Jewish Synagogue

On Good Friday, Nick and I had the opportunity of going to a Jewish Synagogue for his biblical Hebrew class at BYU. He and a few of his classmates and teacher (and me) all carpooled to Salt Lake to attend a synagogue. I was super excited to see another religion and how they worship. It's always interesting to me. When we got there, we went inside the jewish building and walked downstairs into a small room with lots of red chairs. All the men wore little hats on their heads called a kippah. They wear it in reverence to God to remind themselves that God is above them. Women wear them if they wish. Nick and the other students were respectful and wore the hats. Nick told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures ( haha...) but I sneakily took a picture of him wearing the kippah with my iphone when he wasn't looking. ( I have yet to upload that picture. I will soon.) Here's a picture that will suffice though...

We then sat and listened to the Rabbi lead the small congregation in singing praises in Hebrew. All the songs were in Hebrew. I think Hebrew is such a beautiful language. I don't know how in the world Nick has ever learned it. He's so smart, I tell you. I think it's neat that he knows a bit of that language. I wish I did. The worshiping lasted about an hour. I wasn't sure what was really going on the whole time, but the music was pretty. 

It was awkward because the 6 students that came from BYU was HALF the congregation. Everyone was staring at us. Something about Jewish people are.. they are very strait forward. They asked us " Who are you and why are you here?" Nick's teacher explained we were there because of the Hebrew class, ect. They seemed okay with that ( a sigh of relief.) After it was over... they were all going to eat and celebrate the passover. We were ready to leave, when they invited us to stay and eat with them. 

We walked upstairs, and people washed their hands in a bowl as they recited a prayer in Hebrew. I think it was really fun for Nick to be around people that speak Hebrew. We then sat down and they sang more praises in Hebrew before we ate. All the food was Kosher, of course. I wish I could explain to you the food we ate. I forgot what it was all called. A lot of it was symbolic. All the BYU kids and teacher sat at our own table, when a jewish girl, about our age, came and sat with us. She was super nice and very outgoing. She told us a bit about their beliefs and what they do. All very interesting. 

Towards the end, the people warmed up to us a lot and we felt very welcome. They were a very happy people and love to sing hebrew praises together. Even though I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it's always interesting to see what others believe. We have SO many differences... but in the end, we all have the same Father in Heaven and we're all brothers and sisters.