Impressions Of A Service In A Synagogue

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 252, 23 October 1943, Page 4

Impressions Of A Service In A Synagogue

I attended a service in the Synagogue in Auckland on the Day of Atonement (October 8). It commenced at 6.30 p.m., and the Synagogue was crowded. There were several other Christian ministers present. I felt that I was in an atmosphere similar to that to which Jesus must have been accustomed during

By Rev-. C. W. Chandler

His lifetime on earth. The same passages from the Torah were read. The same scrolls of the law were taken from the Ark and placed on a broad lectern for reading. The same words written in Hebrew were inscribed over the Ark, "Remember before whom thou standest." Judaism is a religion of recollection—of remembering-. "The keyword of Judaism is 'Remember.'" It was tipon those words over the Ark that the Rabbi based his sermon. I looked into the faces of those who were present. I suspected that a number of them were refugees, and that they had seen and experienced some of the horrors of Nazi rule. There were quite a number of American and New Zealand soldiers, sailors and airmen in the congregation. Every available seat was occupied. The Rabbi was vested in an alb or linen ephod, and amice and girdle such as many of us wear at the Eucharist, and he had upon his head a white hat like that which I have seen in'pictures on the heads of the Levites as they bore the Ark of the Covenant outside the walls of Jericho. I thought to myself, if this is the chrysalis out of which the Christian Church has emerged, how necessary it is that it should be preserved in all its pristine strength and simplicity. A perpetual light Avas burning before the Sacred Ark, like the one that burns before the Tabernacle in many Christian churches, and with a number of the prayers I was thoroughly familiar. "O Lord open Thou my lips. And my mouth shall declare Thy praise." Those are the words so many of us use at the commencement of Matins and Evensong. And then when we came to the words from Exodus 31. 16-17, "and the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath . . . it is a sign between me and the Children of Israel for ever," I recognised how right it was that they should thus have assembled, and that they should thus be keeping the Sabbath rest, which is God's gift to all mankind through Moses. The Debt We Owe If Christianity were stripped of Judaism there,would be very little left. There would be no Bible, for (hat is the work of Jews from cover to cover. I recite the Shemang every Sunday before the Altar. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord Our God is one Lord, and thou shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all they mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy, strength, and thy neighbour as thyself." I wish some Jewish friend of mine would send me one to fasten on one of the doorposts of my vicarage. They have a Mission, and that they are made up of scattered remnants in every part of the world, — despised and rejected of men, —is, I feel sure, a part of God's redemption plan. If any people in this world favour a New Order, this people certainly does. They are steeped in the writings of the Prophets,- and those Prophets were all out for a New World wherein every man should sit beneath his own vine and fig tree, and wherein those who build houses should inhabit them, and wherein the fatherless, the widows and strangers should be succoured. They were revolutionaries of the first magnitude. According to'the prophecy of Zechariah (Ch. S, 20-23) the Jew. might well be the symbol and the mediator of the New Order. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, It shall come to pass. ... In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages, even shall take hold of the robe of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you." Jesus, speaking to the woman of Samaria said, "salvation is of the Jews." (John 4, 22). Anti-Semitism One thing is certain, there can be no New World Order without a complete eradication of the spirit of anti-Semitism, and my own keen interest in Judaism is inspired by a longing to play some part, however small, in bringing light to the darkened minds of those who are blinded Avith ignorant prejudice concerning this people. As it is to-day, every child brought up in a Christian Sunday School is a potential antiSemite. This is a dreadful state of affairs. The unfortunate reiteration in the New Testament of passages which, without some qualification on the part of the teacher, are bound to prejudice young minds against the people who write the words they read, is in itself one of the root causes of the growth of this ugly thing. "And the Jews took up stones to stone him," and "for fear of the Jews,", and a dozen other like passages make bogies out of the people to whom we owe so much. What a pity-the simple adjective, "some," is not incorporated in these passages when ' read. I always follow that practice," said Thomas Masar.yk, first President of Czechoslovakia, "he who looks up to Jesus as his Master cannot be anti-Semitic." You must be either one or the other, and if you are a Christian you cannot be an anti-Semite. But let us return to the synagogue. How moving were those moments when the whole congregation stood to recite in Hebrew, the lengthy Confiteor contained in the service for the day. We have trespassed—have been faithless—have robbed—have spoken basely— have committed iniquity—have wrought unrighteousness—have been presumptuous—have done violence—have forged lies—have counselled evil—have spoken falsely—have scoffed—have revolted— 'have 'blasphemed—have been stiff-necked —have done wickedly—but thou art the forgiver of Israel. Just after nine o'clock the congregation filed out into Princes Street —the service was over. Sins had been confessed, pardon had been received, and an atonement effected. A basic human need had been satisfied.