A
synagogue (from
Greek: ,
transliterated synagogē, "assembly";
beyt knesset, "house of assembly"; or
beyt t'fila, "house of prayer",
shul; ,
esnoga) is a
Jewish house of prayer.
Synagogue is commonly spoken of as a "shul" by Orthodox, "synagogue" by Conservative, and "Temple" by Reform. "Synagogue" is a good all-around word to cover the preceding three possibilities.
Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer (the main sanctuary), smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices. Some have a separate room for
Torah study, called the
beth midrash— ("House of Study").
Synagogues are not consecrated spaces, nor is a synagogue necessary for worship. Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews (a
minyan) assemble. Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together. A synagogue is not in the strictest sense a temple; it does not replace the long-since destroyed
Temple in
Jerusalem.
In colloquial speech, Israelis use the term
Bet knesset (assembly house). Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term "shul" (cognate with the
German schule, school) in everyday speech.
Spanish and Portuguese Jews calles the synagogue an
esnoga. Persian Jews and
Karaite Jews use the term
Kenesa, which is derived from
Aramaic, and some Arabic-speaking Jews use
knis. Some
Reform and
Conservative Jews use the word "temple".
Origins
Although synagogues existed well before the destruction of the
2nd Temple in 70 CE, communal worship in the time while the Temple still stood centered around the
korbanot ("sacrificial offerings") brought by the
kohanim ("priests") in the
Holy Temple. The all-day
Yom Kippur service, in fact, was an event in which the congregation both observed the movements of the
kohen gadol ("the high priest") as he offered the day's sacrifices and prayed for his success.
During the
Babylonian captivity (586-537 BCE) the
Men of the Great Assembly began the process of formalizing and standardizing Jewish services and prayers that did not depend on the functioning of the Temple in Jerusalem. Rabbi
Yohanan ben Zakkai, one of the leaders at the end of the Second Temple era, promulgated the idea of creating individual houses of worship in whatever locale Jews found themselves. This contributed to the continuity of the Jewish people by maintaining a unique identity and a portable way of worship despite the destruction of the Temple, according to many historians.
Synagogues in the sense of purpose-built spaces for worship, or rooms originally constructed for some other purpose but reserved for formal, communal prayer, however, existed long before the destruction of Solomon's Temple.
The earliest archaeological evidence for the existence of very early synagogues comes from Egypt, where stone synagogue dedication inscriptions dating from the third century BCE prove that synagogues existed by that date.
A synagogue dating from between 75 and 50 BCE has been uncovered at a Hasmonean-era winter palace near
Jericho. More than a dozen Second Temple era synagogues have been identified by archaeologists.
Any Jew or group of Jews can build a synagogue. Synagogues have been constructed by ancient Jewish kings, by wealthy patrons, as part of a wide range of human institutions including secular educational institutions, governments, and hotels, by the entire community of Jews living in a particular place, or by sub-groups of Jews arrayed according to occupation, ethnicity (I.e. the Sephardic, Polish or Persian Jews of a town,) style of religious observance (i.e., a Reform or an Orthodox synagogue,) or by the followers of a particular rabbi.
Architectural design
There is no set
blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes as well as interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. In fact, the influence from other local religious buildings can often be seen in synagogue arches, domes and towers.
Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in
Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged. The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The surviving synagogues of medieval Spain are embellished with
mudéjar plasterwork. The surviving medieval synagogues in
Budapest and
Prague are typical
Gothic structures.
The emancipation of Jews in
European countries not only enabled Jews to enter fields of enterprise from which they were formerly barred, but gave them the right to build synagogues without needing special permissions, synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. These were built across Europe and in the United States in all of the historicist or revival styles then in fashion. Thus there were
Neoclassical,
Neo-Byzantine,
Romanesque Revival Moorish Revival,
Gothic Revival, and
Greek Revival. There are
Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one
Mayan Revival synagogue. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century heyday of historicist architecture, however, most historicist synagogues, even the most magnificent ones, did not attempt a pure style, or even any particular style, and are best described as eclectic.
In the post-war era, synagogue architecture abandoned historicist styles for modernism.
Interior elements
left|thumb|Bimah of the Łańcut SynagogueAll synagogues contain a
Torah Ark, a table from which the Torah is read, and a desk for the prayer leader.
The Torah Ark, (Hebrew:
Aron Kodesh—ארון קודש) (called the
heikhal—היכל [temple] by
Sephardim) is a cabinet in which the
Torah scrolls are kept.
The ark in a synagogue is positioned in almost always such a way that those who face it, face towards
Jerusalem. Thus, sanctuary seating plans in the Western world generally face
east, while those east of Israel face west. Sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. Occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons; in such cases, some individuals might turn to face Jerusalem when standing for prayers, but the congregation as a whole does not.
The ark is reminiscent of the
Ark of the Covenant which contained the tablets with
Ten Commandments. This is the holiest spot in a synagogue, equivalent to the
Holy of Holies. The ark is often closed with an ornate curtain, the
, which hangs outside or inside the ark doors.
A large, raised, reader's platform called the
() by Ashkenazim and
by Sephardim, where the Torah scroll is placed to be read. Is a feature of all synagogues. In Sephardi synagogues it is also used as the prayer leader's reading desk.
Other traditional features include a continually-lit lamp or lantern, usually electric in contemporary synagogues, called the
(), the "Eternal Light," used as a reminder of the western lamp of the
menorah of the
Temple in Jerusalem, which remained miraculously lit always. Many have an elaborate chair named for the prophet
Elijah and only sat upon during the ceremony of
Brit milah. Many synagogues have a large seven-branched candelabrum commemorating the full
Menorah. Most contemporary synagogues also feature a lectern for the rabbi.
A synagogue may be decorated with artwork, but in the Rabbinic and Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional sculptures and depictions of the human body are not allowed, as these are considered akin to idolatry.
Until the 19th century, an
Ashkenazi synagogue, all seats most often faced the 'Torah Ark. In a
Sephardi synagogue, seats were usually arranged around the perimeter of the sanctuary, but when the worshippers stood up to pray, everyone faced the Ark. In Ashkenazi synagogues The
Torah was read on a reader's table located in the center of the room, while the leader of the prayer service, the
, stood at his own lectern or table, facing the Ark. In Sephardic synagogues, the table for reading the Torah was commonly placed at the opposite side of the room form the Torah Ark, leaving the center of the floor empty for the use of a ceremonial procession carrying the Torah between the Ark and the reading table.
Denominational differences
Orthodox synagogues feature a partition () dividing the men's and women's seating areas, or a separate women's section located on a balcony.
The
German Reform movement which arose in the early 1800s made many changes to the traditional look of the synagogue, keeping with its desire to simultaneously stay Jewish yet be accepted by the host culture.
The first Reform synagogue, which opened in
Hamburg in 1811, introduced changes that made the synagogue look more like a
church. These included: the installation of an
organ to accompany the prayers (even on
Shabbat, when musical instruments are proscribed by
halakha, a choir to accompany the
Hazzan, and vestments for the synagogue rabbi to wear.
In following decades, the central reader's table, the
bimah, was moved to the front of the Reform sanctuary—previously unheard-of in Orthodox synagogues. The rabbi now delivered his
sermon from the front, much as the
Christian ministers delivered their sermons in a church. The synagogue was renamed a "temple", to emphasize that the movement no longer looked forward to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Synagogue as community center
Synagogues often take on a broader role in modern Jewish communities and may include additional facilities such as a catering hall, kosher kitchen, religious school, library, day care center and a smaller chapel for daily services.
Synagogue offshoots
Since Orthodox Jews prefer to collect a minyan (a quorum of ten) rather than pray alone, they commonly assemble at pre-arranged times in offices, living rooms, or other spaces when these are more convenient than formal synagogue buildings. A room or building that is used this way can become a dedicated small synagogues and prayer room. Among Ashkenazi Jews they are traditionally called
(, pl.
or
, Yiddish for "little house". and are found in Orthodox communities worldwide.
Another type of communal prayer group, favored by some contemporary Jews, is the
Chavurah (חבורה, pl.
chavurot, חבורות), or prayer fellowship. These groups meet at a regular place and time, usually in a private home. In
antiquity, the
Pharisees lived near each other in
chavurot and dined together to ensure that none of the
food was unfit for consumption.
Great synagogues
thumb|Interior view of the New Synagogue (Berlin)During the
19th and early
20th century, it was fairly common for Jewish communities, particularly in
Europe, to construct very large, showpiece synagogues. These edifices were intended not simply to accommodate worshipers, but to serve as emblems of Jewish participation in modern society. For this purpose, they were built to be not merely large, but architecturally impressive. Even small cities had elaborate synagogues of this type, albeit smaller than the synagogues of Vienna and New York. They are often designated as
The Great Synagogue of..., or, in Russia,
The Choral Synagogue. These notable synagogues include; the
Great Synagogue of Rome, the
New Synagogue (Berlin), the
Leopoldstädter Tempel, the
Grand Choral Synagogue, the
Moscow Choral Synagogue, the
Great Synagogue of Florence, the
Great Synagogue, Plzen, the
Great Synagogue (Warsaw), the
Košice Orthodox Synagogue, the
Novi Sad Synagogue, the
Szeged Synagogue, the
Sofia Synagogue and the
Great Synagogue of Oran.
World's largest synagogues
- The largest synagogue in the world is probably the Belz Great Synagogue, in Jerusalem, Israel; whose main Sanctuary seats 6,000. Construction on the edifice lasted for over 15 years.
- The next largest may be the Satmar synagogue in Kiryas Joel, New York; which is said to seat "several thousand."
- The largest synagogue in Europe is the newly constructed Bratzlav Center at the graveside of Rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav in Uman, Ukraine; which seats up to 5,000.
World's oldest synagogues
The
Sardis Synagogue in
Manisa,
Turkey. The synagogue was a section of a large bath-gymnasium complex, which was in use for 450–500 years.
- The Jericho Synagogue, the oldest, securely dated, mainstream Jewish synagogue in the world was built between 70 and 50 BCE at a royal winter palace near Jericho.
- The oldest synagogue fragments are stone synagogue dedication inscriptions stones found in middle and lower Egypt and dating from the third century BCE.
- The Paradesi Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in the Commonwealth of Nations, located in Kochi, Kerala, in India. It was built in 1568 by the Malabar Yehudan people or Cochin Jewish community in the Kingdom of Cochin. Paradesi is a word used in several Indian languages, and the literal meaning of the term is "foreigners", applied to the synagogue because it was historically used by "White Jews", a mixture of Jews from Cranganore, the Middle East, and European exiles. It is also referred to as the Cochin Jewish Synagogue or the Mattancherry Synagogue. The synagogue is located in the quarter of Old Cochin known as Jew Town and is the only one of the seven synagogues in the area still in use.
Oldest synagogues in the United States
Other famous synagogues
- The Rashi Shul, built in 1175 and razed on Kristallnacht in 1938, was painstakingly reconstructed using many of the original stones. It is still in use as a synagogue.
- The Hurva Synagogue, located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, was Jerusalem's main Ashkenazi synagogue from the 16th century until 1948, when it was destroyed by the Arab Legion several days after the conquest of the city. After the Six-Day War, an arch was built to mark the spot where the synagogue stood. A complete reconstruction is now underway in keeping with plans drawn up by architect Nahum Meltzer.
- The Bialystoker Synagogue on New York's Lower East Side, is located in a landmark building dating from 1826 that was originally a Methodist Episcopal Church. The building is made of quarry stone mined locally on Pitt Street, Manhattan. It is an example of Federalist architecture. The ceilings and walls are hand-painted with zodiac frescos, and the sanctuary is illuminated by stained glass windows. The bimah and floor-to-ceiling ark are handcarved.
- The Great Synagogue of Florence, Tempio Maggiore, Florence, 1874–82, is an example of the magnificent, cathedral-like synagogues built in almost every major European city in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Gallery
See also
