Page 56 - Resources

The commandments: Over the ark will be the 10 commandments, which with the

Shema are seen as central to the Jewish faith.

The Menorah: The seven branched candlestick symbolising the creation of the world.

Services in the synagogue

Orthodox synagogues will have services three times a day (morning, afternoon and
evening). For all synagogues the important service of the week is the Sabbath, or
Shabbat. There will be three services, one on Friday evening after sunsetl, one on

Saturday morning and one on Saturday afternoon. As well as these services the
feast days will involved special synagogue services. However all these services can
be performed in the home. Jewish worship is not dependent on the synagogue, unlike
Christian worship which his much more dependent on the church. Apart from the

services the synagogue will be used like a community centre. Wedding reception and
Bar / Bat Mitzvah celebrations will be held in the synagogue. In addition most
synagogues will have a Hebrew school (shule), a youth club, a crèche, a library and
study room, an office for the Rabbi, and will be a gathering place for the Jewish
community.

Bimah

From Wikipedia, the free on-line encyclopedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagogue

A bimah (among Ashkenazim) or tebah (among Sephardim) is the elevated area or
platform in a Jewish synagogue which is intended to serve as the place where the

person reading aloud from the Torah stands during the Torah reading service. The
bimah is sometimes described as an altar or tower. The bimah was located in the
center of the synagogue most likely just as the temporary wooden Bimah (this is the
origin of the term) was central to the "women's courtyard" of the Jewish Temple
during the Hakhel ceremony. [citation needed] This later became a sign of the orthodox

synagogue in the mid 1800s. The Reform (Neolog) temples moved the bimah to the
front of the temple facing the congregation. One of the well known decrees of the
Chatam Sofer was that the Bimah must remain in the center of the orthodox
synagogue.

The bimah is typically elevated by two or three steps, as was the bimah in the
Temple. At the celebration of the Shavuot holiday when synagogues are decorated
with flowers, many synagogues have special arches that they place over the bimah

and adorn with floral displays. The importance of the Bimah is to show that the
reader is the most important at that moment in time, and to make it easier to hear
ther reader of the Torah.

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