Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 8:24pm, ends Saturday night at 9:26pm. Early Shabbat candle lighting is between 7:10pm-7:15pm. The weekly Torah portion is Shemot.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha is on summer recess. 

Study: Wednesday shiur & lunch resumes next Wednesday at 1.15pm at Billing Bureau.

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 Rabbi Dovid Gutnick. First we are taught about the kindness of an Egyptian princess, the daughter of pharaoh no less. Bitthia, as she was called, cast out her arm and saved the life of baby Moshe who was floating on the river Nile. The redeemer of the Jewish people was saved. According to our sages Bitthia was so lauded for this act and her kindness in raising Moshe that she merited to enter Paradise in her lifetime. With one small act of reaching out her hand the journey of the Jewish people to freedom and peoplehood began.

Just a chapter or two later we read of two men in dispute where one raises his hand in anger at another. Moshe intervenes and calls out, ‘wicked one why do you smite your fellow.’ (Our sages elucidate that from the moment you raise your hand in anger it is as if you have already smitten.) The offender is incensed and betrays Moshe to Pharaoh and a bounty is placed on Moshe’s head. The redeemer of the Jewish people is once again in jeopardy and the redemption of his people is in doubt.

There is no doubt that these two instances are so juxtaposed to remind us that the future of the Jewish people is both literally and figuratively in our hands and the smallest act could make all the difference.