Jewish synagogue services on the Sabbath/Shabbat, including Scriptural readings

I have only ever visited synagogues outside of service times. I have never been able to attend a "live" synagogue service. So all I know about the synagogue service comes from excursions, and speaking to Jews who have told me second hand.

The Jewish sabbath begins on sundown on Friday and runs until sundown on Saturday. The main weekly service, Shacharit Shabbat, is held on Saturday morning, for example at 9.30am.

The synagogue services begins with opening prayers: the morning blessings, and various verses from the psalms and other books of the Tanakh (Old Testament). The latter is known as "P’sukei D’Zimra".

Then comes the reciting of the "Shema" - "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God, the Lord alone."

This is followed by blessings, and the Amidah prayer ("18 blessings").

The central moment during the service is the reading of the Torah portion for the day. The cycle of Torah readings runs from September to September, and for this purpose the five books of Moses are divided into weekly Torah portions (singular "parsha"). Each such portion amounts to several chapters, e.g. the reading for this sabbath (8 November 2025) is Genesis 18:1-22:24 (known as Parashat Vayera)

For the purpose of reading out the relevant Torah portion, the Torah scroll is ceremonially removed from the "Tabernacle" (aron hakodesh) at the front of the synagogue, and solemnly taken to the reading desk ("bimah"), where it is then opened at the relevant point and the Torah portion for that Sabbath read out passage-by-passage by 7-8 readers.

The reading of the Torah portion is followed by the reading from the "prophets", which means Joshua-2 Kings, as well as Isaiah-Malachi. This reading is called "Haftarah". The Haftarah reading for this sabbath (8 November 2025) is 2 Kings 4.

(I have it on good authority that someone might arrive late for synagogue, but the main thing is to be there for the reading of the Torah portion.)

The reading of the Torah and Haftarah is followed by the "drasha" which is the equivalent of the sermon or homily in a Christian church, and is delivered by the rabbi.

The Torah scroll is returned to the "Tabernacle" either before or after the "drasha".

The next item is called "Mussaf" and is a time of collective prayer facing Jerusalem, based on the Amidah (or 18 blessings).

The service closes with a prayer/hymn called the "Aleinu".

The main morning Sabbath synagogue service would typically last between an hour and a half, and three hours.

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