Shabbat Shalom

I had the privilege of attending my first Shabbat service this evening, at the Beth Shalom Synagogue in Raleigh. My initial reason for going was to show support, and unity, with the members of the Jewish community, which suffered a horrific tragedy earlier this week in Pittsburgh. As I was doing a bit of research about the service, it occurred to me that I was in some sense going back to our roots as Catholics and Christians. Jesus was, after all, a Jew. As I sat there at the service reading from the prayer book, I couldn’t help but take notice of the many linguistic similarities (for instance the use of the word “Amen”), as well as some of the similarities in the Sacramentals used in the Synagogue. The prayers recited reflected many of the same attributes of those we recite as Christians, and obviously some of the readings from what we term as the Old Testament were familiar territory. Moreover, I have a new found respect for anyone who can read Hebrew characters, and successfully pronounce much of the language. It seemed at first unusual to me, to not speak of Jesus, and yet when I heard the prayers and pleas for God’s love, care, and mercy, I knew these were addressing the same God, what we term as Trinitarian believers as God the Father. As I was walking out, I had the urge to ask questions about the service, and perhaps have some discourse about our theologically different perspectives, but tonight was not the night for that, tonight was simply a night to come together as the human beings, as God’s children, and show support for one another. Still, I don’t think I am done with attending some of the Shabbat services, there is still much I want to learn about our Jewish roots.