Two services, twelve hours, one community

In the span of twelve hours last Shabbat, I attended two different services – both poignant, and while themselves different, still linked.

The first was the packed Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat shule service at Chabad of Bondi, billed as a special tribute celebrating Rabbi Eli Schlanger’s birthday.

Eli would have been 42. As we know, he was one of the 15 people murdered in the Bondi Beach massacre that took place on December 14 last year during the Chanukah by the Sea event that he organised.

Most of the victims that fateful day were associated with Chabad of Bondi. For that shattered community, the grief is still raw. And yet, the only overt emotion that was palpable in the shule on Friday night, just four months removed from the tragedy, was sheer joy.

Joy at being alive. Joy at being Jewish.