Studying Muslim Congregation Dr. Scott Thumma Dr.

Timur Yuskaev

Salahuddin Muhammad 3/10/2012

Book Report

Synagogue Life: A Study in Symbolic Interaction . By Samuel C. Heilman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. In this book Samuel Heilman attempts to describe a Orthodox Jewish synagogue from a viewpoint as participant observer, with a minimum Sociological lingo. The interaction with the Orthodox Jewish synagogue is where he gets a majority of his data. Samuel makes it clear that his book is not about the religion or essence of Orthodox Jews. He says One will not find the faithful Jew here, not because he does not exist, but because the analytic perspective used here transforms him into a person like all others, subject primarily to the imperatives of commingling1 Samuel as Orthodox Jew describes the process of personal transformation through which he had to go through in order to turn a control and obedient eye on the world from which he came. Samuel main purpose of writing this book is to show social scientists that natives can use their experiences and special familiarity and still be trained to distance themselves from the own group and still making use of the discipline of sociology and anthropology. In this report I will examine the three essential dimension of synagogue that Samuel speaks about in his book, the house of prayer, house of study, and house of assemble and try to extract
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some of the methods and approaches that he uses. I will then show the significance of the methods that I have obtain. Samuel begans his study by looking at the ecology of the Orthodox Jews in Dudley Meadows. He describes in great detail Dudley Meadows a metropolitan area of Sprawl City . Lying on the western edge of this great metropolis, it is bounded on one side by mammoth park, on another by city line, one a third by six-lane expressway connecting the western suburbs with the center city, on a fourth by railroad tracks, and a fifth by an area of row houses which have became part of a black ghetto.(pg3) . He then mentions that there were few high-rise, luxury apartment buildings and several garden-apartment complexes added later. Samuel description of the ecology of Dudley Meadow gives you an idea of the culture of the Dudley Meadow. He now directs our attention to the Orthodox Jews shul (as the synagogue is called in Yiddish). He further describes where the shul, is located and what type of building it is. The name of the shul is called Kehillat Kodesh. Samuel approaches his observation first by examining the environment, the macrocosm of the Orthodox Jews, to get a since of the context of where they live. Now he begins to unpack them from within the shul. Samuel describes the demographic of the Orthodox Jews population inside the shul as modern orthodox Jews, because of their relationship with the outside world. He further gives detail of their occupational standing. He says Only about 5 percent have jobs, such as religious school teacher or kosher butchers, which allow full-time involvement and isolation within the Jewish community. Nearly 65 percent have careers in fields like medicine, law, university teaching, and the natural science.(pg7) This information that Samuel has gather about the occupations of the

Orthodox Jews gives a them their identity and the ethos of their community. We know that they are people who speak english and that their lives do not just involve around the shul. Heilman observes the setting of the shul by surveying the floor plan of house of prayer, assemble and study. By viewing the floor plan of the shul gave Heilman an understanding of relationship between the men and the women and how they were to interact in the shul. The men and women of the shul had separated entrances to the shul. The men enter from the front and the women enter from the back. However no women could enter from them front but some men could enter from the back. The house of prayer or sanctuary was divide horizontally into two parts by a mechitza (partition) which two- thirds of the space is delegated to the men. Heilman says The kind of separation is mandatory for any synagogue which wishes to call itself Orthodox. This method of study the congregation through the floor plan is great approach to understand the dynamics of the congregations before you interact with them. It gives you a sense of the congregations morals and ethical values, just by the design of the building. He now studies the setting of the house of prayer or sanctuary. He describes how some parts become sanctified while others parts do not. That parts and objects in the house of prayer may appear to have ritual sanctity and one time and lose it at other times. Heilman says In describing the setting thus, one inevitably also reveals, albeit indirectly, something about the people in it, those who consecrate, sanctify, and hence transform its reality. The only object of the house of pray that stays sanctified is the Torah. Its reading, handling, housing, and general all contact is used in ritual activity. An example is if anyone drops the Torah then the whole congregation must fast for forty days. So the Torah is not just sacred be itself but anything that comes in contact with it. The setting of the house of prayer is place of sacredness, but the mere fact of the interaction with the setting and the objects in the house of prayer.

Next Heilman describes the setting of the assemble as place of prayer but mostly used as place of socializing. All social activities are held in the assemble such as shul-government meetings, congregational dinners, banquets, celebrations and public speeches. The assemble and the house of pray also have a relationship that is exchangeable. When the worship service is too large the assembly becomes a part of the house of pray and when the assembly has a public speech and it becomes to large the house of pray becomes part of the assemble. When the house of pray is transformed into place of assemble, the woman are given rights that they did not have before in the house of prayer. For example, the women are able to seat in the area of the house of prayer where the men seat. Heilman says Some assembles accomplish these ends more than others and thus make for more radical reshaping of the shul. The transformation of the house of prayer to the assemble, shows that the social aspect of the shul is very important to this congregation more so than the division between men and women and that division is seen more in the times of worship. Finally, the house of study is place that is divided into two parts: one for the teacher and one for the student. This division is never compromised, it is always constant in the house of study. The house of study does not have a designated area as the house of prayer and house of assemble have. The house of study can be either in the house of prayer or house of assemble. This causes these areas to be transformed into house of study. Heilmans saysThe definition of the shul as house of study is no more absolute than the definition of it as house of prayer, for assembly and prayer may take place prior to during, or even after a class. Nevertheless, since the manifest reason for the congregation is study, that definition is the primary framework and fundamental characterization of the setting and its props. Women are usually not seen in the house of study unless they have formal teacher (usually a male, who accessible to legitimate their use of the

shul). The majority of the time women turn their houses into places of study. Heilman says From the institutional descriptions thus far offered, one ought to see that the setting changes with the activity in it. In the context of the prayer it is used one way, in assembly another, and in study a third. Moreover, the relationship between activity and setting is synergetic. As space transformed to fit the activity going within it, so in turn activity is forced to confirm and conform to the setting. To add to want Heilman has metion about confirming and conforming to the setting by the change of activity, I would also add that social dynamics also changes when different activities are place in different settings, such as relationship between men and women.