Friday evening I went to a Jewish Synagogue for the first time. It was to celebrate my friend Greg's conversion to Judaism, the religion of his wife Julia.
I remember when he announced his intention to "convert" to Judaism a couple of years ago how surprised I was that it was so much work. You don't just show up at synagogue and you are in, you have to work for it. It is a long period of study, essay writing, interviews, and of course the dreaded cicumcision. There's even a ritual drawing of blood for the already circumcised - so even they don't get away that easy. All in all, a very significant effort, enough to put anyone off.
Anyway, Friday night, was the culmination of Greg's labours and his acceptance into the Jewish community and it was my first time attending a Jewish ceremony. Thankfully there were a few other gentiles there so I didn't feel too much of an outsider. And really they were all quite welcoming even though I had no idea what was going on. The ceremony was, I believe, a normal Friday night Shabat, and was quite informal really (it was a reform jewish community), lots of singing, lots of clapping of hands, standing up, sitting down, and then these cute little half bows - half curtsies at certain points of the ceremony. However the majority of the service was conducted in Hebrew, and so was meaningless to me.
It's easy for an atheist like me to get all cynical about this stuff, but I did like the really strong sense of community and family among the congregation and I did like and was pleasantly surprised by the informality of it all. So, all in all, it was very interesting to observe. I don't think I will be signing up for the conversion myself but I have respect for Greg and what he undertook.
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