A Synagogue Service and a Lesson on Art

Tonight I attended a Shabbat service at Beth Meyer, a conservative synagogue in Raleigh. The service was beautiful. The text of the service consisted almost entirely of passages from the Old Testament, which were sung in Hebrew. The majority of the passages came from the Torah and the Psalter; they focused on praise, thanksgiving, and repentance. There was no sermon, and there were no ceremonies of any kind. There was just the singing of Scripture, with a few short announcements. The music was reverent, peaceful, and joyful. It was also quite simple - the rabbi sang, a man next to him played an acoustic guitar, and they were joined by about twenty voices from the congregation. That was all. No choir, no band, just one guy on a guitar and about two dozen people singing. I wish that I could convey the richness of the experience, but I can't. Suffice it to say that I'm glad I went, and I plan to visit again soon. I should add that the people were remarkably friendly, and that the sanctuary was beautiful. (I would describe it as modern but cozy.) I was particularly struck by a vertical banner that depicted Mt. Sinai at the top and the burning bush of Moses at the bottom. It reminded me of the long history of Israel. Specifically, it reminded me that God called Abraham four thousand years ago, and that He brought Israel out of Egypt about eight hundred years after that. I was encouraged by these thoughts.

One takeaway from the evening is that Christian churches need to include more of the Old Testament in their services. We lose so much by neglecting it. Many Reformed churches preach through books of the Old Testament, but they tend to be pretty selective in their choices - I can't recall ever hearing a sermon series on Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, or Joshua, and I could say the same for many other books of the Old Testament.

Anyway, Jill and I made dinner when I got home, and then we watched a documentary on origami. It was called Between the Folds, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in art or math (especially geometry). I made a few origami cranes when I was a kid, and I thought it was fun enough, but that was it. I had no idea how advanced origami had become, and let me tell you - it has become incredibly advanced. The documentary highlighted the work of a number of artists. Nearly all of it was interesting, and it was hard to believe that most of it had been made from a single sheet of paper, even after seeing the patterns and the time-lapse photos. One thing that especially intrigued me was the variety of origami styles. There are whole artistic movements within origami. I never would have guessed that origami could be done in so many different ways. I also never would have guessed that there were so many origami enthusiasts in the world. Many of the artists interviewed expressed astonishment that one flat piece of paper could be folded into so many different shapes and sizes. At first, I wasn't very impressed by this fact. However, by the end of the documentary, I think that I was beginning to understand what they meant.