Mazal Tov to Meir & Simcha Lipskier on the birth of their baby girl.

Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candle lighting at 7:10pm, and ends Saturday night at 8:05pm. The weekly Torah portion is Nissan and this Shabbat is Shabbat Hagadol.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha has resumed and will continue next week at 1.55pm using the SMS system to confirm numbers. Final week of DST!

Study: The Wednesday shiur & lunch takes place at the new time of 1.30pm at Billing Bureau, followed by mincha.

Thought of the Week with thanks to  David Werdiger. This week’s entire reading discusses the process of the inauguration of the tabernacle – an event that happened once in history, and was never repeated. While it’s an important part of the historical record, what can we learn from it in our day to day lives?

The daily tabernacle (and later temple) service was an important series of (daily, weekly, holiday) rituals, and as such needed significant preparation. On the topic of preparation, the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 3a) states: “if one goes to effort before Shabbat, one will have what to eat on Shabbat.” Similarly, if one wants to have a meaningful Pesach seder, one can’t just rock up on the night and expect to instantly get into the zone and enjoy a fantastic experience. Preparation (both physical and spiritual) is essential.

The lesson from this week’s Torah reading is the importance of preparation: anything worth doing is worth preparing for.