The Syna-blogue

  Torah Portion: Lech Lecha Synagogue: Gary Smorgon House Walking time from home: 40 minutes Reason for going: A birthday and Bar Mitzvah anniversary Kiddush: Sit-down kiddush with lots of food and a cake My goal is still to get to a shule that I haven’t yet been to, but this week I came back to Gary Smorgon House (GSH) at Jewish Care, one that I had visited recently, for a very special reason. Both Henry – the survivor who came with us on our March of the Living trip – and the rabbi at GSH, who also came with us, had birthdays during the week, so they decided to celebrate their Bar Mitzvah portions together. The last time I saw Henry standing next to an open Torah was very emotional. On our first night in Krakow – on Erev Yom HaShoah, the night before the march itself – all of us as an Australian group gathered in one of the old shules in town for a ceremony. In...

  Torah Portion: Noach Synagogue: South Caulfield Shule (traditional orthodox) Walking time from home: 1 hour Reason for going: Afternoon plans in South Caulfield Kiddush: Impressive and tasty The goal since the end of the festive season has been to get to shules that I haven’t yet been to since I started this blog, but that objective has already been broken because this week I had afternoon plans in South Caulfield, just up the road from the shule, so I went back to a shule I had already visited. As it happens, I was glad to have been at this shule this week, considering that the situation in Israel is still as bad as it is and continues to dominate everyone’s mind. Before one even enters the sanctuary, on the doors leading in, there is a list of names of the Israeli hostages that are currently being held in Gaza. This was particularly powerful and moving becaus...

  Torah Portion: Bereishit Synagogue: Beit Chabad for Israelis (Dudu’s) Walking time from home: Almost 25 minutes Reason for going: To show solidarity Kiddush: A nice sit-down lunch For Jews the world over, it has been a tumultuous week. We have seen our brethren in Israel slaughtered, mutilated and tortured in new and unimaginable ways… and this is coming from a hardened people. Every Jew in our community and in all communities, is no more than two degrees of separation away from a victim, a family member in Israel or a defender of the country. It has been heartbreaking for all, yet is has also brought our community together in ways that just a week ago would have seemed preposterous. At gatherings all week, culminating in a large one on Friday, Jews from across the political, religious and social spectrums came together, united in grief and solidarity. These ...

  Shemini Atzeret / Simchat Torah Day 1: Hamerkaz; Day 2: Various Anyone who knows me will know that I love the idea of shule (which is why I write this blog), but I don’t and have never liked Simchat Torah specifically. It is my least favourite festival, though as I have come to discover, this is the case for some other people too, though not necessarily for the same reasons. Nonetheless, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in particular have a special place in my heart because in 2020, after the first set of lockdowns – when shules were closed for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur – the first festival in which they were allowed to re-open was Simchat Torah. Not all shules did because of an abundance of caution and because gatherings were limited to just 10 people, but some took the plunge and did carefully open. One such shule was Hamerkaz, with the service conducted entirely outdoors and with a lot of social distancing. This year I knew I wouldn’t be able ...

  Sukkot (first two days) Day 1: Gandel Besen; Day 2: Caulfield Shule Following Yom Kippur comes the festival of Sukkot, but this year the weekend of the first two days of that festival were largely dominated in Melbourne at least, by the footy grand final and the changing of the clocks for daylight savings. Each of these were major talking points in all shules – Who is going to win and why, and do we change our clocks before the festival begins or do we stay on the old time? And then, how did Collingwood win, and when does the festival actually end, on the old time or the new time? Not only were these issues discussed by the congregants, but by many rabbis too. For festivals such as these, I often have the privilege to be invited out for meals, and I am very grateful since I don’t have my own Sukkah. As such, the shules I went to for these festive days were where my hosts go and ones I had been to previously. For the first day I went to Gandel Besen ...