Mazal Tov to David & Daphna Weinberg and family on the birth of a son.

Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 5:04pm, ends Saturday night at 6:02pm. The weekly Torah portion is Emor. Lag B’Omer is on Sunday.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha continues at 1:00pm using the SMS system as a reminder.

Study: Wednesday shiur & lunch is on Wednesday at about 1.15pm at Billing Bureau, following mincha.

Kosher Food in the CBD: Unfortunately, due to lack of demand there is no longer kosher food being sold in the CBD. Glicks, we want you back!!

Thought of the Week with thanks to Rabbi Menachem Wolf, Spiritgrow. Too often I find when speaking to VCE students that their university preferences are heavily influenced by family and teachers. Sometimes I get it but too often I see a kid that is planning on doing something that is completely inconsistent with their personality and strengths. I know that I am on to something because over the past five years I have met so many law or finance students/graduates (just as one example) who regretted studying what they did and ended jumping ship soon after entering the profession into something diametrically opposed to their studies to things like music, arts, IT, social work or school teaching.

Why are the influencers in many teenagers lives doing this? Perhaps it is a fear by parents to ensure their children have stable income, or perhaps schools want pride of their graduates ending up in ‘prestigious’ courses and careers. But one thing is for sure, too many children aren’t being looked at based on their own merits.

This week’s Torah reading – Emor – tells us that every year we need to count the omer between Pesach and Shavuot. This is a forty-nine day period in which the mystics have encouraged us to explore our forty-nine primary emotions and identify which of them come to us naturally and which we struggle with more thus making us who we are. From here we can better understand our personality, the way we think and express ourselves. This self-analysis and exploration of personality can help inform us how to choose a career, studies, friends and how to maximise or own unique potential.