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A synagogue (from Greek synagoge "place of assembly" literally "meeting, assembly,") is a Jewish house of prayer and study. The Hebrew term for synagogue is Beit Knesset (House of Assembly) or Beit Tefila (House of Prayer). There are usually separate rooms for prayer (the main sanctuary) and smaller rooms for study. Rooms set aside for study are referred to as a "Beth midrash" (Hebrew, House of study.) Art Nouveau style synagogue Communal prayer is an important feature of Judaism. Though prayers can be said anywhere, according to halakha Jews should ideally pray three times a day in a minyan, and a synagogue's primary purpose is typically to accommodate such communal prayer.
Synagogues are not used only for prayer, but also for communal activities, adult education and Hebrew schools for school-age children, hence the common Yiddish term shul for synagogue, which comes from the Middle High German word for school. Portuguese Jews call it esnoga, which derives from "synagogue".
Typically a synagogue (especially in North America and in Europe) will have a dual leadership: a lay leadership comprising a committee and a president (or chairperson) who are democratically elected by all members, and a spiritual guide, a rabbi, appointed by the lay leadership. A rabbi is not essential and indeed many synagogues do not have one.
Varieties
Most Conservative and many Orthodox Jews refer to their houses of worship as synagogues; many Orthodox Jews use the Yiddish term shul (meaning "school"), and a few use the Hebrew term Beit Knesset (meaning "house of assembly"), or, amongst some Sephardim, the Spanish and Portuguese term esnoga. Most Reform and some Conservative Jews use the term "Temple" to describe their house of worship, but most traditional Jews find this term inaccurate, as Judaism has historically only had one Temple, the Temple in Jerusalem.
Most Conservative and Orthodox synagogues have prayer services every day; a morning service, and a combined afternoon-evening service. Larger (particularly Orthodox) synagogues may have multiple morning, afternoon, and evening services at different times, to accommodate the schedules of their congregants. There are special services on Shabbat (the Sabbath) and on the Jewish holidays; again, larger (particularly Orthodox) synagogues may have multiple simultaneous or overlapping services in different rooms, geared to different groups (e.g. early risers, families, children, young adults). Many Reform Temples only have prayer services once or twice a week.
Many Jews have a regular place of worship that is not a synagogue by the usual definition of the term. Many Haredi Jews worship in shteibels (Yiddish: "little booths"), rooms in private houses or places of business set aside for the express purpose of prayer. Shteibels do not offer the communal services of a synagogue, and are for prayer services alone. Many non-Orthodox Jews have formed chavurot (prayer fellowships) which meet at a regular place and time, usually in someone's house or apartment.
Blueprint for synagogues A synagogue may contain any (or none) of these features: an ark, called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim, where the Torah scrolls are kept (the ark is often closed with an ornate curtain (parokhet) outside or inside the ark doors); a large elevated reader's platform, called bimah by Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah is read (and the services conducted from in Sephardi synagogues); a ner tamid, a constantly lit light as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem; mainly in Ashkenazi synagogues, a pulpit facing the congregation to preach from and a pulpit facing the Ark for the Hazzan (reader) to lead the prayers from. A synagogue may have artworks — especially ornamentation of the main interior features (also a chanukiah for Chanukah) — but normally not 3-dimensional artwork (sculpture) depicting naturally occurring objects, as these are often considered to be like idolatry. Rabbis have suggested that a synagogue should have twelve windows, plain or depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel, to remind participants that their prayers are not individual but communal, i.e., for all the people of Israel, present or not.
The synagogue, or if it is a multi-purpose building, prayer sanctuaries within the synagogue, should face towards Jerusalem. Thus sanctuaries in the Western world generally face east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. However this orientation need not be exact, and occasionally synagogues face other directions, if the plot of land on which they are built does not allow the correct orientation. There is a disagreement regarding which direction one should face if the synagogue should face the incorrect direction. According to the Shulkhan Arukh Orach Chaim 94:3, "A synagogue in which they set up the holy ark on the wall in the southern direction and everyone prayers toward the ark which is to the south — one can pray toward the east even though the whole congregation is praying toward the south. [By doing so] there is no issue of yehura (public display of arrogance) or eiva (arousing hatred) (Yad Eliyahu 1), but a great scholar disagreed with him [and held that] one may only pray toward the direction which the congregation is praying." The Mishna Berura compromises in a way: stating that one should face the direction the congregation is facing but can turn the head to face the Jerusalem if possible.
It is a myth that synagogues are based on the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact the influence of other local religious buildings can occasionally be seen. The myth may have arisen because synagogues have been referred to in the Rabbinical Literature as Small Temples and indeed there popularity originated with the destruction of the original Temple as an alternative to the central worship in Jerusalem. According to tradition, the Divine Presence can be found when there is a minyan (a quorum, of ten — in Orthodox Judaism defined as ten Jewish men age 13 or over).
Famous Synagogues Altneuschul in Prague, the Czech Republic, is the oldest synagogue in Europe dating from the 11th century. (1574 synagogues were damaged or destroyed on Kristallnacht by Nazis in Germany and Austria, including many of the greatest synagogues of Europe.)
Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, USA is the oldest synagogoue in North America, it was dedicated in 1763.
The synagogue in the old city of Kochi, Kerala State, India, is from 1568.
In Israel there are many archaeological ruins of synagogues from thousands of years ago, but the small ruined synagogue at Masada is believed to be the world's oldest, and the only one known to date from the time of the Second Temple.
The largest synagogue in the world is Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue, New York City, USA with an area of 3,523 sq m. Other large synagogues are the Great Synagogues on King George Street, Jerusalem, Israel; Dohány Street, Budapest, Hungary; and in Pilsen, the Czech Republic.
SYNAGOGUE, literally "assemblage" is the term employed to denote either a congregation of Jews, i.e. a local circle accustomed to meet together for worship and religious instruction, or the building in which the congregation met. In the first sense the word is a translation of noa, keneseth (assemblage), in the second of raan iva, beth hakkeneseth (house of assemblage). Further the term is often used to denote the system of Judaism, as when the " Synagogue " is contrasted to the " Church." The germ of the synagogue, that is, of religious assemblages dissociated from the ancient ritual of the altar, may be found in the circle of the prophets and their disciples (see especially Isa. viii. 16 seq.) ; but the synagogue as an institution characteristic of Judaism arose after the work of Ezra, and is closely connected with the development of Judaism, to which his reformation gave definite shape. From the time of Ezra downwards it was the business of every Jew to know the law; the school (beth hammidr&sh) trained scholars, but the synagogue, where the law was read every Sabbath (Acts xv. 21), was the means of popular instruction. Such synagogues existed in all parts of Judaea in the time of Ps. Ixxiv. 8 (probably a psalm of the Persian period); in Acts xv. 21 it appears that they had existed for many generations " in every city." This held good not only for Palestine, but for the Dispersion; in post-Talmudic times the rule was that a synagogue must be built wherever there were ten Jews. In the Dispersion the synagogue filled a greater place in the communal life, for on Palestinian soil the Temple enjoyed a predominant position. In this sense the synagogue is a child of the Dispersion, but this does not imply that it was a product of the Hellenic diaspora. For the Aramaic papyri discovered at Assuan show that in the 5th century B.C. the Egyptian Jews had their place of worship in Syene long before Greek influences had begun to make themselves felt. The fact that the Books of the Maccabees never refer to synagogues is not evidence that synagogues were unknown in Judaea in the Maccabean period. These books refer mostly to a time of war, when assemblages in the cities were impossible; their interest, moreover, is concentrated in the Temple and the restoration of its services. During the second Temple there is no doubt but that public worship was organized in the provinces as well as in the Jewish settlements outside the Holy Land. And though the name " synagogue " varies with Trpoowxi? ("place of prayer"), it appears that everywhere the assemblage was primarily one for instruction in the law; the synagogue, as Philo puts it, was a SiSaanaKtiov. Prayer, in the more restricted sense, invariably accompanied the instruction, and several parts of the extant liturgy go back to the 3rd century B.C. A formed institution of this sort required some organization: he general order of the service was directed by one or more "rulersof the synagogue" (a.p\<.Modern synagogues are mostly built of oblong shape, with a gallery for women. Since the middle ages, Renaissance and Moorish types of decoration have been generally favored, but there is nowadays a great variety of types. The ancient synagogue of Alexandria (destroyed by Trajan) was a basilica. A number of recent synagogues have been built in octagonal form. The main interior features of the synagogue are the "ark" (a cupboard containing the scrolls of the law, &c.) and the almemar (or reading-desk, from the Arabic al-minbar, pulpit). This is sometimes in the centre, sometimes at the eastern end of the building. The Talmud prescribed an elevated site for the synagogue, but this rule has been impossible of fulfilment in modern times. The synagogues are theoretically " orientated " i.e. the ark (which worshippers face during the principal prayer) is on the eastern side. But this rule, too, is often ignored under the stress of architectural difficulties.
Jewish tradition has a great deal to say about a body called the great synagogue, which is supposed to have been the supreme religious authority from the cessation of prophecy to the time of the high priest Simeon the Just, and is even said to have fixed the Old Testament canon (cf. v. 3 seq.). But Kuenen in his essay Over de Mannen der Groote Synagoge (Versiagen of the Amsterdam Academy, 1876) has powerfully argued that these traditions are fiction, and that the name keneseth haggadola originally denoted, not a standing authority~ but the great convocation of Neh. viii.x. Some more recent scholars are, however, more willing to attach credence to the older tradition.
Compare, in general, Schurer, Geschichte des juedischen Volkes, 27, where the older literature is catalogued. For some unconventional views the reader may refer to M. Friedlander, Synagoge und Kirche in ihren Anfangen (Berlin, 1908). For the usages of the synagogue in more recent times, see Buxtorf, Synagoga judaica (Basel, 1641). On the history of synagogue services the works of Zunz are the chief authorities; there is also a good article on Liturgy in the Jewish Encyclopedia. Useful summaries in English are to be found in Dembitz, Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home (Philadelphia, 1898); and Oesterley and Box, The Religion and Worship of the Synagogue (London, 1907). The article Synagogue in the Jewish Encyclopedia is illustrated with numerous pictures of buildings and plans.
See also
References This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. |
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