Introduction to Judaism

edited with photo

what first seemed as an extra waste of time turned out to be a big treat instead. for the cross cultural project for which i initially visited a guanyin temple, my groupmate decided we had too little information and decided to change subject to judaism, despite word from others who have done judaism to not do judaism. apparently they almost went crazy from the chanting sessions in the synagogue, and the rabbi is always not free to talk to them.

still, we went one saturday. what happened that day was a string of events leading to our rich discoveries on judaism. i guess it was God's provision for us, like a plan slowly unfolding. so first we went to some more well visited one (dunno the name) but had nobody there. just got to see a bit of the interiors of the building. the next session was to start in 2 hours time so we decided to go to another synagogue which i knew, a walkable distance away. that one was called 'chesed-el'. and to our disappointment it wasnt even open at all. it is not open to non-jews at all times. so unfriendly. but then there we saw a 'reuben manasseh hall' just opposite, and passed by to take a look (it was all dark inside). the big star of david caught our attention and we took photos with it.

then suddenly this family of jews walked pass and went into the hall, and one of the women confronted us. (her name is Tammy.) she seemed rather intimidating at first, like she interrogated us on what we were doing taking photos of the hall. we found that the lights were off cos jews cant use electricity on the sabbath... and so its quite obvious we werent jews since we were taking photos, but she saw the visitor sticker we got from the previous synagogue so she knew we werent just any casual walk-ins.

so then we clarified everything with her, that we were students doing a project and stuff. then her intimidating stance faded and she asked, "do you have anything to ask about?"
so that was the beginning of it. i started asking based on the qn list given. we spent more than 20 mins on 1 question (the main beliefs of judaism), just standing outside the hall and talking. but then she had to go cos of her kids, and knowing we still had many questions more, offered to meet us another day at paragon, which was near her place (she must be really rich, and only 30+ yrs old!). seeing from the response we got for the first qn, i knew i was in for a whollistic detailed view to whatever we wanted to know about judaism. i was so thankful for this big help to us.

God's planning didnt stop there. on monday when we were supposed to meet, her schedule with her kids got messed up so she couldnt make it, offered to meet the next day instead. ok. and then she forgot all about it, and when i called just before going there, she was having a swim with her kids and had to accompany them. but guilty to turn us away again, she asked us to meet her at the poolside. and so we went to her place at Elizabeth towers (an old but really expensive condo) and we spent almost an hour beside the pool, continuing our interview while she supervised her kids (they were quite irritating and kept interrupting us), until she had to bring her kids upstairs. and we were not done yet.

so then the plan leads on further... we went up to her house! 23rd storey penthouse, with lots of furnishing and decorations, overlooking the whole of orchard road and can also see the singapore flyer and springdale! extremely rich, as i said. emily brought her camera but it just decided to not function properly that day, so couldnt take much pics.. what a waste.

but the main benefit about going to her place was not to see the nice house and view, but she proceeded to tour us around, showing us her whole collection of jewish artifacts (a whole shelf full of it and many more on the walls and all over the place.) and she actually explained the significance of each of them and how they are used. was such an info overload man. that was not all; she also showed us her store room stocked with kosher food and her collection of torah scriptures, detailed with commentaries, in both hebrew and english. she was like so passionate, detailed and knowledgeable in sharing about her religion with us. and its actually quite surprising since its the jewish men's obligation to study the torah and impart it to his children. and throughout the whole thing she was really nice and helpful and patient.

finally after more than 2 hours in total at her condo, we finished all our questions and she showed us all she had. plus many more questions which was not part of the project. then her kids became restless and so we had to go. the whole thing was a great blessing in disguise. i had learned so much, more than what i asked for or expected, and all these jewish stuff could well be useful in better understanding the old testament that we share. it was a really unexcpected opportunity hard to come by!