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I've been going to a synagogue the last few months. I'd been feeling some spiritual curiosity for a while and my bestie is Jewish so I went with her once.
I was surprised how much I liked it. It's reformed Judaism. Everyone is open, accepting, and non judgemental. The music is GORGEOUS. Violins, upright bass, piano, hand drums. The vocal cadences are beautiful, the hebrew is beautiful. (there is no sheet music though so it is a bit hard to follow). A big problem i had with connecting to Christianity was my hatred of the music. It seemed hollow, vapid.
It's strange how I never connected to Christianity for the first 24 years of my life that I attended church, so much i became vehemently athiest, but i like Judaism a lot a lot. No judgemental, guilt trip /hellfire. No weekly "get saved get saved or die, no other way" speech.
Just love god, appreciate his deliverance from hardship, love your community, try to be a good person. That's it.
From the Christian perspective, the old testament just seemed like arbitrary history leading up to God's legitimate covenant of salvation. Like it was inconsequential. From the perspective of the Jewish community, you can see the unity. How faith and togetherness got them through conquerors, exiles, persecution and oppression. It feels more like "we" instead of "them".
It's open minded and intellectual. I've never felt anything but totally accepted since day one. Then they recently had an lgbtq pride shabbat. Rainbow flags, lesbian speaker, special songs about love so cool. She gave another shout out to the community last night. (Rabbi Mars. How cool a name is that?). She even endorsed abortion rights a few weeks ago. You don't hear that at church.
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