Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 7:39pm, ends Saturday night at 8:35pm. Early Shabbat candle lighting is between 6:35pm-6:40pm. The weekly Torah portion is Terumah. Fast of Esther is on Thursday (9/3). Fast begins 5:48am; Fast Ends 8:15pm.
Upcoming Event: Friday, 17 March at 12:45pm: Lunchtime lecture with Monika Krawczyk on “Preserving Jewish Heritage in Poland Today” at Billing Bureau, Level 5 South/459 Collins Street. RSVP for catering purposes to events@jbd.org.au by Wednesday, 15 March. For more information click here for the JBD website.
Mincha in the CBD: Mincha (at 2.03pm) continues, and has now switched to the more reliable SMS system. We will have a Sefer Torah on Thursday for the fast.
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)
New Stockist- PRONTO ON FLINDERS– 335 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.
Tel. 96297724 stocking sandwiches and pastas.
New Stockist- CBW Express – Corner Little Bourke and William Streets Melbourne.
Tel. 96421491-stocking sandwiches, bagels , muffins and fruits salads.
Thought of the Week with thanks to Michelle Coleman. This week’s Torah reading opens with G-d saying to Moshe: “Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for Me an offering…”. The words ‘for Me’ (לי) appear superfluous, prompting Rashi to interpret לי as לשמי – “dedicated to my name”.
G-d’s name (ה-ו-ה-י), says the Shelah, gives us a lesson in how to give Tzedakah: The yud represents a coin, the heh represents the five fingers of the hand of the giver, the vav represents the outstretched arm of the poor person, and the final heh represents the receiving hand. If, however, the poor person has to reach out his arm first to beg, then the order is ו,י,ה,ה and Hashem’s name is out of order.
This passuk therefore teaches us the correct way to give Tzedakah: לשמי – in the order of the spelling of my name. The best way to give is without the receiver having to first ask.