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    3 day Jews

    3-day Jews are not a modern phenomenon.

    Philo, the 1st-century Jewish philosopher, saw that in Alexandria many Jews hardly ever entered a synagogue. Some came to services only on Yom Kippur.

    In their modern form, 3-day Jews are likely to attend on Rosh HaShanah, Pesach and Yom Kippur, and then of course they are full of complaints that the services did nothing for them.

    What they find wrong is probably the length of the services, the unfamiliar Hebrew, the archaic English, the old-fashioned concepts, the operatic cantors, the dreary sermons, and possibly also the uncomfortable seats, the poor acoustics and the other people present.

    There are also gripes about how much the synagogue charges and how little interest the management takes in the members and their families. A sorry story all round.

    Is there an answer?

    In fact there are two – change your shule, or change yourself. If the problem lies with the shule, find an alternative – or create one.

    If it is just possible that the problem lies with you yourself, in that you have not devoted any time or effort to personal spiritual lead-up to your synagogue visit, maybe you should take yourself in hand.

    Musical or artistic appreciation takes time, patience, perseverance and even expense. Spiritual appreciation is no different.

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