Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candle lighting at 4:55pm, and ends Saturday night at 5:54pm. The weekly Torah portion is Naso.

Sushi Mondays: With thanks to our generous sponsor, we now have sushi every Monday before (and after) mincha at 1.00pm.

Mincha in the CBD: Whisky and Kugel Fridays is on today at 1pm using the SMS system to confirm numbers. Mincha (Mon-Thu) continues next week at 1.00pm with the SMS reminder.

Study: The Wednesday shiur & lunch continues this week at Billing Bureau, following 1.00pm mincha.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Rabbi Leon Anaf. This week’s Torah reading discusses how the Jews moved through the desert after Sinai. During the day they followed a cloud and at night a light like a fire appeared in the cloud. The Jews followed the cloud, stopping where it stopped and going where it went.They had no way of knowing how long they would journey or rest.

Sometimes the cloud would only stay a day, sometimes a year.

To handle this uncertainty our ancestors had to develop a trust in G-d, to believe that wherever He sent them that is where they were supposed to be. Our Rabbis tell us that this was to prepare all future generations for their wanderings and to give them strength for exile and the accompanying travails.

Who would believe that the Jews would leave Poland, sometimes referred to by rabbis who lived there as Po Lin, here we stay.

The Gaon of Vilna and the Chafetz Chaim planned to go to Israel but never could. They accepted this with the strength we inherited from our ancestors, who followed the cloud–to follow with faith wherever G-d leads us