Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 5:48pm, ends Saturday night at 6:45pm. The weekly Torah portion for Shabbat is Shoftim.

Upcoming Event: Thursday, September 15 at 12:30pm: Lunchtime lecture with Professor Chaim Sukenik on “The Biggest Economic Challenge Facing Israel Today: Academization and Employment for Chareidim”. Lecture will take place at Arnold Bloch Leibler Level 21, 333 Collins Street, Melbourne.  RSVP for catering purposes to events@jbd.org.au by Monday, 12 September. For more information click here for the JBD website.

Friday Mincha in the CBD: Mincha on Friday is on this week at 1.00pm at 5/459 Collins (not at St James) with chicken, 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 Yehuda Gottlieb. This week’s Torah reading emphasises the power and impact of bribery. The Torah states that bribes are harmful and clearly describes that their impact is such that they “blind the eyes of the wise” (Devarim 16:19). The Chafetz Chaim provides some perspective to demonstrate just how powerful bribes can be. He states that if someone were to classify someone else as wealthy, then we would need to gain some context into the perspective of the describer. If this person was poor, then he would see someone with a million dollars as being wealthy. However, if this person was a millionaire, he would only classify someone with significantly more money as a rich person.
The same can be said in terms of wisdom. If a person was a simpleton, he would describe someone with above average intelligence as a wise person. However, someone who is a genius would not classify this person as wise, and would indeed, only see someone far intellectually superior to him as a wise person.

All this shows that a person’s classification is only as reliable as the perspective of the person undertaking that classification. Therefore, when the Torah, which is the word of G-d himself, refers to someone as wise, this should be seen as referring to someone who is objectively wise according to all. The Chafetz Chaim states that this illustrates the power of bribes, as they have the power to sway even the most objectively wise people, the ‘chachamim’ as referred to in the verse.