Eighteen minutes before sunset every Friday, Shabbat candles are lit and a blessing is made.
For the Jewish community, they symbolise peace and warmth in the home.
Janice Furstenberg (left), Rebbetzin Rachel Gutnick and Jenny Segal at the East Melbourne Synagogue, lighting candles to bring in Shabbat. Credit: Paul Jeffers
But this Friday, at the East Melbourne Synagogue targeted in an alleged arson attack just seven days earlier, they took on an additional meaning followers of many beliefs and faiths would be familiar with.
To combat darkness with light.
One week after the attack that terrified congregants as they sat down to a Shabbat meal, the East Melbourne Synagogue welcomed the wider community through its doors to join them as they returned to the ritual.
Attendees were urged by Rabbi Dovid Gutnick to join the congregation as they “replace the darkness of hate with the light of Shabbat and communal harmony”.
The Melbourne community answered, with hundreds of attendees filling the synagogue, which usually hosts dozens for similar services.
Reverend Michael Bowie, the vicar of St Peter’s Eastern Hill in Melbourne, joined the faithful in scenes that reminded Gutnick of a time when all the faiths of East Melbourne would sit on the benches of the synagogue.
Gutnick reflected on miracles as he addressed the service, and how the flammable carpet and door were spared the worst damage even as accelerant leaked under the door.
He wondered if it was just luck that when the attack happened the fire station was metres away, that the restaurant nearby used its ice buckets to help douse the flames and that a good Samaritan rushed to stamp out the fire with their feet.
To his mind, the only way the flames could have been tamed so quickly was that the spirits from 150 years of congregations had all exhaled at once, blowing out the fire before it could harm those inside.
“How else can you explain it?” he told the service.
Whatever happened, the rabbi said, the fact that they were all alive and together as a community “would stay with him forever”.
Gutnick also said he’d never forget missing a call from the prime minister and received a voicemail detailing his shock over the attack.
After a few in the crowd applauded, he clarified that he’d immediately called Anthony Albanese back and was “not making a political point”.
Extra security was provided at the venue, with guards stationed at the doors and two police cars within metres. But in acknowledgment of what has been a difficult week for the synagogue, Gutnick urged those in attendance not to linger out the front for their own safety.
Victoria Police confirmed counterterrorism command was leading the investigation into last Friday night’s alleged arson attack, but it had not been declared an act of terrorism.
A western Sydney man from the suburb of Toongabbie has been charged with reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, criminal damage by fire, and possession of a controlled weapon.
Rabbi Dovid Gutnick stands in front of the charred entrance to the East Melbourne Synagogue.Credit: Aaron Francis
About 20 people, including children, were taking part in Shabbat inside the historic Albert Street synagogue when flammable liquid was allegedly poured on the front door of the building, and set alight.
Chazan Brett Kaye led Friday night’s congregation in prayer, through singing and chanting. By the end of the service, Gutnick joked that he might defect to the St Kilda shul, where Kaye is the cantor.
The rabbi sought to highlight the triumph of light over darkness as the theme of his service.
True to his request, the service was upbeat as children ran up and down the aisle, the congregation joined loudly in prayer and song and old friends greeted each other.
The rabbi’s wife, Rachel Gutnick, said the lighting of the candles marked the transition from the weekday to the sacred. “The space, we believe, is transformed,” she said. “Now we can all exhale.”
She was among those who lit the candles at the East Melbourne Shul on Friday night. As she did so, she covered her eyes while they said a blessing to “increase our focus”.
She said the lighting of the candles took on a special meaning after a difficult week. “It is all about increasing light, doing things that bring light whether it’s spiritual or physical,” she said.
As she spoke to The Age, a congregant hugged her on her way into the service and whispered in her ear. “It will all be good.”
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