Times: Candlelighting is Friday 7:36pm; Shabbat ends Saturday 8:38pm. Early Shabbat times – mincha: 6:15pm; candlelighting 6:30pm. The weekly Torah Portion is Toldot, and we bless the month of Kislev. Rosh Chodesh is on Sunday and Monday.

Mincha in the CBD: JBD mincha continues until the end of November at 1.45pm.

Study: Mon 12.30 @ East Melb Shule; Wed 12.30 Special @ Billing Bureau.

Kosher Food in the CBD: GOLD’S GOURMET are supplying delicious sandwiches to the following THREE outlets in the CBD:
Pronto on Flinders @ Ground Level, 335 Flinders Lane
CBW Express- CGU Building @ 181 William St.
Cityblend Café @ 365 Little Collins St.

Thought of the Week with thanks to David Werdiger. In this week’s Torah reading, our forefather Yitzchak blesses first Yaakov, and then Esau. The blessing to Yaakov is: “May God give you the dew of the heavens and the fat of the earth”. But in Esau’s blessing, the terms are reversed: “may the fat of the earth be your dwelling, and the dew of the heaven above”. Why is this so?

The blessing for Yaakov, father of the Jewish nation, was primarily that his descendants be able to make a spiritual connection with God – “the dew of the heavens”. However, one cannot live on spirituality, so the second clause of the blessing for “the fat of the earth” was added. Material success is not a goal in and of itself, rather a vehicle to live a meaningful Jewish life.