Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 8:04pm, ends Saturday night at 9:09pm. Early Shabbat – light candles between 6:55pm-7:00pm. The weekly Torah portion for Shabbat is Vayishlach.

Chanukah starts in just over a week. We are just finalising some events, and will publish details very shortly …

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha will continue Mon-Thurs at 1.45pm at Level 5, South Tower, 459 Collins St, using the SMS reminder system to confirm numbers.

Study: Wed shiur @ Billing Bureau: about 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 Yudi New. In this week’s Torah reading, Yaakov sends a conciliatory message to his brother Eisav including the phrase “with Lavan – ‘garti’ – I have lived”. Our Rabbis explain that garti is an anagram for “taryag” – which has a numberic value of 613, being the number of commandments which Yaakov says he observed in Lavan’s house.
This then is really a message to Yaakov’s descendants – that even in exile in Lavan’s house of trickery and idol worship, Yaakov maintained an observant way of life. Rabbi I. Z. Morgenshtern says that Yaakov’s message goes beyond ritual observance – obvious holiness.

Leading by example, Yaakov is teaching us that holiness is buried within the mundane, within the deep recesses of Lavan’s morally corrupt household. Living an otherwise mundane life in the Diaspora need not be separate from, or contradictory to, a life of spirituality and holiness.

Why did Yaakov need to tell this to Eisav? Perhaps, because he unexpectedly found himself physically afraid of Eisav, Yaakov needed to remind himself that G-d is present in every challenge and the way through rests with finding and cleaving to G-dliness. With thoughts and prayers to our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land – may the Jewish nation no longer have any pain and be able to experience G-dliness through its true revealed form speedily in our days. Shabbat Shalom