Mazal Tov to Roy & Rhiannon Perlus and families on the birth of a son
Mazal Tov to Mendy & Ricky Gelman and families on the birth of a son
JBD – Jews of the Melbourne CBD is now on LinkedIn. Follow us here.
Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:51pm and ends on Saturday at 8:48pm. The weekly Torah portion is Tetzaveh.
Mincha at Ainsworth Property – GF/459 Collins is in recess for the summer and will resume in March if we get numbers and if not, after DST ends. Join the WhatsApp group for updates.
Weekly sushi & shiur has resumed on Wed at 1.30pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: adjoining property rights. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.
Thought of the Week with thanks to Jeremy Herz.
This week’s portion Tetzaveh deals with the special clothing of the Priests and High Priest. The High Priest wears four unique items of clothing in addition to the four worn by all Priests. Two of these four items are adorned with stones bearing the names of all the tribes of Israel.
The first is well known, being the breastplate (choshen mishpat). Twelve stones are individually inscribed with one of the twelve tribe names. The breastplate sits on the heart of the High Priest, metaphorically conveying that the High Priest must always be thinking about, and sensitive to, the needs of the entire nation.
The second is the apron (ephod), which has one stone attached to each shoulder strap and resting on the shoulder. Each of these stones is inscribed with six tribe names.
The commentary Yalkut Yehuda explains that the High Priest metaphorically carries the burden of the nation on his shoulders, and must toil on its behalf to bring it closer to G-d. The stones therefore represent that the High Priest must fuse thought and action on behalf of the nation in his holy service.
In the current absence of a centralised spiritual hierarchy, this responsibility devolves to all of us. Only when our nation is working together in harmony will we achieve our national goals. May we continue to see the shining examples of this fusion which we have witnessed in the past few months.