Marriage

Author(s): Natubhai Shah
Publisher: UK Jain Academy

Page 79

Synagogue
The principal place of communal Jewish worship is the synagogue, and in orthodox synagogues men and women are separated. Inside synagogues one will see symbols such as the sevenbranched candlestick (Menorah); on a doorpost, a small box containing a parchment scroll with passages from scripture written on it (Mezuzah) (the Mezuzah is also affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes); a perpetually burning light (Ner Tamid), and an 'ark' (Aron), a cupboard containing hand written scrolls of the Torah. Jews cover their heads during prayers and wear a special prayer garment (tallit) for some prayers.
Life Style and Customs
Jewish communities employ rabbis to teach and to preach, to take on pastoral duties and advise the community on Jewish law. Orthodox communities have only male rabbis, whereas progressive communities employ both men and women rabbis. Rabbis are well educated, require ordination and are paid a salary by the congregation. To administer Jewish law, a judge (Dayan) is appointed. Many synagogues have committees and employ part-time and full-time secretaries.
Judaism is very much a family faith; many Jewish religious customs revolve around the home. One example is the Sabbath meal, when families join together to welcome in the special day. Singles or others with no family around may form a group to celebrate Shabbat together.
Jewish custom asserts that male Jews should normally be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. At the age of thirteen, male Jews from orthodox communities and both sexes in progressive communities, ceremoniously, involve themselves in reading, in Hebrew, the weekly portion of the Torah Scroll.
Customs for women
Orthodox, and some other, Jews insist on a ritual bath (milkveh) to ritually cleanse 'unclean' women (before marriage, after menstruation and after childbirth), before they attend a religious ceremony, but Progressive
79