Torah Portion:	Metzora
Synagogue:	Elsternwick Jewish Community, modern Orthodox
Walking time from home:	35 mins
Reason for going:	A speaker and a lunch
Kiddush:	Catered lunch

This week, with Pesach just around the corner, many shules had pre-Presach Friday night dinners. Although I only went to one, since I subscribe to many synagogue newsletters, I knew of at least 11 communal dinners across the Melbourne Jewish community. But whereas many shules had dinners, almost none had communal lunches. So as soon as I found out that one shule was advertising not just a lunch but a speaker at the lunch, I booked immediately.

When I last came to Elsternwick shule (on the campus of Yavneh College) over a year ago, it was a little disappointing. Not the shule itself, but I happened to have come on a week when almost all the regulars were at a celebration elsewhere. The minyan only formed late, and even the rabbi left half way through to go to that celebration. This time was an entirely different story. For one thing, it was the rabbi’s Bar Mitzvah anniversary, so not only did he read from the Torah, but many of his family members were there too. But more than that, because there was to be a lunch with a speaker, there was a minyan by starting time, and a lot more too.

The rabbi informed me that on a regular Shabbat there are usually about 25 people (men and women) in the shule. This week there were at least that many on either side of the Mechitzah (dividing wall), and the lunch was set for more than 60, which included some latecomers and kids. Even the rabbi made a joke about food always acting as an incentive for people to come, but the swelling numbers also added to the vibrancy of the service. For instance, on a regular week the same people more or less get called to the Torah, but this week there was greater choice. And although during the service the shule is relatively quiet since it is in a room where noise travels, there was some occasional chatter, which only added to the atmosphere.

Despite the vibrancy created by the enlarged crowd and the two or three families who came especially for this lunch with their kids, this is a shule that struggles greatly with gentrification and modernity. The majority of the regular congregants are older and whilst their kids (and grandkids) come to this shule for special occasions or to other shules closer to where they live if they come at all, they don’t generally feel the same sense of community obligation as their parents. Maybe that is why the rabbi and regular Chazan are relatively young with youngish kids of their own, but even their kids don’t always come. This is a problem facing many shules, but Elsternwick has been the epitome of the problem for a while.

Yet despite that, the vitality this week was undeniable, and in a sense, despite the global horrors facing the Jewish community for the last six months, some of the unity that has enveloped the community has meant that almost every shule has seen an increase in numbers or enthusiasm. In this shule, which was very Zionist already, that fervour has only increased in the last number of months. Since October, this congregation has been saying extra prayers for peace, but this week another one was added for thanksgiving as well, because as the rabbi explained, it was a miracle that none of the projectiles that were fired from Iran landed in Israel, and for that we need to show our praise. The rabbi then went on to link praiseworthiness with the portion of this week about purity and impurity.

At the lunch, which included numerous types of meats and a lot of pre-Pesach bread, the speaker – who is an expert on the Middle East and the current goings on in the region – continued on the theme of Israel, Iran and the ongoing war. Some of it was depressing, some of it was uplifting, but all of it was interesting, especially as we prepare for Pesach in this new reality when freedom for so many is elusive.