My great grandmothers synagogue is in downtown Salt Lake City. It was sold in 1978 to an Interior Design company for office space.
A beautiful old cathedral type synagogue with stained glass windows. My grandmother went there with her mother until she was orphaned at age 6.
I dragged my grandmother there with me when I was a teenager to explore our Hebrew roots together. It was the first and only time she'd been back there since her mom died in 1918.
She remembered the stained glass windows as we sat together in the pews during the mostly Hebrew speaking service. She tugged on my sleeve and whispered that's when she remembered having been there before. It was like a homecoming for my grandmother.
As a little girl she'd sit through the services and gaze at the same stained glass windows in appreciation of their beauty. And my grandmother was an artisan for her entire life.
I went to the link and read the article. I mentioned the description of the three rooms to my wife and as my son walked by he asked if we were discussing the nine levels of hell. We answered in the affirmative and described them as follows: (1) the highest being birth, (2) next infancy, (3) toddlerhood, (4) preschool, (5) grade school, (6) middle school, (7) High school, (8) young adulthood and (9) the lowest level being parenthood. There is no salvation from parenthood. Once you have kids there is no way out. You are stuck there forever.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2015 02:14PM by michaelc1945.
I was listening to one of the guides tell us that the early masonic lodges in Utah were almost strictly mormon with Brigham Young as the grand master.
Appearantly that led to the founding of the lodge in Salt Lake and its subsequent banning of mormons from membership for many years.
The building itself I found to be rather old and in need of repair. There were many interesting artifacts, but the dim lighting made them hard to see in detail.
The meeting rooms were rectangular with three chairs for the presiding men at each end if the room. Altars were in each of the three lodge rooms. Two were rectangular, one was triangular.
There were two meeting rooms with stages and theatrical backdrops.
One room was domed, in the dome lights were set to represent various constellations. However they used red lights and that distracted from the illusion of a night sky.
In the Egyptian room several people expressed disappointment at it not looking like any of the rooms in the LDS temples.
The guides were very nice and helpful.
In the basement was a large room decorated with a mayan theme, where we were served cookies and water.
I meant SL temple. How can Mormons not know anything about JS/Masonic connection?
(When my father went through the temple the first time, he admitted once that he nearly left.) That would have prevented him from becoming a tenth degree McConkie zealot.
As a Mason, I can state that all our lodges and temples are open to the public except when we "are opened" in one of the degrees. My wife has sat with me in open lodge on several occasions for non-degree functions. At times, we will start without ritual work and then excuse those who do not hold the required degree for the work which is about to be done.
Actually, when you think about it, there is no reason Mormon temples shouldn't likewise be opened for non-endowment functions. Other than the silly clothes, why shouldn't temple marriages be opened to family members. We Masons have a formal established ritual for the annual installation of our officers who are in full Masonic dress, and yet it is fully opened to the public and many family members proudly attend.
As you are most likely aware, we Masons, like faithful Mormons, cannot discuss our rituals which makes it next to impossible to show the similarities and point out the differences.
As a devoted Mason in full faith and fellowship and a former temple attending TBM prior to the 1990 changes, I can assure you that there is no question in my mind that Joseph Smith clearly stole the Masonic rituals as was charged by the Illinois Masons and may have contributed to his death. However, I am precluded from explaining how I reached that conclusion. Were I to do so, I would be in violation of my Masonic oaths. It really makes it difficult to explain Masonry to Mormons.
There are portions of the initiation rituals and degree work they would not have shared with you. What basically occurs in a lodge can be discussed. That is probably what they included in their presentations.
You are correct. The Mormon Temple endowment is much more secret, although the pre-1990 and post-1990 versions can be readily found on the internet word for word. Anyone contemplating receiving the Mormon endowment should read these BEFORE committing themselves so they know what bull crap they will learn.