Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candle lighting at 4:56pm, and ends Saturday night at 5:57pm. The weekly Torah portion is Pinchas. Rosh Chodesh Av will be next Friday (13/7)

Mincha in the CBD: Friday mincha is currently on recess and will resume on 20 July. 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 Yehuda Gottlieb. This week’s Torah reading describes the appointment of Yehoshua as the successor to Moshe as the leader of the Jewish nation. The Torah describes this episode whereby G-d instructs Moshe to  place some of his splendour (hod) upon Yehoshua. The commentator Rashi picks up on this strange wording and mentions that Moshe did not transfer all of his splendor over to Yehoshua, but rather only gave him a partial exposure. This seems strange, as it would seem logical for G-d to ensure that the next leader of the Jewish people was equipped with all the tools required for the job.

R’ Zalman Sorotskin provides a possible solution. He states that Moshe was such a great leader and developed such skills that he grew to be the closest a human could have been to G-d. However, the effect of this relationship is that he grew distant from his fellow man. An example of this was Moshe’s relationship with his wife, which suffered because of his closeness to G-d. The ultimate outcome of this, was that the people rebelled against Moshe and challenged his leadership. If Moshe had transmitted all his splendour over to Yehoshua then he too would become distant and may face future leadership challenges. Therefore, he only gave him a partial transfer, thus ensuring that Yehoshua could become a leader, yet remain a ‘man of the people’.