Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 5:43pm; ends Saturday night at 6:41pm. The weekly Torah portion for Shabbos is Ki Tavo. Selichos start on Saturday night; check local guides for details.
Upcoming Events: Tuesday, 8 September: Lunchtime Lecture with Dr. Norman Goldwasser
“Teshuva / Repentance: The Key to Becoming an Optimal Business Leader” 12:30pm at Juilliard Group, Level 31, 459 Collins Street. RSVP TODAY for catering purposes to events@jbd.org.au For more information click here for Facebook event.
Mincha in the CBD: Mincha continues at 1.00pm Monday-Thursday.
Study: Wed shiur @ Billing Bureau: 1:15pm
Kosher Food in the CBD: Nifla Kosher Catering (KA Hechsher)
Offers Corporate Catering, specializing in individual and board room lunches. For further details visit www.nifla.com.au
10% Discount on your first website purchase. Enter promo code “FIRST TIME”.
Kosher sandwiches, muffins and salads are available at the following locations:
CUPP- Manchester Unity Building- Ground Floor-220 Collins Street
CBW EXPRESS-181 William Street.(Entrance Little Bourke St)
IN A RUSH CAFE-616 St Kilda Road-(Ground Floor-Lowe Lippmann Building)
Thought of the Week with thanks to Avi Gordon. It is well known that there is always a lesson to be learned from the order and juxtaposition of sections in the Torah, particularly in Sefer Devarim. What is the possible connection between the mitzvah of the First Fruits (Bikurim) in the beginning of this week’s Parsha and the story of Amalek with which last week’s Parsha ended?
To understand the connection between the two we must first understand the deeper ideas that they each represent.
The mitzvah of Bikurim is where a farmer throughout the year, both in the burning heat as well as in the frigid cold performs back-breaking labour of ploughing ,planting, watering and tending to his crops, and finally once he (literally!) sees the fruits of his labour, he marks them immediately to take to offer them up to Hashem. Despite all the farmer’s blood, sweat and tears and extreme physical exertion, he takes his fruit to Jerusalem and in the Beis Hamikdosh makes a declaration acknowledging that everything, including his own fruits which he laboured over, comes from Hashem. This is the ultimate demonstration of humility.
In contrast, the nation of Amalek represents arrogance. When the whole world heard about the miracles in Exodus from Egypt and Splitting of the Reed Sea, Amalek still had the audacity to attack the Jews, symbolising an attack on Hashem himself. Amalek represents the idea of “kochi v’ousem yodi”, the achievement of a result without the help of G-d.
The connection between Bikurim and Amlalek and the lesson for each one of us is now clear. The key to ridding Amalek and all that it represents is through us individually working on our humility. The more humble we become and aware of Hashem in all that we do, the weaker Amalek becomes in this world.
As we find ourselves in the month of Elul approaching Rosh Hashona, may we all be successful in banishing Amelek from this the world and all merit a sweet and blessed year.
(Based upon writings of Rav Pinchas Roberts)