Judaism Paper.

Temple  Akiba  in  Culver  City   The  address  is  5249  S.  Sepulveda  Blvd.  Culver  City,  California  90230     The  Synagogue  website:     http://www.templeakiba.net/     Date  of  visit  Friday,  March  13th      at  7  pm     hosted  by  Rabbi  Zach  Shapiro     Notes:    

• When  I  first  got  there,  the  place  was  under  renovation.    So  it   wasn’t  clear  from  where  to  enter,  but  luckily  there  were  a  lot  of   people  walking  towards  the  same  direction  so  I  followed  them   and  ended  up  at  the  entrance.    

• Before  I  entered  I  met  with  more  than  5  Jewish  people  who  were   in  thier  late  50s  and  they  were  saying  “shalom”  (Peace)  to  each   other  and  to  me.  They  were  all  very  welcoming  and  spoke  to  me  in   some  Hebrew  words  that  I  didn’t  understand.  Later  I  told  them   that  I’m  not  a  Jewish  person  and  they  even  welcomed  me  more.  

• When  we  first  entered  there  was  a  woman  that  was  giving  the   book  of  “Shabbat”  along  with  brochures.  Also  she  was  holding  a   plastic  container  that  contained  “Kippahs”    Jewish  hat.    They  told   me  it  was  optional  to  wear  them  or  not.  So  I  didn’t  take  one.    

• The  temple  seating  is  divided  into  3  major  columns  each   contained  10  rows.    

• There  was  a  choir  consisting  of  all  elder  women  and  a  pianist.   They  were  all  seated  on  the  right  column.  They  had  stuff  like  little   drums  and  so  on.    

• When  we  entered  the  temple  they  had  all  the  students  seated  at   the  center  column  in  the  back  rows.  We  were  8  or  9  students.  All   non  jews.    

• The  left  column  contained  the  majority  of  the  attendees.     • Before  the  service  started  people  were  still  greeting  each  other.   • I  noticed  most  of  them  if  not  all  know  each  other  by  names  and   other  family  members  which  is  very  different  from  my  visit  to  the   church.  However,  in  Mosques  a  great  number  of  people  know  each   other  but  not  the  majority.    

• I  noticed  there  was  no  middle  age  people  from  (20s  to  40s)  except   one  or  two‼!  

• However  there  was  a  number  of  kids  of  ages  17  and  under.     • The  Rabbi  had  a  women  standing  next  to  him  that  seems  to  sing   with  a  beautiful  voice  and  she  was  the  maestro  of  the  choir  and   told  them  when  to  play  when  not  to.    

• The  Rabbi  was  in  his  mid  40s  and  he  first  started  welcoming  the   people  and  talked  about  the  building  and  the  new  renovations  in   it.      

• He  asked  the  people  what’s  their  favorite  window?  Many  gave   answers  and  they  were  all  concerning  the  affect  of  light  to  the   human  soul  and  body  and  how  important  that  is.    

• Later,  he  told  us  that  today  they  will  have  a  “bar  mitzvah“  for   one  of  the  kids  of  age  13  named  Joshua.        

• Later  the  rabbi  told  the  people  to  open  a  certain  page  from  the   book  and  either  stand  and  sing  their  prayers  or  sometimes  be   seated  and  sing  too.  This  has  been  going  for  an  hour  and  30   minutes.    

• However  some  of  them  were  sung  differently  and  sometimes  they   perform  certain  body  movements.    

• Later  the  held  the  bar  mitzvah  for  Joshua  and  asked  his  family  to   come  up  to  the  stage  with  him.  They  performed  the  bar  mitzvah   and  had  him  read  some  Torah  and  light  up  two  candles  and  then   they  covered  their  eyes  and  drank  some  water.    

• Finally  the  rabbi  brought  down  the  Torah  and  had  people   touching  it  with  their  books.    Once  they  finished  they  brought  up  a   piece  of  bread  that  everyone  had  to  touch  at  the  same  time.  If   you’re  not  able  to  reach  the  bread  then  touch  the  person  whos   touching  it.    

• After  that  they  all  went  to  eat  some  pies  and  snacks.     • We  met  with  the  rabbi  afterwards  and  asked  some  questions.         These  are  all  the  notes  I  took.  Talk  about  them  and  compare  them   to  my  religion  experience  as  a  Muslim.  Also,  compare  it  to  my   experience  at  the  orthodox  church.