Condolences to Reuven Blecher and family on the passing of Mrs Malka Blecher.

Mazal tov to Gaby & Shulamit Silver on the birth of their baby girl. May the newborn be a source of nachas to her parents, and grandparents.

Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 5:42pm, ends Saturday night at 6:40pm. The weekly Torah portion for Shabbat is Re’eh. Rosh Chodesh Elul is on Shabbos and Sunday.

Friday Mincha in the CBD: Mincha on Friday is on this week at 1.00pm at 5/459 Collins (not at St James) with herring, kugel & whisky. Numbers have been consistently good, so we will just send a SMS reminder.

Mincha in the CBD: Melbourne CBD’s minyan factory is continuing, with an amazing three minyans per day, every day. Thank you for your attendance and participation.
Buffet Lunch from 12.30pm-2.00pm.
Mincha at 1.00pm, and 1.15pm for this week.
Melbourne Room of St. James complex near the corner of Little Collins Street and Church St. Click here for a map. For more information click here.
Email stjames.mincha@gmail.com to be added to the list for any daily updates.

Study: Wednesday shiur will take place after the 1.15pm mincha at St James.

Kosher Food in the CBD: Nifla Kosher Catering (KA Hechsher)
Offers Corporate Catering, specialising in individual and board room  lunches. 10% Discount on your first website purchase. Enter promo code “FIRST TIME”. For further details visit www.nifla.com.au
IN A RUSH CAFE-616 St Kilda Road-(Ground Floor-Lowe Lippmann Building)

Thought of the Week with thanks to Ezra May. The Torah prohibits extreme forms of mourning the death of people (Devarim 14:1). But since nature dictates that every living thing eventually dies, why is there a strong human nature to mourn with such intensity when everyone knows that death is inevitable?

Ramban in his laws of mourning explains that when G-d originally created Adam, He intended him to be immortal. However when Adam sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, he brought death upon mankind. And although this new reality completely changed the nature of life on earth, man’s internal makeup still remains designed as intended to live forever.

So although our intellect recognises that all people ultimately die and we are constantly exposed to death, something deep internally still remains where we expect people close to us to live forever as originally intended. And therefore we are plunged into an intense mourning when shocked & confronted with death.