Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 7:58pm, ends Saturday night at 8:56pm. Early Shabbat candle lighting is between 6:50pm-6:55pm. The weekly Torah portion is Yitro.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha (at 2.08pm) has resumed and is using the Minyan Now app as a trial. Please download it if you want to participate.

Study: Wednesday shiur & lunch is on Wednesday at 1.40pm at Billing Bureau, followed by mincha.

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  Rafi Goodman. In this week’s Torah reading Yisro, we recount the giving of the Ten Commandments to the Jews on Mt Sinai. The Torah uses the word “vayered” – “and He went down” to describe God’s appearance on Mt Sinai to give the Jews the Torah. Generally throughout the Torah, Onkelos – the famous and official Aramaic Translator translates “vayered” as “descent”. Uniquely however in this context, Onkelos translates the word as “revelation”– “That God revealed himself”.

Certainly – hisgalut – “revelation” also implies a descent, because it implies a revelation of “upper” or the spiritual realms that reaches down to the lowest physical platforms. What made the giving of the Torah unique was that the revelation was such that everyone, from Moses himself to the humblest and most simple Jew were all able to receive the Godly revelation in the same manner. The whole Jewish nation was openly present to receive the divine revelation directly from Hashem and not through any intermediary.