The Synagogue: A Small Temple in Every Community

What is a synagogue?
A synagogue is a place where Jews come together to pray.
The word "synagogue" (Beit Knesset in Hebrew) comes from the root כ.נ.ס, which means "to gather" — because we need at least ten Jewish men (a minyan) to say certain important prayers, like Kaddish, the Reader’s Repetition, and reading from the Torah.

A synagogue is considered a small version of the Holy Temple, so we are asked to treat it with great respect — almost like we would treat the Beit HaMikdash itself. That’s why there are special rules, like:
• No joking or behaving lightly inside.
• No casual conversations.
• No eating, drinking, or sleeping there.
• We are also not allowed to destroy or sell a synagogue for non-holy purposes.

Synagogues are usually built facing Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, because when we pray, we should turn our hearts and bodies toward the holiest place.
This idea is learned from a verse about the Temple that says, "Your neck is like the tower of David, built as a fortress," and our Rabbis explained it to mean that all mouths (prayers) are directed there.

Why do we have synagogues?
Back in the days of King Solomon, the Beit HaMikdash was the one and only place where Jews could offer sacrifices to connect with Hashem.
But after the First Temple was destroyed and the Jews were exiled to Babylon, Jewish leaders worried that without the Temple, the people would forget their connection to Judaism.

That’s when synagogues started being built — gathering places where Jews could pray, study, and stay connected to their faith even in exile.
During the time of the Second Temple, synagogues already existed in many Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. In fact, the Talmud Yerushalmi tells us that before the Second Temple was destroyed, there were already 480 synagogues just in Jerusalem!

After the destruction of the Second Temple, synagogues became even more important. Prayer in the synagogue took the place of bringing sacrifices in the Temple.

Over time, synagogues became much more than just places of prayer — they were places for:
• Learning Torah
• Charity and helping the community

During the time of the Mishnah and Talmud, synagogues served as public centers for education and communal life.

In the Middle Ages, synagogues took on even more roles. They often included:
• A study hall (Beit Midrash) for the whole community.
• A Torah library.
• A women’s section (sometimes separated by a curtain or partition) so that women and girls could also attend prayers with proper modesty.

The entrance hall or courtyard of the synagogue was often a place where people could meet rabbis, ask halachic (Jewish law) questions, and solve disputes between people.

Something interesting to know
Throughout history, non-Jews saw synagogues as a symbol of the Jewish People’s strength and faith.
Because of this, in both Christian and Muslim countries, there were often harsh restrictions on building synagogues:
• Synagogues could not be built too close to churches or mosques.
• They were not allowed to be taller than other religious buildings.
• In some places, Jews were not even allowed to build synagogues out of strong materials like stone.

As a result, most synagogues in Europe and around the world were simple, modest buildings — not flashy or grand on the outside, but filled with deep holiness inside.

Before the Holocaust, the Nazis targeted synagogues as symbols of Jewish identity. On the terrible night known as Kristallnacht ("The Night of Broken Glass"), on the 16th of Cheshvan 5699, they destroyed 267 synagogues across Germany and Austria and committed many other terrible acts.

Yet despite everything, the Jewish People have never lost their love and respect for the synagogue — the heart of Jewish community life.