Patrick Tan

Today I went to check out a synagogue (Jewish place of worship) as a field trip on our Old Testament 1 class with our beloved professor Marcia Anderson. The experience was amazing. The synagogue was located in Salcedo Village in Makati and is the only synagogue in the Philippines.

We were introduced to a rabbi which I forgot to pronounce his name, something like Eliya-. He was a Hispanic Jewish rabbi originally from Puerto Rico and his wife is from Colombia. Both lived in Israel for a long time. He brought us to their sanctuary and explained the Judaist religion and answered our question about Judaism. He even allowed us to see their sacred Torah (Pentateuch) which is their Bible.

I am impressed of this young rabbi's charisma and passion for his faith. But sadly, Judaism doesn't accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah. He strongly explained to us that Jews are still waiting for the Messiah to come to bring back and unite Israel.

After almost 3 hours in the synagogue I went to the Liberal Party office to do a new project with them. After the meeting, I learned that I left the car keys locked inside the car. This was the second time that it has happened. So I went back to Manila to meet my dad who has the spare key and returned to the car. Then I went home feeling tired and stupid.

Today was my brother's 19th birthday. We celebrated at home.