A Discussion on Jewish Religious Practices

Introduction

Modern society has had an improved tolerance to cultural differences among the people majorly here in the United States. People from all over the world immigrates, Native Americans, Black American, Indians, Jews, Hispanics, and French communities are coincidentally living together in this great land. The kind of live the people embrace of cultural pluralism is a reflection of interactive health relationship among the different ethical groups. Life in New Orleans Louisiana area is a type to admire and be emulated in other nations since the place has a vast multicultural tradition as the place is a convergence zone of all ethnic groups. The groups range from Natives, Red-head Indians, Chinese, Jewish, French, African Americans, and other culture cultures that immigrated to the region. The New Orleans society has exhibited the respect to differences in cultural practices by providing a premier arena where each ethnic group holds its norms without discrimination from other communities. Until an individual explores and studies on community cultural practices as an anthropologist, it's when there is the establishment of the core behaviors that govern the conduct of people; this is the reason why I undertook a study on the culture and religious practices of Jews as seen in the discussion of this paper.

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To effectively study the cultural organization of the Jewish community, I had to take part in their religious ceremonies, do direct interviews with the members, ask questions, and observe the conduct of their religious ceremonies. Since the people are found within my locality, reaching them was convenient regarding time and expenses to be used to reach the people (De Lange et al., 18). I carried a reconnaissance visit to the synagogue of the Jews to familiarize with the time when the community engages in important religious practices.

Background Information About the Jewish Culture

The Jews are unique people who believe have to different genetic and biological origin from the rest of the people in the world. The community assumes to be the descendants of Abraham in the tribe of Judah of the Israelites and thus direct descendants of biblical man (Dorff 129). Thus, members of the community operate under the governance of biblical rules and code of conduct. Interacting with the Jewish members is one of the best experiences that I have ever had since the people value goodness reflected in the manner in which individual conduct in interaction with other people. The members are disheartened from envy, jealousy, and hate ensuring the community member are kind and embrace sharing the spirit with other members as posted in the religious book (De Lange et al., 22). In essence, visiting the group was easy as they felt it easy to share their crucial cultural information with me.

Moreover, the cultural research on the Jews was made a success based on the fact that these individuals communicate with visitors and among themselves with a sharp and welcoming voice full of humor. Their communication etiquette is usually governed by gender and age aspects to produce a hospitable communication among the members (Dorff 133). In the context, women are obligated to respect men who take the top hierarchy in the community's social system. Also, children observe the etiquette of communication when conversing with senior members of the community- older men and women. In information sharing, the ethnic group embraces honesty which made it more beneficial to research with the question and answer literal communication style. The language and communication style of the community makes the community the most viable community to study to reduce the biases in the information I intended to obtain from the community. One of the important cultural principle that I was expected to observe in the carrying out of the study was that the gender groups do not openly converse, touch, hug, or have any physical approaches in public except married couples. The gender-interaction rule has existed since the history of the ethnic group (De Lange et al., 20). Thus it should be respected to create a mutual and friendly working relationship with the group.

The main objective for surveying Jewish religious practices was to establish the most important ceremony in their religious calendar. In which I found out that the Yom Kippur is the most influential and celebrated holiday among most Jews (Dorff 115). A religious holiday stipulated from the bible for celebration on the tenth day of the seventh season of the year "a day of atonement" historically being a mourning day and abstinence in the epoch of the second temple. Currently, the 25hours holiday is celebrated by all Jews despite age or religious affiliation as a prayer time to rejuvenate and reconcile the human relationship with God (De Lange et al., 14). Taking part in the race religious ritual of connecting of man to God is crucial for it establishes the differences in practices of religion thus I had to take part to be part of the 25-hour ceremony.

On the period of the ceremony, I arrived at the temple in New Orleans at the expected hours and became part of the congregation that visited the synagogue for the morning, midday and evening prayers. Through observation, I was able to see rituals that are carried out to connect man with God after a period of sins. Since I had carried out a pre-visit to the temple, I understood the religious code of conduct required during the day (Dorff 120). Moreover, I had a peer who knew the nature of my visit and informed the church clergy on my study-tour who opted to share a table with me after the evening prayers to provide wide knowledge about the community religious ceremony. I assembled my data collection tools that included a semi-structured interview for willing respondents along video and audio recording devices to collect audiovisual data from the clergy.

Findings on Jewish Religious Culture

From the audio recording, a question asked to the clergy on the evolution of nature of the holiday over centuries and effects of modernization on the traditional religious ceremony; the synagogue deacon recognized changes to have happened. First, the deacon asserted in recently the holiday is no longer mandatory as it used to be in the previous decades and now members are at free will to celebrate or decline the holiday (De Lange et al., 15). The clergy assumes that modernization threats the existence of the religion as its youthful members diverge to other more appealing religious practices emerging. Compared to my religion, as a Christian Catholic, the major religious holiday we celebrate is the Christmas day on 25th of December each year to recognize the birth of Jesus. Although this day is celebrated by many, it lacks religious importance as people defect to other personal luxuries rather than going to churches as done with Jews. Moreover, Christians Christmas holiday has become more optional especially taking part in religious practices such as visiting churches to pray and fulfilling its aim in spiritual life (Dorff 119). In the end, there is the recognition of cultural, religious practices as evolving with modernization as people appeal to religions.

The clergy also hinted that members of Jewish religion conduct specific rituals at the period of the ceremony which includes; fasting, a custom from the Torah (Leviticus) until evening meals, married couples stop having conjugal rights, and no bathing and wearing of shoes among other members. The twenty-five-hour period marks the time of spiritual purity in members to cleanse them before they present themselves before God (Dorff 89). Compared to my religion, during the most celebrated holiday, Christmas there lacks a margin of dos' and don'ts that members are to observe. For Jews, Catholic religious behavior can be considered impure (De Lange et al., 16). However, lack of rituals to control Christian repentance should not be factors drive religious disparity but a facet that bring understanding differences in cultural practices.

In the synagogue congregation, I was also able to observe and witness that during the all-day prayers, the Jews list their sins, a scripture from the story of Johan and the reading of Whale, and gates are closed to provide privacy and cater room for personal submission to God. Moreover, a memorial service is made, and long notes from shofar read to the congregation (Dorff 110). In the process, members are reminded of the religious code of conduct from the shofar, guided on repentance through confession and conducting dedication prayer to God to request for forgiveness. In Christianity, the repentance of sins and asking for forgiveness prayers are made on a daily basis and lacks a special day as it is among the Jews. Among the Catholics, to be precise, a member conducts personal prayers through the mother of Jesus, Mary and asks forgiveness to Jesus and after it's presumed to be forgiven by God. Also, a member may choose any day of the week and visit Church authority; fathers and sisters to confess its sins and after that guided repentance procedure (De Lange et al., 18). In summary, each religion culture has behaviors that its members like and feel comfortable with them. Thus everybody has a practice that makes it a member of the religious affiliation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the exploration of the Jewish ethnic group was essential in the establishment as to why the community exists as a different race as well as a religious group. I was able to understand Jewish beliefs on their origin from the biblical tribe make them a race and a religious group. The knowledge is not only important in the evaluation of Jewish religion but also understanding existing similarities in religious groups to enable them to cohort a community in peace.

References

De Lange, Nicholas Robert Michael, and Nicholas de Lange. An introduction to Judaism. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Dorff, Elliot N. "The Jewish tradition: religious beliefs and healthcare decisions." (2016).