Torah Portion:	Chukat
Synagogue:	Gesher at Temple Beth Israel
Walking time from home:	Just over 15 minutes
Reason for going:	Something different
Kiddush:	Small, homely kiddush

The majority of services on a Shabbat morning, here and across the world, are very traditional.  Different shules and different sects within Judaism interpret some elements differently, but if you are familiar with the proceedings and walk into almost any shule in the world, you will recognise the tunes and the way the service runs. But then there are others that are demonstrably different – they take the mould of a traditional shule and turn it on its head. One such very different service is called ‘Gesher Lit’fillah – a bridge to prayer’ at TBI. According to the TBI website, it is an ‘alternate’ service, ‘led by the participants themselves, with more communal discussion and singing.’ It only meets once a month, but based on this description and its name, I expected it to be for beginners or for those who are transitioning to the main service. What I saw instead surprised me in a very positive way.

This Gesher service first began at TBI around 25 years ago on a monthly basis when some of the senior leadership decided they wanted a different kind of service – a service that mirrors the main service but where everyone feels like they are part of it and where the whole thing feels more participatory. I walked in about five minutes after start time and was directed to a room off the foyer that I had been to numerous times for classes. The room has a built-in ark, and I assume it was first designed to be a smaller shule, but I had never seen it used as such. On this occasion, just in front of the ark were a number of bunched up tables, and there were already about twenty people sitting in a semi-circle formation in two rows around them. Over the course of the morning, only two or three others joined us. It was a tight group, but it was not for beginners as I had first assumed. Most were seasoned shule goers, and myself and one other were the only two in the room under 50. Moreover, if you couldn’t read (or sing) Hebrew, as one or two couldn’t, then you were probably also entirely lost throughout the proceedings.

The service more or less followed the prayer book, but singing the prayers as a group was the main aim. However, not every prayer has a tune associated with it so over the course of the last quarter of a century, tunes have been composed by some of the congregants to fit some of the prayers. As such, even for someone like me who goes to different shules every week, there were quite a number of tunes that I had never heard before. In a sense, it was glorious. The tunes were easy to learn, and for some of the prayers that might otherwise be mumbled in other circumstances, here they were sung aloud and embraced by everyone. There also though some moments of quiet contemplation.

The best part for me was the discussion before the Torah reading. In many shules, the service seamlessly transitions from the prayer book to the Torah reading with little more than an announcement of the page number or portion name. Any elaboration comes later during the sermon. Here, each month one of the regulars is tasked with preparing a discussion and leading it, but getting everyone involved if they choose to contribute. The discussion, like the Torah reading itself, focused on only one section – in this case, the death of Miriam, the lack of water and then the death of Aharon – but it was in-depth with multiple sources and opinions, and very robust. I think everyone learned a lot during those 15 minutes. Then a few people were called to read parts of that section, each chosen because of a coming celebration or commemoration (ie: birthday, anniversary, etc). The service concluded with a small kiddush in the room which felt very homely because although the whole service was different and alternative to be sure, it was also equally meaningful, participatory, impactful and something that is rare in most other shules: joyful.