One of the things I find fascinating about the Jewish People is the fact that we are all doing the same or similar things in our religious lives. Our central place of worship is the synagogue, or temple. We include certain ceremonial objects in our observance of ritual - like the wine cup when we say Kiddush on Friday nights, and menorahs/chanukiahs on Chanukah. You can go anywhere in the world and find Jews doing the same Jewish things you would find back at home.
We currently find ourselves during the three weeks of mourning which lead to the 9th day of Av - Tisha b'Av - our Jewish national day of mourning for all the horrific and terrible things that have happened to the Jewish People. Tisha b'Av, in particular, is the day that both Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed.
Over this summer I would like to start to include photographs of synagogues and other places of Jewish worship on this website. I want to do this in the name of achdut - unity. We learn that one of the reasons that the Holy Temple (the Beit HaMikdash) was destroyed was because of baseless hatred toward one another. With these photographs, I'd like to focus on what we have in common - rather than on what divides us.
So keep this in mind as you travel around - or even if you stay home - and take some photos of your local temples and synagogues and please share them with us. You can email me at: shira.muller*at*yahoo.com.
Thank you and safe travels!
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