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Religious Practices FAQs

 

Congregation Adat Reyim is an independent congregation, drawing on the richness of Jewish  tradition and respecting the many ways our diverse community members connect to each other and the Divine. 

 

Question: How much Hebrew do you have in your services?

Answer:  Many major prayers  are recited in Hebrew, however, each service also has many meaningful prayers and readings in English. There is somewhat more Hebrew in the Saturday morning services than in Friday night's Erev Shabbat services. Our primary siddur, Siddur Hadash, provides transliterations of many of the Hebrew readings used during our services.

 

Question: Does Adat Reyim keep Kosher?

Answer: Adat Reyim maintains a strictly Kosher dairy/pareve kitchen, but allows a degree of flexibility (dairy and pareve items only) for consumption in designated areas of the building, e.g. the classroom wing. This flexibility helps facilitate potluck events. Food brought in from the outside is coordinated with one of our mashgichim or event coordinator beforehand. Adat Reyim groups sometimes hold events in non-kosher venues (Dinner Club, Junior Youth Group, congregants’ homes, etc)

 

Question: What is the role of non-Jewish spouses in the congregation. During my child's Bar/Bat Mitzvah, can my non-Jewish spouse have a role?

Answer: Non-Jewish spouses are welcomed members of our congregation. They are entitled to full congregation membership and participation, and many are active in the synagogue. Non-Jewish family may participate in most aspects of a child's Bar/Bat Mitzvah service, except for a few rituals involving the Torah scroll.

 

Question: What role does music play in your services, including instruments?

Answer:  We are a congregation filled with music!  Once a month, Adat Reyim has a choir-led service without instruments; and once a month,  we have a Spirit of Shabbat service, led by our other musical group, Shir Reyim, with instruments . Our monthly Family and Friends service is also led with guitar.  There are  Spirit of the High Holidays services on the first morning of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, led with instruments, running concurrently with  other services.  Instruments are also used at special services, such as our interfaith Martin Luther King weekend Shabbat.  On most other services, Adat Reyim follows the tradition of not having musical instruments in our services, but that doesn't stop us from lively singing!

 

Question: To what degree do women participate in religious life at Adat Reyim?

Answer: Egalitarianism is a founding principal of Adat Reyim and we are  fully egalitarian in practice. Women do, and are encouraged to, participate in all aspects of religious practice. These include leading services, having aliyot, reading from the Torah, chanting haftarot, and giving sermons (divrei Torah), as well as taking leading roles in synagogue governance, and committee and volunteer work.

 

Question: I’ve been to your services, but the melodies were different. Why don’t you use the same melodies I grew up with?

Answer: Our selection of melodies is drawn from our members' experiences and changes from time to time. If you volunteer to lead a part of a service, read from the Torah, or do a haftarah, you may use whatever melodies you are used to as our congregants will appreciate the variety.

 

If you have any further questions about Congregation Adat Reyim’s religious practices, please feel free to contact religiouspractices@adatreyim.org.

Mon, March 18 2024 8 Adar II 5784