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

Shabbat starts on Friday at 8:25pm and ends on Saturday at 9:23pm. The weekly Torah portion is Va’era and  Mevarchim Chodesh Sh’vat. Rosh Chodesh is on Thursday.

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 resumes on  Wed Jan 29 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 David Prins

At the beginning of this week’s Torah reading, G-d tells Moshe: “I will bring you to the Land, concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it you for a heritage. I am the LORD.”

A heritage is an heirloom that should always remain in the family, unlike an inheritance that can be traded for money or for other goods. G-d gave the Land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be theirs forever.

G-d previously explained why He chose Abraham and his descendants: they would epitomise righteousness and justice, and that would be their ongoing legacy to the world.

The context of that explanation is that G-d intended to destroy Sodom because the people there are evil. Abraham pleads that they not be destroyed.

The premise for the pleading is that maybe there is righteousness among the evil. When righteousness is not found, Abraham accepts G-d’s decree as a correct application of justice. Pure evil must be eradicated.

We should be blessed with country and world leaders who understand to whom the Land was given by G-d as an eternal heritage; the difference between good and evil; and the need to eradicate evil. Evil left unaddressed never leads to a good ending.