. While usually upon entering a mosque I am asked to cover my hair as women typically do during Muslim prayer services (and sometimes always), on this day, I got the impression they were so glad to have us there that it was not raised.
Without going too far into the deep grief I felt at hearing of the attack in New Zealand, which is hard to hold when I know so many attacks happen nearly every day in non-Western countries (Africa, Asia, the Middle East) that never make our mainstream news, I will admit to feeling this attack very deeply. I wanted to at least share this moving image that was made in the wake of the tragedy, and reaffirm to my Muslim siblings specifically that you are not alone and I pray that we will together make this world more accepting for all:
Friday night, 3/15 -- Shabbat evening, Conservative Jewish. I am currently in a mini-course where we practice a variety of ways to chant the typical Shabbat evening prayers (in a way that we maybe do not in Reform services regularly), and so upon my teacher's recommendation, I headed to the Conservative shul near my house for a Shabbat service. I have been to Conservative services before, but not for many years, and it felt like a very open, diverse service and not completely unfamiliar. I think it was not fully traditional Conservative, but had a few Reconstructionist elements thrown in. Given the high number of Reconstructionist Jews and synagogues here in Philly (so many!), and the fact that a separate Reconstructionist minyan meets in that same synagogue building, it was not shocking that this was the case. But I did get to hear a bit of the tunes we have been practicing. Mission: accomplished.
Friday night, 3/22 -- Shabbat evening, Reconstructionist Jewish. While I am now rather familiar with certain types of Reconstructionist prayer from school, I had not yet been to a Friday night Reconstructionist Shabbat service. One of my great teachers invited a number of us rabbinical students to come to her home for Shabbat dinner and then to attend services (and she had some Christian seminarians join as well, which was great!). I was told, though, that even this synagogue was atypical for a Reconstructionist Shabbat; indeed, it proved to be working toward a looser structure, with more aim toward free-form spirituality (think lots of singing and folks adding in their own harmonies, people dancing freely), potentially toward even more of a Jewish Renewal situation. It was a comfortable space to focus on singing and community as opposed to obviously following a strict structure. As Reconstructionist rabbinical students, we are also required to visit three different Reconstructionist congregations, so this is just the beginning!
Sunday afternoon, 3/24 -- Sunday service, Hindu/Hare Krishna. Interfaith Philadelphia, a non-profit here in Philly, runs amazing interfaith opportunities, and has specifically targeted seminarians in the past few months to get future religious leaders together to experience services of different faiths. (Some of you may know I am trying to help supplement their programming on that front with a grant I currently have.) It was an honor to attend my first Hindu prayer service--with a lot of chanting, and dancing, and images on the walls, and fascinating statues in the front of the room. The room was generally separated by gender for the service (men on one side, women on the other) but it in no way seemed strict as folks would regularly go back and forth to convey information to others, and there was no divider down the room--the participants literally just sat on separate large rugs in on either side of the room (and I accidentally was on a chair behind the men, but no one seemed to mind). I am only sorry I could not easily snap photos during the experience. Here are some images I found online of the temple, and here is an article with more details about the temple we visited:
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I cannot say enough for the value of meeting people of other faiths. All of you right now have the opportunity to do this, if you can find the strength to take that leap. For me, speaking with Muslim women at the mosque, seeing the passion at the new Jewish service I tried, having a Hindu man talk about the origin story of his part of Hinduism--those types of experiences, aside from being vastly interesting, have given me the moving opportunity to learn just a little bit more about my fellow humans. It is these experiences that help us all realize the beauty in our shared humanity, and our incredible diversity. Consider trying it yourself--believe me, more than likely the people of that different faith/denomination/movement are going to be more than happy to welcome you in. So find that place, and go. Now. It is only through this kind of proactive action that we can move our world forward in understanding, and strive to prevent more tragedies like the one we just witnessed in New Zealand.
Now go out and love one another.
<3,
Allyson
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