Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time for reflection, repentance, renewal and reimagination

An Atlantic sunset seen near Milltown Malbay, Co Clare … Rosh Hashanah is a time for ‘Crossing the Bridge from the Particular to the Universal’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish New Year 5787, begins at sunset tomorrow evening (Friday 11 September 2026) and continues until nightfall on Sunday (13 September 2026).

Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה‎) literally means ‘head of the year’. According to Jewish tradition, this holiday commemorates the creation of humanity and serves as a day of divine judgment. It is the first of the High Holy Days and begins the Ten Days of Repentance, culminating in Yom Kippur.

Rosh Hashanah is marked on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month in the Hebrew calendar. The central ritual is the sounding of the shofar or ram’s horn, and festive meals feature symbolic foods representing hopes for a sweet new year.

Rosh Hashanah is a time of introspection and atonement. The central theme and practice not only of Rosh Hashanah, but of the entire autumn holiday season, is teshuvah (תְּשׁוּבָה), a word commonly translated as ‘repentance’ but that more literally means ‘return’ or ‘turn around’.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the holiday that follows 10 days later, are intensely focused on teshuvah. Yom Kippur, which follows, begins at sunset on Sunday 20 September 2026 and ends at nightfall on Monday 21 September 2026. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most solemn day in the Jewish calendar, and marks the peak of the High Holidays.

Many Jews see this as a time to make amends or apologise to those they have wronged in the past year and resolve to do better in the year about to begin. One of the common practices of Rosh Hashanah is attending synagogue services and hearing the blowing of the shofar, or ram’s horn, the central mitzvah of the holiday. Another well-known practice is the Tashlich (תשליך) service, in which sins are symbolically cast into a natural body of running water.

The foods most associated with Rosh Hashanah are apples and honey, eaten as an expression of hope for a sweet new year. There is also a tradition of eating other symbolic foods at Rosh Hashanah meals, including pomegranates, dates, leeks and a fish head – all symbolic of a wish for the year to come.

On the second night of Rosh Hashanah it is customary to eat a new fruit, a symbol of newness. It is also customary to have big feasts on both nights of Rosh Hashanah and the many customary dishes include honey cake, brisket and tzimmes.

The traditional greeting on Rosh HaShanah is ‘shanah tovah umtukah’ (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה וּמְתוּקָה‎) which means ‘may you have a good and sweet new year’. This greeting is often shortened to ‘shanah tovah’ (שָׁנָה טוֹבָה‎), ‘a good year’.

A more formal greeting is ‘L’shanah tovah tikateivu v’teichateimu’ (לְשָׁנָה טוֹבָה תִּכָּתְבוּ וְתֵחָתֵמוּ‎), which means ‘a good year, and may you be inscribed and sealed (for blessing in the Book of Life)’. Another greeting is ‘tizku l'shanim rabot’ (תזכו לשנים רבות‎), which means ‘may you merit many years’.

Some people say ‘chag sameach’ (חג שמח‎), but strictly speaking chag sameach should only be on the three pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot.

Another traditional greeting for Ashkenazi Jews on both Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is a Yiddish greeting, ‘gut yontif,’ ‘good holiday’. Sephardic Jews may offer a greeting in Ladino, ‘anyada bueno, dulse, i alegre’, ‘may you have a good, sweet, and happy new year.’

The foods associated with Rosh Hashanah, including apples, honey, pomegranates and dates, express hopes for a sweet new year

Yolanda Savage-Narva is the former vice president of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) for the Union for Reform Judaism in the US. For more than 20 years, she worked with Tribal governments to strengthen public health systems, promoted pedestrian safety and advocacy, coining the phrase ‘walking is a civil right’ and worked on health equity. More recently, she was the executive director with Operation Understanding DC, promoting understanding, cooperation, and respect while fighting to eradicate racism, antisemitism and discrimination.

In a reflection written last year for Rosh HaShanah, she talked about the period between Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as a timely opportunity for renewal, reflection, and repentance: ‘It gives us a chance to repair ourselves through tikkun atzmi by embracing the particular, so that we can do our part of repairing the world, tikkun olam by embracing the universal.’

She wrote how, as a Jew, she found herself yearning for the opportunity for reflection, repentance, renewal, and reimagination. She continued: ‘There are so many injustices in the world that I cannot point to just one or create a hierarchy in my heart about which atrocity is more inhumane’.

As a resident of Washington DC, she said, she has a front row seat to an occupied territory: ‘People of Latinx descent are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being captured like wild animals and shipped off to a country they know nothing about. As a resident of the United States, I am witnessing with horror the dismantling of every system imaginable: public health access; environmental protections; transportation infrastructure; and so many other initiatives that serve to protect the most marginalised in our society; the continued daily scourge of racism; the rise of antisemitism and all forms of hatred; and the rule of law are all in question. As a global citizen, I am watching with hopelessness and despair the continued loss of life from Gaza to Haiti to Ukraine and places in between.’

She asked how Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur could be used to think about how we contribute to the universal idea of the Divine spark in every human being: ‘How do we ensure that every human being knows and understands that this soil (our Earth) belongs to all of us and is our rightful home?’

She went on to make four suggestions:

‘First, we REFLECT by going inward. We explore those places inside of ourselves that have gone unchallenged. We commit, as individuals, to being a part of the universe that will bring justice and liberation. We must look into the mirror, challenge our assumptions and our biases, and add tools to our toolbox that will help us understand that the choices we make as individuals impact the sum of us.

‘Second, we REPENT. We learn from our mistakes and account for any harm we have had a hand in. We don’t stay there, but we do acknowledge what we have done to be hurtful, to not be helpful, when we could or should have.

‘Third, we RENEW by embracing the darkness. Darkness does not mean bad or evil in the way we have been taught by those that teach things. I see darkness as an opportunity for true transformation, true growth, true nourishment. What truly happens in darkness – at night we sleep, replenishing our body and mind, we collect our memories and store them for a future time. The soil provides nutrients that make things grow, a black hole; objects are transformed in a way that, if they could come back out, they would be different.

‘Fourth, we REIMAGINE. In the words of Muhammad Ali, “If the heart can conceive it, the mind can achieve it.” We are building from the ground up. There are a few things that we will be able to rebuild and most certainly will not be the same. Embrace the opportunity to reimagine and rebuild.’

In preparation for the High Holy Days, she implored readers not merely to read or hear the words from ancient text, but to ‘allow the words to embody our spirits and awaken our souls to the fact that, although we act as individuals, we are inextricably bound together to serve and honour all of humanity.’

She concluded: ‘The core Jewish principle from the Talmud that calls Jews to realise that, if we save one person, it is as if we have saved the world is fundamental. If we are all doing our part to save one person, we are, in fact, saving the world. When we see each individual soul as being made in the Divine Image (b’tzelem Elohim), we are embracing and crossing the bridge from the individual (particular) and the universal (all of humanity).’

The late Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan Sacks), writing about Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, said: ‘Those who fully engage in the spirit of Rosh Hashanah emerge into the new year charged, energised, focussed, renewed, knowing that to be a Jew is to live life in the Presence of God, to sanctify life for the sake of God, and to enhance the lives of others – for where we bring blessings into other lives, there God lives.’

Walking by the shore by Giudecca in Venice … Rosh Hashanah is an opportunity for reflection, repentance, renewal, and reimagination (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2026: 122, Monday 7 September 2026

‘On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered’ (Luke 6: 6) … ‘Healing Hands’, a sculpture by Shane Gilmore in Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and the week began with the Festival of Creation in Christ or the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIV, 6 September 2026).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

A Hamsa Hand from the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague with a prayer attributed to Rabbi Yehuda ben Bezalel Lewa ‘Maharal’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 6: 6-11 (NRSVA):

6 On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him. 8 Even though he knew what they were thinking, he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ He got up and stood there. 9 Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to destroy it?’ 10 After looking around at all of them, he said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

Father Michael Lapsley standing at the altar and presiding at the Eucharist in Saint George the Martyr, Silvertown, Cape Town, last month

Today’s Reflections:

This morning’s Gospel reading (Luke 6: 6-11) tells another story of healing in a synagogue and on the Sabbath.

At one time, not having two functioning hands was an impediment to ordination to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. A priest without hands was regarded as unable to take the bread and wine in his hands at the words of institution, to raise them at the elevation, to distribute them at the Eucharist, to pronounce absolution, or to give a blessing.

In a similar way, not being able to stand on one’s own two legs was also an impediment, seen as stopping a priest from standing at the altar and presiding at the Eucharist.

Father Michael Lapsley, a Facebook friend, is a New Zealand-born Anglican priest in South Africa. At the height of apartheid, he was a university chaplain in Durban. At the time of the Soweto uprising and killings 50 years ago in 1976, he began to speak out on behalf of schoolchildren who were being shot, detained and tortured. His activism resulted in his expulsion from South Africa. He continued his studies in exile in in Lesotho, and became a chaplain to the African National Congress.

He moved to Zimbabwe in 1982, and there in 1990, three months after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, he was sent a letter bomb. He lost both hands and the sight in one eye in the blast, and was seriously burnt. He was about to become a parish priest in Bulawayo. Instead, he spent months on end in hospitals first in Harare and then in Australia.

When he returned to Zimbabwe, his bishop had given the parish to someone else. ‘He looked at me and said, But you are disabled now. What can you do?’ He replied: ‘I think I can be more of a priest with no hands than I ever was with two hands.’

Archbishop Desmond Tutu invited him to work in his diocese, telling him, ‘I have a priest who’s deaf, one who’s blind, now one with no hands, come and work in my diocese.’

Father Michael has continued as a priest, working with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, helping to set up the Institute for Healing of Memories in Cape Town, and creating the International Network for Peace to promote effective and nonviolent solutions to terrorism.

He has been a canon of the cathedral in both Cape Town and Edmonton, Canada, vice-president of the South African Council of Churches (2014-2017), and has been honoured with honorary doctorates and medals. Nelson Mandela said of him, ‘Michael’s life … is part of the tapestry of the many long journeys and struggles of our people.’

‘I can’t shake hands,’ he once told Chris Chivers of The Tablet, ‘but I do love hugs.’

I have a Hamsa Hand from Josefov, the Old Jewish Quarter in Prague, hanging above the kitchen door in Stony Stratford. The small Hamsa Hand points down and is decorated with an eye and some fish.

Some years ago, in Hamsa, a kosher and Middle Eastern restaurant in Kraków, I learned how the Hamsa is a popular talisman throughout the Middle East, a sign of protection and blessing. An introductory leaflet said the Hamsa hand ‘helps you make the right choices, find friends and in times of doubt gives us hope that everything will work out.’

The Hamsa Hand is used as a symbol throughout the Middle East, among Jews, Muslims and some Christians as a protective sign. The Hamsa Hand, particularly the open right hand, also represents blessings, power and strength. It is a common symbol in jewellery in the Middle East and is also painted on the walls of houses or on the doorways of rooms.

The Hamsa Hand has a wide variety of names and variant spellings, including hamesh, hamsa, chamsa, and khamsa. Different Jewish traditions identify it as the ‘Hand of Miriam,’ the sister of Aaron and Moses, while many Muslims refer to it as the ‘Hand of Fatima.’

The Hamsa Hand has two main styles. One is shaped like a regular hand, the other has two symmetrical thumbs. The second style is the most popular, and the hamsa can be worn facing up or down.

It is difficult to pinpoint when the Hamsa Hand emerged in Jewish culture, although it is clearly a symbol that is Sephardic in nature. Jews might have used the hamsa to invoke the hand of God, or to counteract the Evil Eye with the eye embedded in the palm of the hand. It is often worn as a pendant on a necklace but also is found on key chains, house decorations, baby carriages, and other jewellery items.

Some hamsa hands contain images of fish, referring to a saying in the Talmud by Rabbi Yose son of Hanina that the descendants of Joseph, who received Jacob’s blessing of multiplying like fish in Genesis 48: 16, are protected from the Evil Eye like fish. He explains: ‘the water covers the fish of the sea so the eye has no power over them’ (Berakhot 55b).

Other images that have found their way into the hamsa include the Star of David, prayers for travellers, the Shema, the blessing over the house, and the colours red and blue.

The meaning of the Hamsa Hand has a variety of interpretations, but the name hamsa seems to come from the five fingers of the hand. In Hebrew, the number five is hamesh and the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Hē (ה), is one of God’s holy names, an abbreviation for Hashem, which means ‘The Name’ and is a way of saying God without actually saying the name of God.

It can also represent the five books of the Torah or the five senses used to praise God.

The symbol of the hand appears in Kabbalistic manuscripts and amulets, doubling also as the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), the first letter of Shaddai, one of the names referring to God. In these variations of the hamsa, the index and middle fingers, and the ring and small finger, are joined, giving three upward strokes and the shape of the letter shin (ש). This calls on the all-sufficiency of Shaddai, ‘the Almighty,’ a name for God, to impart the blessing.

Some writers say the Hamsa has been present in Judaism since Biblical times, and cite Deuteronomy 5: 15, where it refers to the ‘strong hand’ of God who led the people out of slavery in Egypt.

Later, in late antiquity, the Byzantine period, and even in mediaeval Europe, including mediaeval Spain, the Hamsa Hand is seen in Jewish art as God’s hand reaching down from heaven.

In the Middle Ages, the Hamsa Hand became associated particularly with the medical arts, and was displayed by Maimonides as a token of the healings he sought to obtain from God and the orderly Creation. It has also been traditionally combined with the eye symbol, but this does not add any potency to either symbol used separately.

One of the most prominent early appearances of the Hamsa Hand is the image of a large open hand that appears on the Puerta Judiciaria (Gate of Judgment) of the Alhambra in southern Spain.

Some historians, including Shalom Sabar, argue that after the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, exiled Jews used the hamsa as a sign of protection and ‘as a distinctive sign of the priesthood, especially when they wished to show that a person was of priestly descent ...’

The use of the hamsa in Jewish culture has been intermittent. It was often used by Sephardic Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was used less and less over time into the mid-20th century.

Among Jewish people, the hamsa has become a respected, holy and common symbol. It is used in the ketubot or marriage contracts, as well as items that dress the Torah such as pointers, and the Passover Haggadah.

In the kabbalah, the hamsa is the symbol of an extended hand and literally means ‘fivefold,’ from chamesh, five. It is usually depicted in an artificially stylised form, with the thumb and the small finger at identical lengths and the hand in a symmetrical shape rather than a left or right or right.

The first meaning is extending one’s hand towards another in a gesture of peace, blessing and fellowship. From this meaning is derived its symbolism for communal prayer, one for another, and particularly the two prayers of initiation and restoration.

From these meanings are derived its use as a symbol of welcome and of healing, including physical healing. It is said, therefore, that anyone who displays the Hamsa Hand has a responsibility to pray continually for those who may view it.

However, the power of the universal gesture is that the universal energy field, which works through order rather than force, is most easily transmitted through the hands. From this fact is derived the principle that smikhah (the ‘laying on of hands’) can physically confer benefits. It takes from what belongs to the giver, including status, authority, and leadership among others, health, vitality, and peace within oneself, and gives it to the receiver.

Some interpretations say the hands are depicted with the fingers spread apart to ward off evil, or closed together to bring good luck, that fingers point up to ward off evil and down to bestow blessings.

The left hand is often regarded as unclean in Middle Eastern cultures because of its function in personal cleanliness. The man in this morning’s Gospel reading is not merely ‘down on his luck’ but he is constantly forced into a state of ritual uncleanliness because of his withered right hand.

In his gestures to this man in the synagogue, Jesus uses his hand as a symbol of welcome and of healing, including physical healing.In his invitation to this man, ‘Come and stand here,’ Jesus calls him from the margins into a full place in the heart of the community of faith. Jesus has status, authority, and leadership among others, health, vitality, and peace within himself, and he gives these to those he heals and restore. Through taking his full place, the man finds healing and restoration.

A hand as a decorative door knocker on Souliou Street in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Monday 7 September 2026):

In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 6-12 September 2026 (pp 36-37), is ‘Turning Pain into Glory’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a Reflection by Nolene Sheppard, Leader of a Women’s Empowerment Group, Magnificat, and Ukraine Aid Project Support Lead at Saint Thomas à Becket, Hamburg, Germany.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 7 September 2026) invites us to pray:

Father in heaven, giver of life, I thank you for my breath and for making me in your image and likeness. Walk with me today and help me to live in the strength and wisdom you give.

The Collect of the Day:

Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God:
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

He said to him, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He did so, and his hand was restored (Luke 6: 10) … the ‘Wishing Hand’ sculpture by Linda Brunker at the Department of Education on Marlborough Street, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

A Hamsa Hand used to serve food in the Hamsa restaurant in Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Daily prayer in Easter 2026: 50, Sunday 24 May 2026, Day of Pentecost (Whit Sunday)

The Day of Pentecost depicted in a fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopiano in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (5 April 2026) and continuing through Ascension Day until today, the Day of Pentecost or Whit Sunday (24 May 2026).

Later this morning, I hope to be part of the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, singing with the choir. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Come Holy Spirit’ … the holy water stoup in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 14: 8-17 (25-27), NRSVA:

8 Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ 9 Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

[25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.’]

Pentecost or the Descent of the Holy Spirit, by Titian, in the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Rabbi David Aaron opens one of his books with a story about the comedian Henny Youngman, the ‘King of One-Liners,’ who once said, ‘I tried being an atheist, but I gave it up. There are no holidays.’

There are three great holidays in the Calendar of the Church when canon law expects the Eucharist to be celebrated in every cathedral and church: Christmas Day, Easter Day and the Day of Pentecost, today.

Each of these holidays or holy days is a day that celebrates how God has come among us and how God invites us to be with him.

They are just like our own holidays.

How often do you remember a holiday as a time when someone came to visit you, or you went to visit someone special in your family?

I have fond memories of long, extended holidays spent on my grandmother’s farm near Cappoquin in West Waterford.

How many of us know Christmas would not be Christmas without visiting the homes of family members, or special people in our lives and families coming to visit us, or even stay with us?

We have had two family members visiting our small flat in Stony Stratford in recent weeks. Despite its size, we have tried to make this flat a place of hospitality, where people can come and visit us, and sometimes stay with, live with us, even if only for a short time.

These principal holy days or holidays in the life of the Church – Christmas, Easter and Pentecost – are holidays to celebrate how God comes to dwell with us.

1, At Christmas, we celebrate the Incarnation: God comes as Christ to live among us, as one of us.

2, At Easter, God invites to us to come and dwell with him, to become what we are truly made to be.

3, At Pentecost, God as the Holy Spirit comes and dwells with us.

In a typical American way of telling it, David Aaron in that book, Inviting God In (Boston and London: Trumpeter, 2006), makes a distinction between a vacation and a holiday.

He argues that a vacation is a time to get away, such as time on the beach, playing golf or going to a good concert.

A holiday, on the other hand, is a time to celebrate. ‘A holiday,’ he says, ‘is not an escape from everyday life to paradise. Rather, it is a time to infuse paradise into everyday life.’

Playing with the words celebrate and celestial, he says a holiday is a holy day in which we see the celestial within the terrestrial.

The Hebrew name for a holy day, moed (מועד), is used especially for the three great Biblical festivals of Passover, Shavout or Pentecost, which was celebrated over the last few days (21-23 May 2026), and Sukkot (Booths). This Biblical word describes special days set apart from non-sacred days. It actually means ‘date,’ ‘appointed time’ or ‘meeting.’ In other words, these great holidays are actually times to meet God, they truly are dates with God.

And a date with someone special, involves getting dressed up, going somewhere special, perhaps having a special meal together, all in the hope and with the promise of getting to know each other better, of enjoying each other’s company.

David Aaron points out that each of these holy days is a date with God and celebrates a critical ingredient in the recipe for a loving relationship with God and with our fellow human beings – freedom, responsibility, fallibility, accountability, forgiveness, spontaneity, integrity, wholeness, intimacy, anticipation, hope and trust.

Those great holy days are about recalling the great encounters, dates with God in the past, making them real in the present, and looking forward to the promises that they are imbued with, that they may become real in the future.

David Aaron points out that each of these holy days is a date with God. Each holiday is an opportunity to relive the dramatic events that occurred on those days – to remember and celebrate God’s timeless love for us.

In the Feast of Pentecost, we remember how God the Holy Spirit comes to dwell with us, and the Church is formed on the Day of Pentecost.

Until then, they were a small collection of followers of Jesus. Now they become one body. And the Holy Spirit is living in this body.

There is a wise old maxim that you do not really know someone until you live with them. As Sean O’Casey has Joxer say in his play Juno and the Paycock (1925), ‘if you want to know me, come an’ live with me.’

In the ‘reality television’ series First Dates, now in its eleventh series on RTÉ, when people have their first dates, they behave so nicely to one another. They put on their best clothes and finest perfume or aftershave, they are polite, they try to have the best table manners, show they know the best wine and food, and are oh so courteous, considerate and caring.

But when you live with someone, you get to know that person really. Their highs and their lows, their habits and their fads, what they really smell like, how short their fuses may be … even what they really think.

Pentecost celebrates how the Holy Spirit comes to dwell among us, how God wants to live with us and wants us to live with God.

This is the promise of Jesus to his Disciples at the Last Supper that we hear in the Gospel reading this morning (John 14: 8-17, 25-27):

He tells them first that he is alive in God the Father, and that God the Father is alive in him, and that he will ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit, who ‘abides with you, and he will be in you.’

It is the promise at our Confirmation, it is the promise at my ordination. But it is God’s promise to all, at Pentecost.

Because of Pentecost, God lives with us, and we live with God. We have been formed into one body, the Body of Christ. There are no more barriers, based on social class, gender, birth, job title, language, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity … or any of the other barriers we search for to separate us one from another.

The Holy Spirit breaks down all those barriers.

It sounds crazy.

It is crazy … by the normal pushy standards we see all around us. No wonder some people who saw what happened that first Pentecost in Jerusalem sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine’ (Acts 2: 13).

But then, God loves us, and wants more than a first date. God wants to live with us, and wants us to live with God.

Like a holy date, our Pentecost Eucharist or Holy Communion later this morning includes some of the elements we might expect on a date with God. We dress up nicely, we tell stories, we ask about one another, in our prayers we share our hopes and dreams and sorrows, we eat with another.

God has come to live with us, and now invites us to share his love, and to show this love in how we care for one another, pray for another, and how we now look at the world through the love-tinted glasses of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Pentecost breaks down the doors we lock and the walls we build to separate ourselves from God and from each other … a locked old door in the streets of the old town in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Acts 2: 1-21 (NRSVA):

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12 All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ 13 But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 15 Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 “In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
18 Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
20 The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The Day of Pentecost depicted in an icon in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 24 May 2026, Day of Pentecost, Whit Sunday):

This week in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), from 24 to 30 May 2026 (pp 58-59), the theme is ‘Carriers of the Flame’ and is introduced today with reflections by Carol Miller, Church Engagement Manager, USPG:

‘At Pentecost we remember how the Holy Spirit came like fire, igniting the hearts of the first disciples and sending them out into the world. That same Spirit continues to inspire USPG supporters today – people whose faith has led them to champion mission, justice, and care across generations.

Some have served overseas: “I was a missionary in Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1985 … I keep USPG and the church in Zimbabwe in my prayers.” Others have shared professional skills: “I first volunteered in the USPG library in Tufton Street in 1980 and shortly after was appointed Librarian.”

‘For some, USPG is part of their heritage: “My mother was an SPG medical missionary in Delhi in the late 1930s and early 40s, so it has always been part of my heritage.” For others, it has shaped a lifelong vocation: “We went as missionaries to Southern Africa with USPG between 1983–1991 … later I joined the staff.”

‘At Pentecost we give thanks for this great cloud of witnesses - ordinary people carrying the flame of faith, passing it on to the next generation, and reminding us that the Spirit still calls, still sends, and still empowers us to serve God’s world.

‘USPG continues this mission today. You can be part of it; by praying, volunteering, becoming a parish contact or representative in your diocese, or giving to support life-changing projects. Together, we carry the flame.’

The USPG prayer diary today (Sunday 24 May 2026, Day of Pentecost, Whit Sunday) invites us to pray and to reflect by reading and meditating on John 20: 19-23, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Collect:

God, who as at this time
taught the hearts of your faithful people
by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit:
grant us by the same Spirit
to have a right judgement in all things
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort;
through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Faithful God,
who fulfilled the promises of Easter
by sending us your Holy Spirit
and opening to every race and nation
the way of life eternal:
open our lips by your Spirit,
that every tongue may tell of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Holy Spirit, sent by the Father,
ignite in us your holy fire;
strengthen your children with the gift of faith,
revive your Church with the breath of love,
and renew the face of the earth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The Day of Pentecost depicted in the iconostasis in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 24, Friday 13 March 2026

‘Hear O Israel … שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎ …’ (Deuteronomy 4) … the words of the ‘Shema’ once seen on the wall of the Beth El Synagogue near Bunclody, Co Wexford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We have passed the half-way point in Lent, which began three weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026). This week began with the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 8 March 2026).

I have been staying for the last three nights at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, where I spoke yesterday at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham.

This ecumenical pilgrimage, which began on Tuesday (10 March) and ends today (13 March), has been organised with the support of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius and the Society of Saint John Chrysostom and is in its 100th year. I was invited to speak yesterday on ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’.

Today’s programme begins with the Catholic Mass at the Convent of the Little Sisters of Jesus, and there are talks this morning by Father Mark Woodruff, Chair, Society of Saint John Chrysostom; Dr Daniel Pratt Morris-Chapman of Wesley House, Cambridge. The day ends with the Anglican Eucharist in Saint Mary and All Saints’ Church, when the celebrant and preacher is Bishop Lindsay Urwin, Assistant Bishop, Diocese of Southwark, and the Ecumenical Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, led by Canon Norman Wallwork and the Revd Dr Richard Clutterbuck.

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

Teaching the Law and the Prophets … ‘Teacher and student’ by Judel Gerberhole (1904), in the Jewish Museum in the Old Synagogue, Kraków (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Mark 12: 28-34 (NRSVA):

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29 Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ 32 Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”; 33 and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”, – this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question.

The Ten Commandments on two tablets in a synagogue in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflection:

‘Listen’ – the word is a call to listen to the groan and cry of creation, to listen to the cry of the dispossessed, and to listen to God’s voice on how we can live more simply so that others might simply live.

In my reflections on Wednesday morning (11 March 2026), I recalled the conversation in today’s Gospel reading (Mark 12: 28-34) between Jesus and the unnamed Scribe about the greatest of the commandments. Jesus begins to reply with the word ‘Listen’, or ‘Hear, O Israel …’

Saint Benedict begins his Rule with the word ‘Listen’, ausculta: ‘Listen carefully, child of God, to the guidance of your teacher. Attend to the message you hear and make sure it pierces your heart, so that you may accept it in willing freedom and fulfil by the way you live the directions that come from your loving Father’ (Rule of Saint Benedict, Prologue 1, translated by Patrick Barry). His advice is as short and as succinct a directive on how to prepare to pray as I can find.

Benedictine prayer became more accessible in popular culture over 20 years ago when the BBC screened the television series, The Monastery (2005), in which the then Abbot of Worth Abbey, Abbot Christopher Jamison, guided five men (and three million viewers) into a new approach to life at Worth Abbey in Sussex.

Since then, Dom Christopher’s best-selling books following the popular series, Finding Sanctuary (2007) and Finding Happiness (2008), have offered readers similar opportunities. He points out that no matter how hard we work, being too busy is not inevitable. Silence and contemplation are not just for monks and nuns, they are parts of the natural rhythm of life.

Yet, to keep hold of this truth in the rush of modern living we need the support of other people and sensible advice from wise guides. By learning to listen in new ways, people’s lives can change and Dom Christopher offers some monastic steps that help this transition to a more spiritual life.

Saint Benedict of Nursia wrote the first official western manual for praying the Hours over 1,500 years ago, in the year 525. Benedictine spirituality approaches life through an ordering by daily prayer that is biblical and reflective, and Benedictine spirituality is grounded in an approach to spiritual life that values ‘Stability, Obedience, and Conversion of Life.’

The major themes in the Rule are community, prayer, hospitality, study, work, humility, stability, peace and listening. This distinction between liturgical prayer and private prayer, which is familiar to modern spirituality, was unknown to the early monks. Apart from one short reference to prayer outside the office, Chapter 20 of the Rule is concerned with the silent prayer that is a response to the psalm. Listening to the word of God was a necessary prelude to every prayer, and prayer was the natural response to every psalm.

When the scribe asks Jesus which of the 613 traditional commandments in Judaism is the most important (see Matthew 22: 34-40; Mark 12: 28-34; Luke 10: 25-28), Christ offers not one but two commandments or laws, though neither is found in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 4-21). Instead, Christ steps outside the Ten Commandments when he quotes from two other sections in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, Leviticus 19: 18).

And the first command Christ quotes is the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, …’ (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎) (Mark 12: 29), recited twice daily by pious Jews. The shema, שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָֽד‎, is composed from two separate passages in the Book Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, 11: 13-21), and to this day it is recited twice daily in Jewish practice.

The Hebrew word Shema is translated as ‘listen’ or ‘hear.’ But it means more than to just hear the sound, it means ‘to pay attention to, or to ‘focus on’. In fact, it has an even deeper meaning, requiring the listener or hearer to ‘respond to what you hear’. It calls for a response to what I hear or I am told, to act upon or do something related to the command. In other words, shema often means ‘Listen and Obey.’ They are two sides of the same coin so that comes to my ear is understood and results in action. Not to take proper action, not to respond, not to follow in discipleship is to not listen at all.

For responding in this way, Christ tells this unnamed scribe that he has answered wisely and is near the kingdom of God (verse 34).

And that silenced everyone who was listening, and it put an end to the debates … for the moment.

Silent people, who are pushed to the margins, may have more to say about God, about truth, about love, and about the true meaning of religion if only we would allow them to move in from the margins and listen to what they have to say.

People who ask questions about religious values are not necessarily trying to upset our faith and beliefs. They may actually be calling us back to the core values.

Named or unnamed, male or female, insider or outsider, we each have a place and a part in God’s plans. Being open to love, especially to the love of others, is the key to finding ourselves in that place.

Reading and studying in the Scriptorum in Ealing Abbey … Saint Benedict begins his Rule with the word ‘Listen’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Friday 13 March 2026):

The theme this week (8-14 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Biblical Sisterhood’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Dr Sanjana Das, PhD feminist theologian, advocate for the dignity and rights of trafficked and migrant working women.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Friday 13 March 2026) invites us to pray:

Gracious God, we thank you for all who work with trafficked and migrant women. Grant protection, wisdom and courage as they tirelessly work to support vulnerable communities.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

Moses and the Law outside the Palais de Justice in Perpignan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Daily prayer in Lent 2026: 22, Wednesday 11 March 2026

The Ten Commandments on two panels between the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed in Saint Simon and Saint Jude Church, Castlethorpe, Buckinghamshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Lent began three weeks ago on Ash Wednesday (18 February 2026), and this week began with the Third Sunday in Lent (Lent III, 8 March 2026). I am staying at the Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk. I am speaking tomorrow at the Ecumenical Pilgrimage to Walsingham which began yesterday (10 March) and continues until Friday (13 March).

This ecumenical pilgrimage has been organised with the support of the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius and the Society of Saint John Chrysostom and is in its 100th year. I have been invited to be one of the speakers, speaking on ‘A Priest along the Way of a Pilgrim’.

Today’s programme begins with an Anglican celebration of the Eucharist in the Shrine Church; a visit to the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, Scripture Meditations led by Father Graeme Rowlands; Catholic Sung Mass celebrated by Bishop Peter Collins of East Anglia, with Monsignor Keith Newton preacher; and addresses by Bishop Peter Collins, Canon Norman Wallwork, Dr Margaret Barker, Dr Razvan Porumb of the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge, and Canon Dr Paul Wiliams.

But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:

1, reading today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

One of two panels in the chancel in Saint Peter’s Church, Lingwood, Norfolk, displaying the Ten Commandments (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2026)

Matthew 5: 17-19 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.’

The Ten Commandments on a Torah Mantle from Adelaide Road Synagogue now in the Dublin Jewish Museum (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Reflections:

Which are the least of the commandments? And if we ask that question we might ask too: which is the greatest of the commandments?

In Jewish law, there are 613 commandments, precepts or mitzvot. They include positive commandments, to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and negative commandments, to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). The negative commandments number 365, which coincides with the number of days in the solar year, and the positive commandments number 248, said to be the number of bones and main organs in the human body (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b–24a).

The number of tzitzit or knotted fringes of the tallit or prayer shawl worn by pious Jews at prayer is connected to the 613 commandments: the Hebrew numerical value of the word tzitzit is 600; each tassel has eight threads (when doubled over) and five sets of knots, totalling 13; the sum of these numbers is 613. This reflects the idea that donning a tallit or prayer shawl with tzitzit reminds the wearer of all 613 Torah commandments.

Deli613 in Rathmines, the Jewish deli in Dublin, takes its name from the 613 mitvot.

Later this week (13 March), we read how once, when a Scribe wants to know which of one of these 613 commandments is the most important (Mark 12: 28-34), Christ offers not one but two commandments or laws. But neither is found in the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20: 1-17 and Deuteronomy 5: 4-21). Instead, he steps outside the Ten Commandments and quotes from two other sections in the Bible (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5 and Leviticus 19: 18).

The first command Christ quotes is the shema, ‘Hear, O Israel, …’ (verse 29), recited twice daily by pious Jews. The shema is composed from two separate passages in the Book Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and 11: 13-21), and to this day it is recited twice daily in Jewish practice.

Christ links this first commandment to a second, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’ (verse 31). Once again, he is not quoting from the Ten Commandments; instead, here he is quoting from the Book Leviticus (Leviticus 19: 18).

Christ combines these two precepts into a moral principle, linked by love. But he is not the first, nor is he the last, to do this, nor is this combination unique for the Scribes or the Pharisees.

Hillel the Elder (ca 110 BCE to 10 CE), when he was asked a similar question, cited this verse as the most important message of the Torah. Once, he was challenged by a gentile who asked to be converted if the Torah was explained to him while he stood on one foot. Drawing on Leviticus (Leviticus 19: 18), Hillel told the man: ‘Do not do to anyone else what is hateful to you: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn’ (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbath 31a).

The Scribe agrees with Jesus and elaborates. Both precepts are much more important than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices in the Temple (verses 32-33). For responding in this way, Christ tells this Scribe that he has answered wisely and is near the kingdom of God (verse 34).

The Irish-born theologian Professor David Ford sees these two commandments as the key, foundational Scripture passage for all our hermeneutical exercises. David Ford was born in Dublin, and from 1991 to 2015 he was the Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge.

Speaking once at the Dublin and Glendalough Clergy Conference in Kilkenny [2012], he was asked about some of the hermeneutical approaches he outlines in his book, The Future of Christian Theology (2011). He said that if the two great commandments are about love, and God is love, then no interpretation is to be trusted that goes against love.

He reminded the clergy present of Saint Augustine’s great regula caritatis, the rule of love. If love is the rule, then the ‘how’ of reading scripture together is as important as the ‘what.’ In The Future of Christian Theology he says: ‘Anything that goes against love of God and love of neighbour is, for Christian theology, unsound biblical interpretation.’

In other words, the two great commandments provide the key to understanding all the commandments, and ‘whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5: 19).

A selection of tallitot or prayer shawls in the synagogue in Chania in Crete … the number of knots and fringes represent the 613 commandments in Jewish law, but which is the most important? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 11 March 2026):

The theme this week (8-14 March 2026) in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Biblical Sisterhood’ (pp 36-37). This theme was introduced on Sunday with reflections by Dr Sanjana Das, PhD feminist theologian, advocate for the dignity and rights of trafficked and migrant working women.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 11 March 2026) invites us to pray:

Merciful God, open our eyes to hidden injustices and the unseen struggles of people who are trafficked and exploited. Teach us to speak and act boldly for freedom.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain,
and entered not into glory before he was crucified:
mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross,
may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Eternal God,
give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflections

Continued Tomorrow

The 613 mitzvot or commandments inspire the name of 613 Deli in Rathmines, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Another East End synagogue has closed in London and is due to be sold at auction next week

The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

The East London Central Synagogue, a 100-year-old synagogue in the East End, is for sale at an online auction next Thursday (12 February) with a guide price of more than £2 million. The synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded in 1923, and is being sold on behalf of the Federation of Synagogues.

This is the only surviving purpose-built synagogue in the East End and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End. It was closed in 2020 after a leak in the roof caused part of the ceiling to collapse and also because of the impact of Covid-19 on attendance numbers.

Ever since, the synagogue in Whitechapel has been largely disused. It remains a locally listed heritage asset, however, and any development by new owners would involve taking consideration of this listing.

The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue in 1923 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

By the early 1890s, there were shuls (synagogues), chevrot (benevolent societies) and steiblech (informal places of worship) all over the Spitalfields, Whitechapel and the Saint George’s area. The East End had become a centre of Jewish life by the early 20th century, with a Jewish population of about 250,000 people and about 150 synagogues.

Most of these people were Yiddish-speaking first-generation immigrants from East Europe, unlike other, longer-established Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities in the country, which had come in earlier generations from the Low Countries.

Nelson Street is in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, and previously in Stepney, and extends for 1,000 ft east from New Road, off Commercial Road. It runs parallel with Varden Street, immediately to the north, and crosses over Turner Street and Philpot Street. The East London Central Synagogue, also known as Nelson Street Synagogue, was an Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogue affiliated to the Federation of Synagogues.

It was founded as the Nelson Street Sfardish Synagogue (Hebrew name: Ohr HaChaim D’bnai Berdichev) in 1923, at a time when the East End was a crowded Jewish neighbourhood, largely made up of immigrants. Initially the style of service (nosach) was Sfardish or Sphardish, also known as Askenazi Sfard, which is not to be confused with Sephardi. The name Sfardish refers to a style of service that differs slightly from mainstream Ashkenazi and is similar to Hassidic usage. The order of service and certain extra words in some of the prayers are similar to the Sephardic tradition, but the Hebrew pronunciation and tunes are Ashkenazi, as were most of the Nelson Street congregation.

There were other Sfardish shuls in the area, such as Philpot Street Sfardish synagogue, which eventually amalgamated with Nelson Street.

Other lost synagogues in the East End include the Spital Square Poltava Synagogue on Heneage Street, the former Artillery Lane Synagogue and the former Gun Street Synagogue.

Nelson Street Synagogue was the East End’s last surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The foundation stone of Nelson Street Synagogue was laid by the synagogue president, B Bernstein, on 19 August 1923. The synagogue was designed by Lewis Solomon (1848-1928), an architect who designed several synagogues, and served as both the honorary architect of the Federation of Synagogues and architect and surveyor of the United Synagogue.

Lewis Solomon was born in 1848 to a Jewish family and was an apprentice and later clerk of works in the office of Matthew Digby Wyatt. He commenced practice on his own in London in 1872. Lewis Solomon and Son also redesigned the premises of the neighbouring Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road, which also survives, in 1921. His other works include Golders Green Synagogue and the Fulham and West Kensington Synagogue.

His practice was being run by 1923 by his son Digby Lewis Solomon (1884-1962). Lewis Solomon died in 1928, and the practice later became Lewis Solomon, Kaye & Partners.

Inside the East London Centre Synagogue on Nelson Street (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)

Nelson Street Synagogue has been described as having ‘an unassuming exterior and a stunningly beautiful interior.’ The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described it in 1951: ‘Discreet brick exterior with two tiers of windows beneath round-headed arches with stone keystones. Fine classical interior. Galleries with iron railings between Ionic columns; coved steps, framed by a Venetian arch on Doric columns. Above the Ark, scrolled pediment with tablets of the law and Lions of Judah. Panelled pews and Bimah.’

Nelson Street Synagogue had a tradition of assisting local poor people, setting up of soup kitchens and other charities. It also provided a welcoming haven for refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.

The area around Whitechapel and Mile End was known at one time as London’s ‘Jewish Quarter’ and the poet Avram Stencl, himself a refugee from Nazi Germany arriving here in 1944, understood this at a much deeper level describing it as ‘the last shtetl’, with all the exile, struggle and longing that implies.

The East End of Nelson Street Synagogue, until recently one of the few surviving working synagogues in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The East End was heavily bombed during World War II, and the Jewish population moved on to new Jewish centres in north and north-west London, such as Stamford Hill, Golders Green and Hendon.

The consequent fall in membership numbers caused many East End synagogues to close and the congregations of the East End synagogues consolidated. Over the years, about 20 neighbouring synagogues were amalgamated with Nelson Street, but some of them lived on as names on commemorative plaques.

They include:

Belz Synagogue (by 1952), Berditchever Synagogue (by 1952), Buross Street, Cannon Street Road Synagogue (early 1970s), Chevra Shass, Commercial Road Great Synagogue (after 1968), Grove Street Synagogue (about 1949), Jubilee Street Zionist Synagogue (about 1967), Mile End Synagogue, New Road Synagogue (1974), Philpot Street Great Synagogue (after 1956), Philpot Street Sphardish Synagogue (after 1956), Rumanian Sidney Street Synagogue (by 1952), and the Sons of Britchan (B’nai Brichtan) Synagogue (1952).

The synagogue was renamed East London Central Synagogue in 1975. In recent years, it was left as the East End’s only surviving purpose-built synagogue and one of just three remaining in the East End, along with Sandy’s Row Synagogue, and the Congregation of Jacob synagogue on Commercial Road.

Because of these amalgamations, the shul on Nelson Street had a large collection of Torah scrolls, some dating back to the 18th century, although many are now of unknown origin.

Inside Nelson Street shul, once the most vibrant in the East End (Photograph: Acuitus auction particulars)

Nelson Street shul was once the most vibrant in the East End. Many people on social media recalled how it used to be full, especially during the high holydays and Yomim Tovim. The comments included ones that recalled Josif Weisz, a chazan from Romania with a beautiful tenor voice, and Rabbi Spetzman, an elderly rabbi with a flowing long beard who gave his sermons in Yiddish. Even in the 1980s ‘it was full of some amazing old characters … proper EastEnders.’

By the beginning of the 21st century, ‘the congregation consisted of about half a dozen stalwarts and a rabbi who walked each Saturday from Stoke Newington.’

The Jewish East End Celebration Society organised a number of Jewish East End activities 20 years ago (2003). These included an interview with Anna Tzelniker, a renowned Yiddish actor who worked with her father Meier and others in both mainstream and Yiddish theatre.

She was born in Romania and came to England as a teenager with her family in the early 1930s. She started her career in her father’s travelling Yiddish theatre company in Romania. Her many roles included five years in the West End stage production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Most of the Jewish communities in the East End have been dispersed in recent decades, and the East End now has a considerable Muslim population. , and the shul actively engaged in interfaith relations through the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum, which includes the large East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road. The synagogue was also regularly visited by historical societies and walking tours, and took part in Open House London.

Leon Silver, a former president of the Nelson Street synagogue, grew up in the neighbourhood, and in his blog postings in recent years has discussed the tensions with local people and efforts to foster dialogue among faith communities A march to the synagogue from Aldgate eight years ago (January 2018) commemorated the East End’s Jewish heritage, and was followed by a multi-faith service of remembrance.

The synagogue was due to celebrate its centenary in 2023, and the architect Maxwell Hutchinson drafted plans to add museum and library space, so that the shul could build on its attraction as a tourist destination and become an historic Jewish centre in the East End.

But, after many years of attempts at renovation, it has fallen into a parlous state of disrepair, despite its rich and history, emblematic of both the history of the East End and of the Jewish community that was once a major part of it.

Today the East London Central Synagogue is daubed with disturbing graffiti, and the area to the immediate east is strewn with litter and its view marred by bins and rubbish from neighbouring premises. Inside, under all the white paint, I imagine there still may be plaques that recall the original donors with donations of 2s 6d, 5 shillings,10s 6d, and even £1 or a guinea (21 shillings).

When news of the pending sale was posted on social media in recent weeks, there were many suggestions that the synagogue should be converted into the Jewish Museum, presenting the history of Jews in the East End.

Yet, no matter whatever happens to the shul after next week’s auction, the Jewish presence in the East End is not coming to an end: the Congregation of Jacob shul is a six-minute walk away to the east, and Sandy’s Row and Bevis Marks Synagogues are a mile to the west.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

Nelson Street Synagogue once had plans to become a tourist destination and an historic Jewish centre in the East End (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

• Update (9 February 2026): The estate agents website says the former synagogue has been sold prior to auction, and a video on social media says that it was bought by a Muslim organisation, the Ashaadibi Education and Cultural Centre, which put down a £250,000 deposit ‘to secure the contract’ and has nine months to raise £3.5 million to secure the purchase.