The Syna-blogue

  Torah Portion: Nitzavim-Vayelech Synagogue: Blake St shule Walking time from home: 40 minutes Reason for going: Full circle Kiddush: Kiddush with multiple cholents After two years, this is the 103 rd and final entry of this blog (though stay tuned next week for a post-script). In that time I have been to close to 70 different services, though of course I have come back to some for various reasons. This week I came back to Blake Street, because two years ago when I was thinking of starting this blog, there was a speaker at Blake Street I wanted to hear – and often I have gone to various shules because there have been speakers – so this week, even with no guest speaker, it felt like a full circle moment to come to the place where I first started. In my mind coming back to the place where it all began was momentous, but when I got there and the service began, i...

  Torah Portion: Ki Tavo Synagogue: Moorabbin Hebrew Congregation Walking time from home my sister’s: Almost 50 minutes Reason for going: Something different Kiddush: Sit down kiddush with Cholent After a lovely family Shabbat dinner at my sister’s house, I stayed over partly so that I could go to a shule I hadn’t yet been to, for this penultimate blog. I’ve been meaning to go to Moorabbin shule for quite some time and had intended to walk from home, but this opportunity seemed like a good one. The shule in Moorabbin has been there since the mid-60s, and once inside, that is fairly evident because much of the décor probably hasn’t change a lot since then. Wood was clearly an architectural material of choice for interiors, because everything from the pews, to the ark, to the walls, to the Bimah and even the window panes is made from it. The inside looks d...

  Torah Portion: Ki Teitzei Synagogue: Hamerkaz (Chabad, Israeli) Walking time from home: A little over 30 minutes (in the rain) Reason for going: Bar Mitzvah Kiddush: Sponsored large kiddush This week, unlike some weeks, I knew well in advance which shule I was going to go to because I had been invited to the Bar Mitzvah of the son of family friends. And since they are partially Israeli, it was at Hamerkaz where many established but not particularly religious Israelis go. Just like them. I arrived soaked from the rain a little after the starting time of 10am, along with most of the family, and the service had only just begun. The shule however was already three quarters full, and it was only going to fill up more as the morning progressed, so much so that at some point more chairs were brought in and almost every available seat was taken. There was surprisingly som...

  Torah Portion: Shoftim Synagogue: Hamayan (Carlebach style, Orthodox) Walking time from home: 20 minutes Reason for going: Nostalgia Kiddush: Small but plentiful This week I genuinely had no idea what shule I would go to. The next few weeks are sorted for various reasons, but this week I had a choice to go almost anywhere and since I have been to practically every shule in Melbourne, I chose one for nostalgia reasons. Hamayan has had numerous guises over the years and I first went there during one of the early ones. It began mostly as a shule that distinguishes itself by its singing, and that musicality is still evident. The truth is though that these days it is a small shule like almost any other, in a nondescript house that doesn’t feel too different to most others, but it has found its groove. Some of the people have seen all the iterations of Hamayan and are ...

  Torah Portion: Re’eh Synagogue: Gerrer Shtiebel (ultra-orthodox) Walking time from home: Around 15 minutes Reason for going: Something different Kiddush: N/a This week was another special one for me and this blog. There is a shule I’ve been meaning to go to for a long time but other priorities always got in the way, and it also always felt a little intimidating. Finally – with just a few weeks left till the end of this shule adventure and blog – I made it to the Gerrer Shtiebel, a shule that is close to home but equally in another world. The Gerrer (or Gur) Hasidic dynasty emanates from 19 th century Poland and before the Holocaust, was the largest and most influential of all the Hasidic groups. Today they are the biggest Hasidic cohort in Israel, with smaller communities around the world. Because of their size, the community maintains its own shules and pract...

Torah Portion: Eikev Synagogue: Blake St Early Minyan Walking time from home: 40 minutes Reason for going: Speaker (sort of) Kiddush: Two kiddushes with cholent For the second time in as many months I was at an early Shabbat service, but this time intentionally. This week at Blake St shule, after the main service, there was a speaker from overseas who I wanted to hear, but having been to the main service previously, I decided to go to the early service. During the height of the pandemic, when only small groups were allowed to gather for services, to maximise the number of people who could come to shule on a Shabbat morning, Blake St decided to stagger their services, with the first one starting at 7:45am, and then two more later. Once things settled down, some people had gotten used to the idea of coming to shule early on a Shabbat morning, and it stuck. Officially...