JBD – Jews of the Melbourne CBD is now on LinkedIn. Follow us here.

Shabbat starts on Friday at 8:13pm and ends on Saturday at 9:19pm. The weekly Torah portion is Vayetzei.

JBD together with Maor invite you to a pre-Chanukah shiur.

Mincha is now in recess for the summer. There is usually a minyan at L1 Capital on Thurs at 1.45pm following lunch & learn. Join the WhatsApp group for any updates.

Weekly sushi & shiur continues Wed at 1.20pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: strata titles. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Michelle Coleman.

This week’s Torah reading opens with the words, “Yaakov departed from Beer-sheba and went to Haran (Bereishit 28:10). Rashi notes that the first part of the sentence seems superfluous: why do we need to be told that he left Beersheva – it’s obvious that he left there if he went to Haran!

He explains: “It tells us that the departure of a righteous person from a place makes an impression, for at the time that a righteous person is in a city, he is its magnificence, he is its splendour, he is its grandeur.” Once he leaves, these depart with him and the city and its residents are the worse for it.

While few of us can be a righteous person of Yaakov’s stature, we can each in our own way consider the impression we leave behind. When you leave your home, your workplace, your shul or even your gym, a local coffee shop or the supermarket, what leaves with you?

Hopefully it’s something positive – the smile you gave your spouse and children, your kindness to a colleague who got something wrong, the way you thanked the barista for your cappuccino, or how patiently you waited while the checkout person rang up your groceries… ever so slowly. You may not be a Yaakov, but you can certainly leave a good impression in your own small way!