Rabbis Message

Welcome to the Sephardi Association of Victoria. I have been the rabbi of Sassoon Yehuda Synagogue since December 2009. I see that my role here is to bring Sephardim closer to their traditions and increase their ruchniut - spirituality. By doing this Sephardim of Melbourne are able to connect more to the synagogue and the tefillot that we do here as well as the shiurim during the week. When it comes to the Sephardi community in Melbourne I find that the more a person puts in the more they get out.

This can be expressed through the following story. There was once a man  who travelled from town to town. He was looking for the secret to total happiness. He hoped to find this on his travels and recreate this happiness in his local town. One day on his adventures he arrived at a town and he walked down the main street. In the centre of the street was a huge hall. In the hall were long tables spanning the length of the entire hall. On the tables were the most succulent food imaginable. Anything that you could want was on those tables. However all the man could see were unhappy people with sad faces. The traveller couldn't understand why were these people so sad? They had all the food they could want. Why were they so miserable. The man looked deeper and found that on the tables were very long spoons, spoons as long as a person. He finally understood the reason why the towns people were so sad was because they couldn't eat the bountiful food.

The traveller left the town and continued on his quest to find a happy town. This time he came to a town which also had a large main street running down the centre of the town. It too had a huge hall in the middle. This hall had the same long tables and the same bountiful food. It also had the long spoons. However in this town everyone was happy. What was so different about this town that they were so happy, this town was identical to the other town? The explorer looked deeper and saw that in this happy town everyone was helping each other to eat. The spoons were designed that they could feed the person opposite you. The townspeople in the happy town understood that they had to help each other to eat. That they brought each other happiness by helping each other.

The explorer realised that he didn't have to travel the world to find happiness. All he had to do was to help the people in his town. That's what brought happiness to this town and that's what he had to do in his own town'. I don't plan travelling the world (again) for the perfect kehillah - congregation. I believe we already have it here. Everyone is willing to give a helping hand be it making up extra minyanim, preparing kiddushes or just the fact that everyone here on Shabbat says Shabbat Shalom to each other.

Rabbi Ben Hassan