factual correction

[Guest guest]

> A synagogue is the everyday temporal (ie. earthly affairs) type of

> meeting place, and takes care of the standard things that relate to

> those of daily living people and their earthly needs.

> Temples, on the

> other hand, are for things more eternal in nature: eternal marriages,

> and other things that are binding throughout the eternities, and other

> things that are more sacred in nature. As such, money changers at the

> temple were that much more of a problem, since a temple is for the

> higher functions than the standard synagogues.

Uh, no - at least, not if the above refers to Judaism either past or present.

Some Jewish denominations call their house of worship a

" temple. " Others call it a " synagogue. " Prayer, marriage ceremonies,

and other central and important religious rituals take place in the

same building whether you call it a " temple " or a " synagogue " - but in

one and the same building we also have meetings dealing with the

earthly affairs of the congregation.

In Jesus' time, there existed one temple and many synagogues.

Prayer happened in both places. Sacred ceremonies, prayer, etc.,

happened in the synagogues and/or in private homes. The temple handled

only those ceremonies that involved sacrifices. Note that the

sacrifice didn't make the temple ceremonies any more holy or spiritual

or " eternal " (to use " Strict Non-Conformist's " expression) than other

ceremonies that didn't happen to involve sacrificing. For instance,

sacrificial ceremonies done only in the temple included a ritual for

determining if a man's wife had cheated on him: Numbers, chapter 5.

Jewish marriages didn't happen in the temple, ever. They happened

in synagogues or (more often) in some other publicly accessible

location. Today, Jewish marriages and other ceremonies not done at

home happen in a Jewish house of worship - some people call it a

temple, some people call it a synagogue - either a purpose-built

building or a hired hall, but equally holy in either case.

By the way, I would advise not referring to a Jewish house of worship

as a " Jewish church " if one wished to avoid accidentally giving

offense.

Yours for better letters,

Kate Gladstone

Handwriting Repair and the World Handwriting Contest

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