Welcome

Welcome to the the largest and most inclusive shul in Hendon.

Within our community you will find a full range of activities for all ages and lifestages within a vibrant, modern orthodox framework. This pack highlights just a few of the activities that take place regularly on the Synagogue campus and I am sure that you will find something here for you.

Our synagogue has served the community for over 60 years and has seen many changes both within our membership and beyond. Throughout that time, Hendon United Synagogue has adapted to meet its members needs in a huge variety of ways.

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Weekly Parsha

Va’eira

Sedrah Reflections by Rabbi MS Ginsbury

Despite the best efforts of Moses and Aaron, their initial approaches to Pharaoh are unsuccessful. The Jewish people accuse them of having made their ‘scent abhorrent in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants’ (end of last week’s Sedrah (Shemot 5:21)). In the next verses Moses relays both his own and the people’s frustration to HaShem: ‘My L-rd, why have You done evil to this people, why have You sent me? From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name he did evil to this people, but You did not rescue Your people.’

Rashi points out numerous times at the start of the Sedrah (comments to vv. 2-6) that lack of immediate fulfilment of Divine promise proves neither inability nor lack of intention to ‘deliver’. It is not just that patience is a ‘virtue’ or even a critical axiom of Jewish faith; rather, when one has an abiding and deep-rooted sense of understanding and belief – realising that HaShem transcends constraints of time and that past, present and future are as one before Him – then an apparent ‘delay’ is neither without reason nor indeed even a substantive concern.

In his comment to v. 9, Rashi (quoting from the Midrash and Gemarah Sanhedrin) contrasts the steadfast faith of the Patriarchs to whom He promised a brighter future – which they were never to behold in their physical lifetimes – with that of Moses, who appears to question G-d’s attributes and conduct. Ultimately Rashi himself veers away from this Midrashic analysis (see end of v. 9), but we are left with an understanding of the different layers of faith and interaction with the Divine inherent in G-d’s relationship with His greatest servants. Moses, wracked by the pain and suffering of the Jewish people in the ‘here and now’, stirringly pleads their cause before G-d, Who reassures him – ‘I have heard the groans of the Children of Israel’ (v. 5) – but also reminds him, by gently alluding to the greatness of the Patriarchs, that one of the great challenges for people of true faith is to remain constant in their belief in G-d’s omnipotence, even in the face of significant adversity.

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Our Rabbi

Rabbi Ginsbury

Rabbi Mordechai and Judy Ginsbury joined Hendon United Synagogue in February 1999. Prior to this they had spent nearly 14 years as Rabbi and Rebbetzen of the Prestwich Hebrew Congregation in Manchester.

During their tenure with us they have endeared themselves to the Community with their warm, intelligent and welcoming approach and have enhanced and furthered Hendon’s reputation as a dynamic and vibrant Kehilla.

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