The Syna-blogue

  Torah Portion: Shelach Synagogue: Bnei Akiva @ Mizrachi Walking time from home: Almost 20 minutes Reason for going: Something different and nostalgic Kiddush: Large communal kiddush This week I had plans to go to a shule quite some distance away and even made tentative lunch plans. But that was on Thursday. On Friday morning I checked the forecast and realised that I had to change my plans since I didn’t want to get wet walking to shule. As it happens, I left home soon after 9am and less than ten minutes later it started raining and didn’t let up all day. In Melbourne we are currently in the midst of winter. But since it is summer in the northern hemisphere, many guests visit our shores at this time and the Jewish ones of note often speak at various shules over the winter months. This Shabbat at Mizrachi for instance there were a few such guests, some of whom I...

  Torah Portion: Behalotcha Synagogue: Bentleigh Chabad Walking time from home my sister’s: Almost 30 minutes Reason for going: Nostalgia and something different Kiddush: Sit down kiddush with cholent and soup After a lovely Shabbat dinner with family and friends at my sister’s house, I wanted to go to a shule on Saturday morning that was not too far away. Bentleigh Chabad is one of the oldest suburban Chabad houses in Melbourne, and for me it has special resonance. During my adolescence, my family lived less than a 15 minute walk away from Bentleigh Chabad, and for a number of years until my early 20s, that is where I went most weeks after I started going to shule regularly. I haven’t been back for the better part of 25 years and didn’t really even know how to get there because my sister’s family lives on the other side of Bentleigh, but once I got near, ...

  Torah Portion: Naso Synagogue: Kehilat Chazon Ovadia (Sephardi) Walking time from home: Just over 15 minutes Reason for going: Something completely different Kiddush: Sit-down kiddush with cheesecake This week was the festival of Shavuot, and as is my way, over the course of two days I went to five shules, though some of them just for lectures. I’m not going to write about them here because I have been to all of them before. However, this week I also heard of the Kehilat Chazon Ovadia shule for the first time, so as soon as I had an opportunity on Shabbat morning, I had to visit. I had thought for many years that there were two Sephardi shules in Melbourne: Sassoon Yehuda, the traditional Sephardi shule, and Rambam, the Sephardi Chabad shule. Whilst these are the two main ones, a third one had popped up in recent years, and as is typical of the Melbourne syna...

  Torah Portion: Bamidbar Synagogue: Yeshivah Gedolah (Chabad) Walking time from home: Less than 10 minutes Reason for going: Something different Kiddush: N/a This week, with a Bar Mitzvah scheduled at a shule quite a distance away in the afternoon, I wanted to go to a shule in the morning that was close to home but not one that I had been to before. The Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand, also known as Yeshiva Gedolah or simply YG, is an institution that many in the Melbourne Jewish community have heard of but I suspect few have ever visited. It is an internationally renowned learning seminary for Chabad boys (aged 17 to early 20s), most of whom later go on to further rabbinic studies abroad. The reputation of the place is so good that about half the boys come from abroad each year, mostly from America but also from other English speaking countries. T...

  Torah Portion: Bechukotai Synagogue: Spiritgrow (Chabad lite) Walking time from home: 25 minutes Reason for going: Lunch and guest speakers Kiddush: Hearty lunch with cholent After a lovely Friday night dinner at another shule, it was time to decide where to go on Shabbat morning. There are still a handful of shules in Melbourne that I am yet to visit, but this week, with a lunch on offer and guest speakers, I decided that it was time to revisit Spiritgrow, which in some ways is a bit of an unusual shule. It is probably fair to say that Spiritgrow’s purpose is mindfulness education. Most of the centre’s programming is about growing the spirit, mentally and physically, and in a sense the shule is an add on. But the elements of mindfulness are on display even during the service. One of the most iconic prayers during any morning service in shule is the Shema. It i...