Judaism

At the synagogue today I found several things interesting. First and foremost being the Torah. The actual size of the scroll was very impressive especially considering the entire scroll was handwritten. This gave me a new appreciation for the importance of the Torah to the Jewish people. Although it was foreign to me, I found the Hebrew letters to be quite beautiful. It was magnificent to see the written words and to also be able to hear the words recited by a member of the Jewish community. It was a unique experience that I wish I get to encounter more often.
I was also amazed to see how intense of a ritual it is to keep kosher. Their kitchen was huge and they had two sets of everything including pots, pans, utensils, etc. All this was in order to keep dairy products separate from the meat, which I did not know was part of kosher ritual. Keeping kosher is a hard part of the Jewish lifestyle and I respect them for staying faithful to that.
Lastly, something that surprised me was learning that Chanukah is not a major Jewish Holiday. It’s the one I know the most about, but I found out that it is published so much because of its proximity to Christmas. In America it has been made out to be the Jewish Christmas which is not the case at all. It makes me wonder about a lot of things I “think” I know about. I really enjoyed learning more about Judaism and like a said before, I hope I get to experience more sometime soon.