{"id":1980,"date":"2010-09-13T06:42:19","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T10:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2010-09-13T06:42:19","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T10:42:19","slug":"synagogue-for-jewish-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/","title":{"rendered":"Synagogue for Jewish seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

For centuries, Jews have watched their rabbis show reverence to God during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rites by doing a prostration at the front of the synagogue.<\/p>\n

This symbolic act takes place during the \u201cAleinu\u201d prayer that reminds worshipers of their duty to \u201cbend our knees, and bow down, and give thanks, before the Ruler, the Ruler of Rulers, the Holy One, Blessed is God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Shira Stutman isn\u2019t sure how many people will accept her invitation to exit the pews and perform this prostration for themselves during her seeker-friendly High Holy Days service at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue<\/a> in Washington, D.C. But many of those who do, she said, will find themselves assuming a familiar meditative pose.<\/p>\n

It helps to know that this unusual synagogue offers occasional services that blend yoga with traditional Shabbat prayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different ways to do a full prostration, but one of them looks exactly like the yoga position called \u2018Child\u2019s Pose,\u2019 \u201c<\/a> said Stutman, referring to a move in which individuals sink to their knees, bow their foreheads to the floor and extend their arms forward. \u201cI\u2019m guessing that for most of the people who will attend the service I\u2019m leading \u2014 young professionals in their 20s and 30s \u2014 the Child\u2019s Pose will be more familiar than the tradition of the rabbi prostrating during the Aleinu prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will let me use this simple yoga pose to talk about what the act of prostrating can mean for us in worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the kind of multi-layered experience that is common at Sixth and I, which offers four radically different services \u2014 Orthodox, conservative, family friendly and progressive \u2014 during the holy season that begins at sundown today (Sept. 8) with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and ends 10 days later with Yom Kippur, the solemn Day of Atonement.<\/p>\n

This multi-domed sanctuary on the edge of the Chinatown neighborhood has a complex and poignant history. Built in 1908 for the Adas Israel Congregation, it was sold in 1951 to the Turner Memorial AME Church and, by 2002, was hours away from being converted into a nightclub.<\/p>\n

However, a trio of Jewish developers rushed in and purchased it for $5 million. Before long, they had created a coalition that focused on creating an urban facility that was part synagogue, part education complex, part community center and part concert hall \u2014 yet independent from the branches of Judaism that have defined the faith for the past century or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cJews in this generation, or generations, don\u2019t want to define themselves by the terms of the past,\u201d said Esther Foer, the synagogue\u2019s executive director. \u201cThose denominational labels \u2014 like \u2018Conservative\u2019 and \u2018Orthodox\u2019 and \u2018Conservadox\u2019 \u2014 don\u2019t matter much anymore, especially when you are talking about how people want to worship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat matters, at the end of the day, is that we are all Jews \u2014 who are praying.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Stutman was trained in a liberal Reconstructionist school, she stressed that the synagogue does not have one defining congregation or rabbi. Instead, it uses six prayer books and is served by six rabbis and scores of other worship leaders. Her \u201cSixth in the City\u201d services are attempts to create \u201cprimal worship\u201d experiences, mixing English and Hebrew with themes from many sources, including Judaism, mass media and different world religions.<\/p>\n

All of this is fitting in an age in which the vast majority of young Jews have no affiliation whatsoever with traditional Jewish institutions. Jewish leaders are struggling with this reality, as demonstrated by a 2001 survey that defined a Jew as someone whose \u201creligion is Jewish, OR, whose religion is Jewish and something else, OR, who has no religion and has at least one Jewish parent or a Jewish upbringing, OR, who has a non-monotheistic religion, and has at least one Jewish parent or a Jewish upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What matters, said Stutman, is that people are searching for connections and experiences that help define who they are \u2014 as Jews.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not defined by any one set of doctrines or dogmas \u2026 so every Jewish service is a fusion service,\u201d she said. \u201cAt any Jewish service there are people in the room with 1000 different views of God and half of them are probably atheists anyway. That\u2019s a given. What matters is that people know there is a place where they find community and keep searching.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For centuries, Jews have watched their rabbis show reverence to God during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rites by doing a prostration at the front of the synagogue. This symbolic act takes place during the \u201cAleinu\u201d prayer that reminds worshipers of their duty to \u201cbend our knees, and bow down, and give thanks, before the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1538,578,674,1550,934],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-judaism","tag-music","tag-postmodernism","tag-worship","tag-worship-wars"],"yoast_head":"\nSynagogue for Jewish seekers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For centuries, Jews have watched their rabbis show reverence to God during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rites by doing a prostration at the front of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Synagogue for Jewish seekers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For centuries, Jews have watched their rabbis show reverence to God during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rites by doing a prostration at the front of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-13T10:42:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/\",\"name\":\"Synagogue for Jewish seekers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-13T10:42:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-13T10:42:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"For centuries, Jews have watched their rabbis show reverence to God during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur rites by doing a prostration at the front of the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2010\/09\/synagogue-for-jewish-seekers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Synagogue for Jewish seekers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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