Welcome to Gaia! ::

So this evening I went to the confirmation services at my local Reform temple for a dear friend of mine. I myself go to a Conservative synagogue and feel extremely comfortable there. However, at this service, I felt more out of place than I would at a church! This is supposed to be Judaism? The only thing that fit in my view of things was the large quanities of food after the service! There was English, and the Amidah had the Ima'hot, and Ha'Col instead of Ha'Meytim, and they played guitar a lot, and someone was playing 'Jerusalem of Gold' on a harp during the silent prayer which was just totally weird, and they sang Beatles as part of the service! And normally I wouldn't complain about Beatles but it's a religious service! Plus they did a Torah reading and a Haftarah in the evening, but hugely shortened. Like a three verse Haftarah. And the Amidah was changed from a page to five lines. And I could go on and on.
Anyway, my point is that I felt hugely uncomfortable. But- they're Jewish! And I feel like I sound like such a bigot when I say I'm not comfortable there, and it bothers me.
Do any of you have difficulty going to a service where they do less (or more) than you are used to? Does it make you feel hugely uncomfortable, to the point where you wonder if they're even really Jewish? Doesn't that just seem so wrong?

The Beatles, abd the Harp are new, but the rest is like a normal reform service. My synagogue, which is conservative, also adds the Imahot.

BTW, Ha'Metim means "The Dead", and Ha'Col means "Everyone". Apparently the Reform movement didn't like the dead, so they changed it.

Reform Jews hate the dead! Reform Jews hate the dead! xd

I knew it had something to do with an uncomfort about speaking of the dead. I vaguely remember hearing something like they didn't want to bring up something like that during the Amidah which is supposed to be praising and I guess happy..? I dunno. We've got a lot of Reform Jews in here, I'm sure someone will turn up.

Anyway. Going out of any comfort zone is hard, but especially when concerning something so deep-rooted as one's way of practicing their religion. Of course, it's never been as strange to me as going to a service in a church (I still feel as though I'm in a Jewish house of worship whenever I go to a reform shul ^^; ), but each denomination holds to different traditions and practices, which can be overwhelming.

Officially, I suppose I've been to four different sects' services. Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative (which I hail from), and Orthodox. However, it has been my experience that the more liberal you go, the more varied each individual synagogue becomes.

For instance, I've been to about four or five different Chabbads, and they've all been pretty much identical. Every shul has its own quirks, but as a whole the experience was basically the same.

I've been to more Conservative shuls than I care to count, and I definitely saw more differences in each of those than in the Chabads. And each Reform shul I visit could probably start its own branch of Judaism, that sect is so un-uniform. As for the Reconstructionists? I've been to services with them ~5 times. Two were held in someone's house, one in an actual structure, and one outside. They're very neat people.

Because the Orthodox are so resolved in their efforts to follow the Torah exactly, they don't stray from each other. With the more liberal movements, however, there is such room for different interpretations that each synagogue kind of decides to interpret the Torah how they will. That's what makes me most uncomfortable about visitng Reform and Reconstructionist establishments- the fact that I have absolutely no idea how they're going to represent Judaism and how they'll worship.

Wow...Err....Maybe they should try a little more not to be as reformed? sweatdrop

There's a fine line between being reformed and being....that. It's like they don't even care about Jewish values at all!

Honestly, it comes down to just not 'yuck'ing someone's 'yum.' Whenever someone sees food I'm eating and remarks on its grossness, I say 'Don't yuck my yum!' xD I'm sure there's many more-liberal Jews who feel alienated in Conservative and Orthodox shuls. Seeing as we're all still Jewish, all of us denominations, we've got to try our best to make everyone feel somewhat at home everywhere.

Usually this is done through food.

We Messianics know how to cook and have great havdalahs too! 3nodding

To summarize what little point there was in the above post, we worship in the way that feels the most comfortable or spiritual to us. For each person, that might be different. So be it. 3nodding