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 now called ‘Vayashkem Avraham Baboker’ (Abraham got up early in the morning), which is a phrase from the portion of Lech Lecha, the service is colloquially and by congregants and visitors alike, simply called the Blake Street Early Minyan.

To get to the shule by starting time, I set my alarm for just before 7am, which felt unnaturally and inappropriately early on a day of rest. I arrived less than five minutes after starting time and was the second last one to walk in. All up there were almost 20 people in the library room, including two young boys and no women. I was told that sometimes there are a few more people and sometimes there are one or two women who come to this service, but not on this day. The vast majority were regular early risers who enjoy the vibe of this service. This includes half a dozen or so Sephardi guys of Yemenite descent who live nearby. The shule as a whole is Ashkenazi, and they fit into that, but when they lead parts of the service or read from the Torah, their accents and pronunciations become evident. Other than that, it ran very much like any other service, in a relatively quiet and no frills kind of way. Surprisingly though, it never felt rushed, with occasional page numbers being announced, all the communal prayers recited, and even a sermon!

As it happens, because the main shule starts at 9:15am, the rabbi usually arrives at shule a little early, right in time to step into this service to give a snapshot of his extended sermon later. In this case, the portion of the week mentions the grace after meals and he explained why one of the prayers within it was added later, and connected it to the land of Israel. It was nice to hear, but for most people in this service, it was also nice that it was short. As such, the service finished around 9:45am, and though that is the advertised time of the Hasifriya service in the same room, as I discovered a previous time, that service almost always starts late. In our case, once we finished the service we moved into another room which is usually a playroom, but has chairs and some tables, on which was placed a cholent, cake and coffee. A somewhat odd combination for breakfast, but it was a good opportunity to chat with some of the guys. Some said they really enjoy the nature of this service, in part because it allows them to then go home and back to bed before lunch. I would rather just wake up later, but each to their own.

The guest speaker was a former Australian who has lived in Israel for many years. She spoke at the end of the main service, so I spent most of my time chatting with some guys at the back of the shule. It was a little weird to be in another service having just finished one, but listening to the speaker at the end was worth it. What she said was equal parts devastating and inspiring. We then moved into the hall where there was more cholent and more food. I spent a long time inside the building, but the atmosphere was inviting and it was great to experience a somewhat different kind of service.