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A Few Simple Guidelines for Attending Services

  • The most important guideline is: you are welcome. Our worshippers come from all kinds of Jewish backgrounds and from none at all. For those who don’t read Hebrew, we provide a transliteration book and other materials to help you follow the service. In addition, our ushers are happy to offer assistance and explanations. Our service leaders announce pages frequently so that you will always know where we are.
  • Seating is open — come in and make yourself at home wherever you are comfortable.
  • Have small children? We have a soundproofed room, called Pinat ha-taf (Kiddie Corner), with windows into the sanctuary and sound piped in, so your children can play and you can be part of the service.
  • We ask all men to wear a head covering (called a Kippah) while attending services. This is a traditional sign of respect for a holy place. You will also see some women with heads covered, and all who have honors do so.
  • Since ours is an egalitarian congregation, you will see both men and women wearing tallitot (prayer shawls). If you are invited for an honor, you are required to wear a tallit.
  • You will see that the congregation is asked to stand from time to time. This is in response to particularly holy parts of the service. There will also be times when people bow, and even one occasion when they go up on their toes three times for the words kadosh, kadosh, kadosh—“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts…”
  • Please turn off all mobile devices in respect for the worship service and the holiness of the Sabbath.
  • Beth David is a non-smoking facility, inside and outside.
  • Please note, if you visit us on Shabbat (Sabbath): in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath, we ask that you not take pictures or write anywhere on the synagogue property.
  • There is a traditional greeting for the Sabbath: Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath peace). At one point in the service the rabbi will invite everyone to greet his or her neighbor in this way.