Torah Portion:	Matot-Massei
Synagogue:	Jewish Care Carnegie
Walking time from home:	One hour and 25 minutes
Reason for going:	A lunch not too far away
Kiddush:	N/a

As I have discovered previously, there are some shules inside other buildings that are small, functional and out of the limelight. The beautifully designed synagogue room at Jewish Care in Carnegie is one such service.

The Carnegie site of Jewish Care only opened in early 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and as such, although it looks gorgeous and is well appointed with ultra-modern facilities, it has struggled a little to find an audience. There are residents to be sure, but it is not full. Nonetheless, the building was designed with a multi-purpose room that also doubles as a synagogue, and later in 2020, they appointed a part-time rabbi to look after the Jewish needs of the residents.

I had been meaning to come for a while, but this week with lunch plans in the next suburb, if felt like the right opportunity. I left home with plenty of time and actually arrived at 9:25am, five minutes before the rabbi. The service is called for 9:30, but that is generally the time that residents start to arrive. There were a handful of people in the room at starting time, and a few more 15 minutes later when the service actually began. The rabbi told me in advance that there would almost certainly not be a Minyan, but he conducted the service as if there was one. In the end, there were seven on the men’s side and six on the women’s, with myself, the rabbi and the son of one of the older gentlemen as the only non-residents, but the rabbi said that his role is to show the people that come what a service is, not necessarily to just follow to the rules, and thus he led the entire service aloud, called out page numbers every couple of minutes and when it came to the Torah reading, even though there was no Minyan, he took out the Torah, made sure everyone had a chance to kiss it and see it, and then read the entire portion from the Torah, but didn’t call anyone up and didn’t recite the blessings because of a lack of Minyan. Torah reading is such a central component of the service that he always wants people to hear it, whether there is a Minyan or not.

However, he did more than that. The goal – as he told me later – was to provide a synagogue experience for those that do attend. But most of the residents were not shule goers before and come to the service simply because it is a Jewish activity for them to do on a Saturday morning. So rather than give a sermon, before each section of the Torah reading, the rabbi gives an explanation of that reading, and in general, makes people feel as connected to the service as they can be. The rabbi is so involved and is so used to doing things himself that he not only lifted and dressed the Torah on his own, but when one of the residents called him over during the service, he stopped what he was doing and wheeled that resident towards the bathroom before a staff member took over so that he could return and continue to lead the service. In a shule like this, it is clear that the rabbi’s role is all encompassing and much more holistic than it might be elsewhere.

The service finished just around midday, which is when lunch begins, so there was no kiddush and within 2-3 minutes of the end of the service, all the residents were gone, on their way to the dining room for their Shabbat lunch. The rabbi explained to me after that there is a kiddush when there is a special occasion, but those are also weeks when there is a Minyan. Most weeks outside of festivals or celebrations, there is no Minyan and no kiddush. There was a time last year or so where there was a Minyan almost every week, but then two residents died and things changed. But the rabbi doesn’t mind. The residents are there to have a Jewish experience on a Shabbat morning, and that is what he provides them in an understated, bespoke and beautiful manner. It was great to see.