Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candlelighting at 4:51pm, ends Saturday night at 5:52pm. The weekly Torah portion is Korach. Rosh Chodesh Tammuz is on Shabbat and Sunday.
Upcoming Event: Monday, June 26: Lunchtime lecture with Rabbi Todd Berman on “Human Dignity as a factor in Jewish Legal Decision Making” Mincha at 1:00pm and lunchtime lecture at 1:10pm taking place at Arnold Bloch Leibler, Level 21, 333 Collins Street. For more information click here for the JBD website or here for the JBD Facebook page.
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. This week Daneli’s catered lunch to mark the completion of chapter 2 of Baba Metzia.
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 Gaby Silver. Korach’s complaint appears at first to be entirely justified. As he accurately points out, the entire congregation of Israel is indeed holy. Was he so wrong in pointing this out and questioning whether the civil and spiritual leadership of the entire Jewish nations should be concentrated within one family? Wasn’t he just waging a noble fight for equality?
Korach’s fatal error was confusing equality for sameness. It is a mistake that we still see all too often in our hyper-politically correct world. When G-d created this world, he formed each creature and element “according to its kind”. We learn from this that every single element of creation has its own unique, divinely ordained mission and purpose. Moses and Aharon were tasked with theirs, Korach with his and you and I with ours.
True equality lies not in everybody being the same, but in recognising that each of us has an irreplaceable, essential role to play in The Grand Plan. Rather than striving for everyone to be the same, we should cherish the fact that nobody can fulfil our unique personal mission but us. Chassidic thought teaches that an emissary of the King is an extension of the King Himself. With that in mind, it matters not whether your task appears minor or of immense import. By throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into fulfilling our own mission, whatever it is, we become equals in holiness and true partners in the ongoing process of creation.