Times: Candlelighting is Friday 8:13pm; Shabbat ends Saturday 9:18pm. Early Shabbat times – Mincha: 6:45pm; Candlelighting: 7:00pm. The weekly Torah Portion is Vayigash. Fast of 10 Tevet is Friday, December 13th. Fast Begins: 3:53am; Fast Ends: 9:09pm.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha will continue at 1.50pm at our usual venue for as long as we still get numbers.

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.
CBW Express has arguably the largest range of fresh and packaged kosher products in the CBD!
-Cityblend Café @ 365 Little Collins S

Thought of the Week with thanks to Noah Klug. This week’s parshah contains the verse: “Shimon’s sons: Yemu’el and Yamin and Ohad and Yavin and Tzochar and Sha’ul the son of the Canaanite woman.” Rashi is bothered by the question: “Who is this Canaanite woman?” and answers that it is Dinah.  When she was attacked by Shechem and her brothers killed him, she refused to leave until Shimon promised to marry her.  So Sha’ul was the son of Dinah and Shimon. The Maharal of Prague tells us that there is a very deep meaning here. From a mystical perspective, Dinah and Shimon both represent the spiritual attribute of “din” or “justice” and they were destined to marry each other. How could this be? We know that the Torah prohibits a brother and sister from marrying each other. We also know that our patriarchs and matriarchs kept the Torah even before it was given to us at Mount Sinai. The answer, according to Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein, is that this concept that our patriarchs and matriarchs kept all of the Torah is not so simple.  According to some opinions, all of our pre-Sinai ancestors observed the negative prohibitions of the Torah, but this was not completely the case with the positive commandments.  In fact, each patriarch is linked to a different positive commandment:  Avrohom was linked to circumcision, Yitzchak to ritual slaughter (shechitah), and Yaakov to Shabbos. Let us continue in the ways of our illustrious forefather Yaakov,  one of the main subjects of this week’s parshah, and observe with exactitude and joy the beautiful mitzvah of Shabbos which has the ability with the peacefulness and serenity it provides to grant us the most delightful respite from our long and hard work weeks.