Pine Street Shul breaks spiritual ground

Before the walls are finished and the doors officially open, the prayers have already begun. On Sunday, 2 August, Pine Street Shul held its first service in its new building, marking a symbolic milestone in the congregation’s journey to its future home. 

In what was described as a “spiritual ground-breaking”, the Mincha and Maariv services formed part of Pine Street Shul’s Raise the Future campaign. The services provided a meaningful opportunity for congregants to dedicate the space through prayer before the building’s completion. 

“A shul isn’t just a building, as beautiful as this one will be. It’s a spiritual home. It’s a reason for every unaffiliated Jew in this neighbourhood to walk through a door and find their way home,” said Rebbetzin Temmi Hadar. 

“The Chief Rabbi gave us our next mission tonight: go fetch every Jew in this neighbourhood who doesn’t have a shul. We intend to take that seriously.” 

Rabbi Motti Hadar said that since he and Temmi had joined Pine Street Shul four years ago, they had seen nothing but tremendous growth and blessings. 

“Buying this property and building this new shul was not the safe decision. It was a bold one. We could have stayed small and stayed comfortable. We chose to build something our children’s children will daven in. We chose to dream big and build for the future,” he said. 

They set out to raise R7 million in 36 hours so they could build this dream. “What actually happened was beyond anything we anticipated. The excitement and investment in the future of the Joburg Jewish community is extraordinary. More than R10 million! This was a community standing up and saying yes,” said Hadar. 

Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein said at the spiritual ground-breaking that there are more Jews in Johannesburg than seats in shul. “In fact, we don’t have too many shuls in Johannesburg; we have too few. We need more. 

“If you have the vision, you have the will, the money will come. If you have the vision, you have the will, the people will come. I really believe this,” said Goldstein. 

He continued by urging shul members to bring in any Jewish people who aren’t members of a synagogue to come and witness the magic that he had seen that day. “There are so many Jews in this neighbourhood who are not affiliated to any shul. 

“You built a shul. You raised the money. You rejuvenated a community. The next mission is to go get all the members, and then double it,” he said, “My bracha to you is that the yomtov section should be full every Shabbos. You should run out of space. You should have to build and extend more. Go fetch all the Jews.”