Judaism
When it comes to architecture and religion, these different buildings and structures that relate to a certain religion become very sacred to the religion. Depending on where it is located, what they do or they worship in the building can determine its sacred value. These different structures have religious and sacred meaning to these religions. It’s where they can go and worship freely and have people with the same values and religious thoughts. I am going to talk about how different buildings are sacred and important in Judaism. These can be places where they worship or they feel is very important to their religion.
The first structure is called the Western Wall. In 70 C.E., the Romans destroyed the Second
Temple and left only one wall standing.
The Jews always went to this wall to worship and became the holiest spot
in the Jews Religion. They came here to
thank God and to pray. They started to
call this wall the “Wailing Wall” but this term is not used in Hebrew so it
never really stuck. For a while, the
Jews were under Jordanian rule and they weren't allowed to go to the Western
Wall to worship. After a while, the
first Jew to go back and pray was Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. He went and revived a Jewish tradition by
putting written petitions in the cracks of the walls. It was later discovered that Dayan's prayer
was a lasting peace "descend upon the House of Israel”. “There are people with hearts of stone, and
stones with hearts of people.” A rabbi in Jerusalem once told me that the
Hebrew expression “The walls have ears” was originally said about the Western
Wall.” (Joseph Telushkin, 2013) Today, the Wall is a national symbol. Many opening or closing ceremonies of many
Jewish events, including secular ones, are conducted there.
This wall is there for Jews to come and worship freely and whenever they feel. They have freedom of religion and worship when they come here. This wall is where the Jews can come worship freely and pray to and for the old temple that used to stand there. I would connect this to Freedom and Responsibility. They have the freedom to come here and worship and pray. They can get away and come here to escape the world.
This wall is there for Jews to come and worship freely and whenever they feel. They have freedom of religion and worship when they come here. This wall is where the Jews can come worship freely and pray to and for the old temple that used to stand there. I would connect this to Freedom and Responsibility. They have the freedom to come here and worship and pray. They can get away and come here to escape the world.
The next biggest type of architectural structures in the Jewish Religion would be their many different types of synagogues. These usually represent the temple where they can come worship in an enclosed area. With The Western Wall, they were worshiping out in the open and didn’t have much privacy other than in their heads. With synagogues, they can come inside and worship privately. In very early years, the Synagogue became the central institution of Jewish religion and later was preserved. The Synagogue then became the center of everything. They would hold different activities here, it would act as a temple, and they just did many different things in the Synagogues. All in all, the Jewish Synagogue is like a church, more or less. It is the center of everything they do. At minimum, a synagogue is a place of prayer. They hold community prayer services here so you can all pray as a community. These synagogues can usually be referred to as “Little Temples”. Not only can you pray here in a synagogue, but they also call it the house of study. The study of the religious texts never end. These studies become a lifelong task. Most synagogues have a well-stocked library of all of the sacred texts and much, much more. People in the community can come here whenever they wish and study. For the children, the synagogue is the primary place of education. They come here for religious education. The synagogue also functions as a social welfare agency. They collect and dispense money and other items for those that are in need or aid of money and other things within the community.
Not only do I think that architecture has to do with the structure of the building, but this can also apply to what we see inside of a structure and how the structure is on the inside. Here are some analyzed structures and objects that are within different synagogues in the Jewish Religion.
There are different ritual items that are in different synagogues. They have different ways they have to face for certain prayers, and there are different things that represent sacred things in the religion. For example, there is an Ark usually placed in a synagogue. This Ark is placed in the front, which is usually the side towards Jerusalem. The Ark has doors as well as an inner curtain called a Parokhet. This curtain is in imitation of the curtain in the Sanctuary in The Temple, and is named for it. During certain prayers, the doors of the Ark may be open or the curtain may be open and sometimes those things are closed. The opening of the doors and/or curtains is taken as an honor and a member of the congregation does it. Another big item that is important in the synagogue is the Menorah. The Menorah will usually have 6 to 8 branches. The reason for this is that the Temple Menorah has 7 branches and exact duplication of the Temple’s rituals is seen as improper.