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Going to Church: The Jewish Roots of Christian Worship

Like my parents, I was born in Brooklyn, New York. And like many other post-World War 2 families, mine moved to the suburbs when I was just an infant. However, for many years, we made a weekly pilgrimage to my grandparents’ Brooklyn home in the heart of an East New York commercial and residential neighborhood.

It was in this city atmosphere that I first experienced multi-culturalism at its best. On the streets were people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, speaking a variety of languages—Italian, Polish, Yiddish, German, Greek, and Russian. Churches and synagogues dotted the neighborhoods, and since we generally visited on Saturday or Sunday, the sidewalks were often filled with families on their way to or from religious services. I observed ministers, rabbis, priests, and nuns (dressed in full habits) on their way to wherever they were going.

My father once told me he clearly remembered a nun speaking a few words of Yiddish to him as a boy when his Italian friends introduced them. Not unlike multilingual shopkeepers in ethnic neighborhoods today, many immigrant Jewish shopkeepers learned to speak enough Italian to do business with their customers. (They encouraged their children to speak English at home while they themselves struggled with the language of their new homeland.) New York was truly a melting pot of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and humanity.

It was natural, perhaps, that I would develop a fascination for different religions. In elementary school, my “girlfriend’s” father was a pastor. In high school, one of my best friends was Catholic—an Irish Catholic, to be exact. I always marveled at the dramatic change in his behavior when we would pass a nun on the street or walk near his church. He talked to me about the confessional, the sermons, and the catechism. I once took him to sit in on Jewish religious class and laughed at the sight of him wearing a kippah.

The first time I attended a Mass was when a Jewish friend of mine from college married a Catholic woman. Since then, I’ve attended services at churches of many different Christian denominations; the rituals, sermons, and music have always held my attention.

While traveling in Spain, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Mexico and South America, my wife and I have visited magnificent cathedrals and small, intimate churches. I make it a habit to stay and observe religious services when I can. As a musician, I always marveled at the beautiful sounds of the organ. (Years later I joined a Reform synagogue where the organ is performed at most Sabbath and holiday services.)

In preparing to write this book, I asked friends to allow me to join them at local church services. I wanted to know which elements of Christian worship came directly or indirectly from Jewish worship. How were the services alike?

During my church service attendance, research, observation, and communications with knowledgeable religious leaders, conversations with clergy, laypeople, and other writers, I’ve become familiar with a few of the principal features of worship that Jews and Christians share.

First and foremost, we worship the same God—the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, the God of Abraham, the God who brought the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. This is the God who gave us the Ten Commandments. This is the God who Moses worshiped. It is the same God who Jesus worshiped. This came clearly into focus when I visited the Sistine Chapel in Rome: on one great wall, Michelangelo painted scenes from the life of Jesus, and on the opposite wall, he presented scenes from the life of Moses.

When they pray, both Christians and Jews give thanks to God and recite the works of God, recalling what God has done.

Worship services follow a certain sequence. Christians use the Latin word ordo to describe their worship sequence; Jews use the Hebrew word seder (or siddur). These words mean “order.” The order of the services is different, which is to be expected considering the many hundreds of years during which religious practices developed and holiday calendars were modified. (This is the case for Christian holidays that may have once paralleled Jewish holidays, such as Easter and Lent, which have been connected to Passover.)

Both Jewish and Christian services begin with a “call to prayer.” This is followed by prayers, recitation of portions of the Hebrew Scriptures, and readings from the Psalms. Christian services I’ve attended have included readings from Isaiah and the book of Kings.

In Jewish services, a portion from the Torah is read on the Sabbath as well as during other weekly services (see “The Torah and the Law”). In Christian services, there is a reading from one of the Gospels, the books that narrate the life and present the teachings of Jesus.

At some point in the Jewish service, the rabbi or a member of the congregation may deliver a sermon or present some words of teaching. If a Torah portion has been read during the service, this sermon generally incorporates an idea or message from that portion. In the Christian service, a minister or priest delivers a sermon or homily in a similar manner, offering an understanding of the Scripture reading and an application to contemporary life and the community. (Many of the priests and ministers I’ve heard have a good sense of humor, as do most rabbis I’ve met. I guess it goes with the job.)

While attending Christian religious services, I have found some Christian prayers and blessings that closely parallel those included in Jewish services. For example, here is a prayer from Christian worship that may also be sung as a hymn; this prayer has its roots in Isaiah 6:3:

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of power and might,

Heaven and earth are full of your glory ...

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Here is an example of the portion Jews recite in English (or sing in Hebrew) on the Sabbath and at other services:

Holy, Holy, Holy is the God of all being.

The whole earth is filled with Your glory.

Source of our strength, Sovereign God, how majestic is Your presence in all the earth.

Praised be the glory of God in heaven and earth. (Gates of Prayer)

Here is another important part of the worship service that is similar in both the Christian and the Jewish traditions. For Christians, it is the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.

For ever and ever. Amen

During their religious services, Jews recite the Kaddish several times. As with other parts of Sabbath worship services, the Kaddish is not a prayer per se; it extols the glory and name of God, but it does not ask for anything. While the theology behind the Kaddish is very different from that behind the Lord’s Prayer, look at the similarity:

Let the glory of God be extolled, and God’s great name be hallowed in the world whose creation God willed. May God rule in our own day, our own lives, and the life of all Israel, and let us say: Amen.

Let God’s great name be blessed for ever and ever.

Beyond all praises, songs, and adorations that we can utter is the Holy One, the Blessed One, whom yet we glorify, honor, and exalt. And let us say: Amen.

For us and for all Israel, may the blessing of peace and the promise of life come true, and let us say: Amen.

May the One who causes peace to reign in the high heavens, cause peace to reign among us, all Israel, and all the world, and let us say: Amen. (Gates of Prayer)

As both Jews and Christians know, bread and wine are common to both religions, but in very different ways. For centuries, Jews have been accustomed to making blessings over bread and wine, both in the synagogue and at mealtime at home with friends and family. At the end of a Jewish service, the leader and/or members of the congregation recite the blessings.

According to the Gospels, at the Last Supper, Jesus inaugurated and defined a rite that is central to Christian belief and to church services, the Eucharist. Here is the passage from Matthew 26:26-28:

While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

I have observed the solemnity with which churchgoers receive communion, the rite that has links to the Jewish ritual consumption of bread and wine and to the temple sacrifices in ancient Jerusalem. I also have learned that a key to understanding the Eucharist is in Jesus’ command, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19).

Water is an important part of both Jewish and Christian rituals. In Judaism, water is used for conversion as well as for cleansing and renewal, and it is usually linked to the use of the mikvah, the ritual bath (see “Shabbat—The Sabbath”), although immersion can take place in any body of moving water (the Jordan River, for example). There is evidence that the mikvah was being used in the first century CE, and evidence of a mikvah bath is found at the ruins of Masada (see “Israel”). The idea of using a bath and immersion in water as a means of repentance was used in ancient times and is common today to cleanse and prepare for prayer.

In Christianity, water is used in the baptism ritual, which is the sacrament of regeneration and admission into the Christian community. In this manner, the person being baptized receives a new and spiritual life. A baptism can be performed with symbolic sprinkling of or actual immersion in water.

Christianity and Judaism share many roots—in worship, liturgy, and rituals. Of course, there remain much controversy and grounds for scholarly debate about two thousand years of history, belief, and learning. But I will leave the debate, research, and controversy to the scholars and end with a blessing common to both the Jewish and Christian traditions.

I have heard the Priestly Blessing recited by rabbis at synagogue services for my entire life, and I hear it now at many of the church services I attend. Also known as the Aaronic Benediction, it is the blessing of the Lord with which Aaron and his sons were to bless the children of Israel (Numbers 6:24-26):

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.