How should a shul look?

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Forum -> Judaism

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red sea

Wed, Dec 28 2005, 1:13 pm

I think that since a shul is supposed to be a mikdash mi'at , shuls should be beautiful. That means metal folding chairs, folding tables, dirty torn up vinyl floors or torn stained carpeting, etc would be sort of like an insult to a mitzvah if the homes we live in are nicer than that. I am not talking about a poor community where their houses are the same. But what of all the dumpy shul congregants who go home to lavish homes? Is this not disrespectful to a mitzvah in some sense? If all the congregants homes have marble floors shouldn't they support their own shul enough that its floor be just as nice? If they would never use plain metal folding chairs for when they have tons of company but spend for real fancy ones, etc...
What do you all think am I right or totally off base?

Is it not disrespect for the aron that people sit down and have a kiddush to eat and socialize where it is meant for kedusha?

amother

Wed, Dec 28 2005, 2:09 pm

Good Point the problem though arises when the shul isn"t set up for a seperate kiddush room etc, but is a rental on one level and is 'machsis and heimish', homely so too speak.
On one hand we should be careful to make someone feel shul is somewhere they want to come and bring their mishpacha . And is not a cold place, on the other hand what does one do by instilling respect for a shul especially concerning cleanliness?
Good point still thinking about a solution to this one. Confused

Motek

Wed, Dec 28 2005, 6:58 pm

red sea wrote:

I think that since a shul is supposed to be a mikdash mi'at , shuls should be beautiful.

yes, "ze Keili v'anveihu" (this is my G-d and I will beautify Him)

Quote:

But what of all the dumpy shul congregants who go home to lavish homes?

I agree - your shul should be at least as nice as your home

Quote:

is it not disrespect for the aron that people sit down and have a kiddush to eat and socialize where it is meant for kedusha?

seems that if a shul is designated for other functions (bnos, pirchei, kiddush) it's okay

chocolate moose

Fri, Jan 20 2006, 4:25 pm

You live in a house...but may shuls were not originally set up to be shuls, that's a problem.

shoy18

Sat, Jan 21 2006, 6:27 pm

Its funny you mention this, the shul I grew up in is like that and on yom kippur, the children reaked havoc on the shul and I mean empty bags ground cookie crumbs, broken banisters... the rabbi got up on yom kippur and went nuts about how we go home to our beautiful 1M+ homes and we dont allow our children to eat out of the kitchen but yet we send our children to shul unsuporvised and allow them to do whatever they want.

chocolate moose

Sat, Jan 21 2006, 6:34 pm

I rent an apartment, a nice apt, but still........it's not a million dollar home.

But I anyway didn't take little kids to shul very much, certain not on Y.K. when I had to fast..and certainly not to break things and make a mess!

I did know a woman who used to sweet the shul before the davening on the 2nd dayof yomtov, said it was a big zchus to keep the shul clean!

1stimer

Thu, Jan 26 2006, 12:48 pm

Good point.

On the flip side though, how about when some communities spend millions to build a beautiful new shul and yet there are families within that same community that can not afford the basics?

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