ABSTRACT

‘ Why I do not go to Synagogue ’ is the title of an article that appears in the current number of the Jewish Quarterly Review. 1 It suggests the subject of my discourse this morning. I should like to show why we do, or should, go to synagogue. In other words, I would ask you to consider what are the true character and functions of Jewish public worship. What is its essential significance, and what ought we to expect it to do for us ? The inquiry is justifiable, not as a reply to a writer whose frankly-avowed convictions place him beyond the reach of arguments such as I shall employ, but as a possible means of removing some misconceptions widespread among conforming Jews.