Ancient World

Sacred Space Visitation

Name: Andrew Wyshner
Name of Temple I visited: Temple Bnai Jeshurun
Location: 1025 South Orange Avenue, Short Hills, New Jersey
Date of Visit: Friday, May 8, 2015
Friends with whom you visited place of worship: Courtney Cooperman (grade 11)
What impressed you most about your visit?
The sense of community and overall joy for attending the service impressed me the most.
It seemed as if each individual attending the service was not doing it merely as a task
they must perform, but as an event that they wanted to go to because of their love of God.
In addition, the reception afterward impressed me because it truly seemed like everyone
was friends with everyone else in the congregation.
In what ways was this place of worship similar to your religious tradition?
I am Catholic, so the use of songs and the reading from the holy book was similar to my
religious traditions. In addition, the group prayers that occurred during the service are
similar (in how they are conducted) to the Catholic group prayers.
In what ways was this place of worship different from your religious tradition?
The reception after the service was different from what I am used to, as well as the
individual moments during the service in which certain people came to the front and were
recognized or participated in some part of the service.
Can you briefly describe some of the parts of the service?
During the service they read from the Torah, conducted Auf Ruf prayers for a couple,
recognized the graduating class from this year at the temple, and had the children whose
bnot mitzvah was the day after speak for a moment.
In what ways did the physical space enrich the spiritual experience?
The rows of seating united all the worshippers as one, which enriched the experience. In
addition, the area where the Torah scrolls are stored was clearly marked and the main
area of the temple, which shows what the most important part of worship is. This
allowed the congregation to realize what the most important thing was when they opened
up the doors and exposed the scrolls.
Was this a worthwhile experience for you?
This was a worthwhile experience for me because it allowed me to see what I learned in
school about Judaism in person. It was very interesting to see how the service proceeded,
and I learned a lot about the Jewish faith.