Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candle lighting at 7:30pm, and ends Saturday night at 8:39pm. The weekly Torah portion is Parshas Chayei Sarah, and Shabbat Mevarchim Kislev, with Rosh Chodesh on next Thursday & Friday

Mincha in the CBD: Whisky and Kugel Fridays is on today at 1.30pm (mincha 1.45pm) using the SMS system to confirm numbers. Mincha (Mon-Fri) continues next week at 1.45pm with the SMS reminder. Because Monday is an extra day off for many people, we will confirm numbers.

Study: The Wednesday shiur & lunch continues this week at Billing Bureau, beginning at 1.20pm with mincha to follow at 1:45pm.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Isaac Balbin. In this week’s Torah reading, the Haftora describes the circumstances surrounding the transition from King David to his son King Solomon. A tie-in with this week’s reading of Chayei Sarah is the importance of succession planning. Both Avraham and David are described as “advanced in years”. They both had a somewhat mixed group of offspring and were not prepared to just live and expire, taking their imprint to the grave. Abraham planned that continuity of his life’s leitmotif would be channelled through his younger son, Isaac. David swore that only his younger son, Solomon, would occupy the throne after his death. Yet, even though plans were in place, the Torah tells us that these plans were disturbed and fraught with challenges. Our lesson is to ensure we pass on our Torah-based ethics and values to the next generation through our own actions, by planting and implementing a succession plan in the knowledge that though this is to be challenged, it will prevail.

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