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Times: Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:39 pm and ends on Saturday at 8:41 pm. The weekly Torah portion is Lech-Lecha

Mincha is 1.45pm: On Mon/Tue at ABL – 21/333 Collins, on Wed at Warlows Legal – 2/430 Lt Collins, and on Thurs at L1 Capital – 28/101 Collins. Join the WhatsApp group to stay across the latest details.

The weekly lunch & shiur continues on Wed at 1.20pm at Warlows Legal – 2/430 Lt Collins – and via zoom, followed by mincha at 1.45pm. Current topic: duty of care for a borrower.  Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Annette Charak.

“Jewish peoplehood begins with God choosing Abraham. And the relationship between God and Abraham begins in this week’s parsha, with God telling Abraham to lech lecha,“go for you from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father’s house”.

Little is told of Abraham’s journey to Israel, although we can imagine how difficult it must have been. He leaves behind everything he knows, without knowing where he is heading, following God’s word to go “to the land that I will show you”. And life in Canaan does not get easier. There is a severe famine when he arrives, and he and his entourage soon leave for the greener pastures of Egypt. After they return from Egypt, Abraham and his nephew Lot argue, and the two—who have journeyed together since setting out with Terah—part ways. Later, when Lot is captured in a local war, Abraham and his men must go to battle to free Lot.

But despite the challenges, the command to Abraham to go lecha, “for you” is, according to Rashi, a command for his “benefit and good”.  And ultimately, this is so: God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham, a promise of a people that will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, begins with the birth of Abraham’s son in this new land. The promise of forever begins with the next generation.”