The Welcome Of A Broad Church

The Welcome Of A Broad Church

- Jonathan Self

On Friday evening, we took the twins to a Shabbat service. According to Jewish religious law, Shabbat begins from a few minutes before sunset every Friday. On a grey, wet midwinter day in rural West Cork, this would place it at, more or less, lunchtime.

However, the Munster Jewish Community ordained that things would kick off long after nightfall, viz. at 5.30pm in Cox’s Hall, Dunmanway, which is a pretty little town, famous for being the birthplace of Sam Maguire, a Gaelic footballer, as well as for the manufacture of linen, the brewing of beer and an annual 1,000-year-old horse fair. According to the census, the neighbourhood’s Jewish population is zero, so the band of worshippers that foregathered there must presumably, like us, have travelled some distance.

The service was short, just 40 minutes, and conducted by two visiting rabbis, one from the UK and one from the USA, in a rather chilly back room illuminated by fluorescent strip lighting. It was so cold that most of the congregation, which numbered about 40, kept their coats on. During the quieter moments, we could hear freezing rain smacking loudly against the windows.