The 'Church-building' is not healthy, The Synagogue is not Healthy. The 'Worship Center' is not healthy.

....they are not healthy

-IF- the HOME is not the true center and primary location
for a true, sweet, strong RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

The 'big assembling place for spiritual activities' is potentially DANGEROUS
if the HOME is not the STRONGEST place of learning and practicing truly God-friendly, spirit-lead BEHAVIOR.

behavior? (JOY, PRAISE, ENCOURGAGEMENT, CELEBRATION, HUMILITY, MIRACLE-STORIES,
FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD, (Avraham was called 'FRIEND' of yhvh-God)
TRUTH, LOVINGKINDNESS, HONESTY, ECHAD-UNITY, DISCERNMENT, CONFESSION, WISDOM, WARNING, MERCY,
SHALOM-STRONGpeace, REST-COMFORT-CONFIDENCE-ENCOURAGEMENT-COURAGE)


WHAT?

Yes, i repeat. The 'assembly place',
the 'congregating place'
the 'worship center'
the 'church building'
the 'synagogue'

is NOT HEALTHY, is POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS,

The Synagogue can be a 'dangerous fake', if THE HOME is not the primary location and center of THE WAY OF LIFE.


The title and previous statement was found by yours truly in the 'Shabbat Siddur' of a Conservative SYNAGOGUE!

HERE is the exact quote.

"The synagogue should on no account serve as the surrogate for the home! it may be exemplar and teacher; but it
cannot exist in a healthy condition without the home as the foundation and real center of instruction and practice"

this was written by Rabbi Richard M.E. Marcovitz.
the Siddur is titled Shabbat Shalom -A guide to the cerebration of the Shabbat
published by Young Adult Congregation of B'nai Israel
Pittsburg Pa. copyright 1982.

please read this comment again. and look at the emphasis.
the synagogue.. ..cannot exist in a healthy condition..

that means the synagogue is potentially NOT healthy, potentially a PROBLEM, potentially as DANGEROUS,
if the more important thing is not in place. the FAMILY who is a FRIEND OF GOD.

..now i dont want to go overboard, but you must understand this; my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
was that i REJECTED 'the congregational place' and the PEOPLE of that place, and the GOD of that place,
because i felt that it was FAKE.

I truly felt that the people who were trying to 'teach' me did not believe or practice the things
that they were trying to teach me, which meant it was a WASTE OF MY TIME.






I was i visiting Springfield Illinois, and stopped at Congregation Temple Israel, on Shabbat.
When i read the previous passage i was VERY encouraged. I had been studying the history and realities of 'Jewish life in the days of Jesus of Nazareth' and had discovered that Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus-Messiah and GOD) when he was growing up with his family had BOTH the 'synagogue' and the 'chavurah' (chavurah means 'brotherhood' or HOME-group') I discovered that the 'chavurah' is where the essential work, the deep work, and the deepest honesty, peace and Joy were developed. The greatest freedom from isolation, shame, fear, and the effects of sin comes primarily through the work of the Ruach haKodesh (HolySpirit -indwelling Spirit of God) operating in the intimate 'chavurah'. I learned that the synagogue was the FIRST PLACE that you would stop as a traveling 'friend of God - a jew or even a Jew-friendly gentile'. That place would allow you to COMMENT ON THE SCRIPTURE PORTION for the day. You had a VOICE in the synagogue, you were not just a silent audience, especially if you were a stranger who was also a Jew devoted to haShem-haAdonai (God, 'the Name' -the Master- the Lord)

However, if you were going to settle in the town the most important thing was WHICH CHAVURAH would you belong to?
In the chavurah, your SINS WERE ATONED FOR, and your life was CARRIED by the care and encouragements and loving
comments to you 'in chavurah'

the following is a very REVEALING piece from the wikipedia definition comment on the ORIGINAL meaning of 'chavurah'.

The concept of a Chavurah has ancient roots.
The Talmud (Tractate Pesachim) uses the term chavurah to identify the group of people registered for a single Passover sacrifice, and who held a Seder together, in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Passover Seder is perhaps the prototypical group ritual (traditionally) held outside a synagogue involving the sharing of communal experiences, Jewish learning, and prayer.


"The people 'REGISTERED FOR A SINGLE PASSOVER SACRIFICE". wow. this is where you confess your sins and there is BLOOD/DEATH of an animal as atonement for YOUR evils.

"The people who 'HELD A SEDER TOGETHER' in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem"

If you have never read the writings of a man called Justin, a Roman philosopher who became transfixed and transformed
by the power of Yeshuas TRUTH and Spirit, PLEASE. Find his writings and read about 'the christian meetings'. try

scrollpublishing.com

He wrote these to describe to his philosopher-friends what was REALLY happening in the meetings. The primary comments were on the



(i have placed a DEFINITION OF SYNAGOGUE - ASSEMBLY PLACE at the end of this blog- from wikipedia)


HELLO SEEKER. Im just a guy who grew up in shrub-urbia in southern New Jersey. (Ocean City -a resort island, and Haddon Township a commuter suburb only 7 miles from the center of the city of Philadelphia Pennsylvania.)




The early history of the synagogue is obscure, but it seems to be an institution developed for public Jewish worship during the Babylonian captivity when the Jews (and Jewish Proselytes) did not have access to the Jerusalem Temple for ritual sacrifice. Instead, they developed a daily and weekly service of readings from the Torah, and possibly also the Prophets, followed by commentary. This could be carried out in a house if the attendance was small enough, and in many towns of the Diaspora that was the case. In others, more elaborate architectural settings developed, sometimes by converting a house and sometimes by converting a previously public building. The minimum requirements seem to have been a meeting room with adequate seating, a case for the Torah scroll, and a raised platform for the reader.



A synagogue (from Greek: συναγωγή, transliterated synagogē, "assembly";
בית כנסת beyt knesset, "house of assembly"; שול or
בית תפילה beyt t'fila, "house of prayer",
shul; אסנוגה, esnoga קהל kal) is a Jewish house of prayer. (it might also be of interest that the word when broken down could mean, "learning together" (syn - gr. together and aghoghei gr. learning or training)
Synagogue is commonly spoken of as a "shul" by Orthodox Jews, "synagogue" by Conservative, and "Temple" by Reform. "Synagogue" is a good all-around word to cover the preceding three possibilities.[1]
Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer (the main sanctuary), smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices. Some have a separate room for Torah study, called the beth midrash—בית מדרש ("House of Study").
Synagogues are not consecrated spaces, nor is a synagogue necessary for worship.

Jewish worship can be carried out wherever ten Jews (a minyan) assemble.

Worship can also be carried out alone or with fewer than ten people assembled together. A synagogue is not in the strictest sense a temple; it does not replace the long-since destroyed Temple in Jerusalem.

In colloquial speech, Israelis use the term bet knesset (assembly house). Jews of Ashkenazi descent have traditionally used the Yiddish term "shul" (cognate with the German schule, school) in everyday speech. Spanish and Portuguese Jews call the synagogue an esnoga. Persian Jews and Karaite Jews use the term Kenesa, which is derived from Aramaic, and some Arabic-speaking Jews use knis. Some Reform and Conservative Jews use the word "temple".