Scripture, in this church is the primary way of knowing truth, taken very literal and is constantly present throughout their Sabbath days, meaning their holy days and days of rest. During the first part of their weekly service day, they begin with worship to traditional Hebrew songs and then reread their weekly readings from their books. Some of the readings were spoken in Hebrew, which was later explained to us that every translation from the original Scriptures are not as accurate as the actual writings, so to fully comprehend God’s word the whole congregation is required to learn Hebrew. Usually, after the morning service and feast were done, the adults had an advanced Hebrew class where they would interpret different readings. Even the children were being taught the different language at a young age. Seeing the congregation’s dedication to learning Hebrew made me feel weak and small because I never thought about learning Hebrew to know God better, I just assumed reading the Bible was enough. In that moment, I doubted myself and my faith. I questioned why my church was not committed to learning God’s true words. Tradition, along with Scripture was seen also as an important component of this congregation. Throughout the entire service I observed many traditions that were very new to me. For example this congregation would allow many of the young children to read from the Torah and blow their Shofar (the instrument blown during prayers), communion was never taken during the service, dancing and singing was always required, a feast would come in between morning and evenings service, and God was not allowed to be said during any part of the service. At my current church that I go to, children are not a huge part of the adult service since they have their own classes, however at this church I was very impressed
Scripture, in this church is the primary way of knowing truth, taken very literal and is constantly present throughout their Sabbath days, meaning their holy days and days of rest. During the first part of their weekly service day, they begin with worship to traditional Hebrew songs and then reread their weekly readings from their books. Some of the readings were spoken in Hebrew, which was later explained to us that every translation from the original Scriptures are not as accurate as the actual writings, so to fully comprehend God’s word the whole congregation is required to learn Hebrew. Usually, after the morning service and feast were done, the adults had an advanced Hebrew class where they would interpret different readings. Even the children were being taught the different language at a young age. Seeing the congregation’s dedication to learning Hebrew made me feel weak and small because I never thought about learning Hebrew to know God better, I just assumed reading the Bible was enough. In that moment, I doubted myself and my faith. I questioned why my church was not committed to learning God’s true words. Tradition, along with Scripture was seen also as an important component of this congregation. Throughout the entire service I observed many traditions that were very new to me. For example this congregation would allow many of the young children to read from the Torah and blow their Shofar (the instrument blown during prayers), communion was never taken during the service, dancing and singing was always required, a feast would come in between morning and evenings service, and God was not allowed to be said during any part of the service. At my current church that I go to, children are not a huge part of the adult service since they have their own classes, however at this church I was very impressed