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Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:12pm and ends on Saturday at 8:08pm. The weekly Torah portion is Vayakhel and Shabbat Parah.

Mincha is now in recess for the summer and will resume on Mon 7 Apr. Join the WhatsApp group for any updates.

Special weekly sushi & shiur to complete Bava Metzia on Wed at 1.30pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: neighbour rights. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Geoff Bloch.

The weekly reading of Vayakhel opens with such an astonishing outpouring of gifts from the Jews for the building of the Tambernacle, that Moshe called a stop to it. Similarly, in last week’s reading Ki Tisa, Aharon, according to midrash, called a stop to contributions to the Golden Calf.

Because indiscriminate giving can be a vice, we must give careful thought as to where to direct our compassion. That is because real evil can be caused by misplaced compassion.

This is true both in the micro (giving by an individual) and in the macro. Focusing on the latter, we see, for example, that the boundless largesse gifted to the PA and Hamas by the EU, many Western countries and NGOs, has not been applied to worthy causes but instead, to fund the PA’s notorious “pay for slay” programme, to build Hamas’s terror tunnels and to other evil initiatives.

President Trump’s D.O.G.E. led by Elon Musk, has exposed these and many other unworthy initiatives. In so doing, the new administration, whether wittingly, intuitively or otherwise, is applying the ancient moral message taught in our weekly reading.

May the new administration continue to follow a righteous path and play a constructive role in assisting Israel to conquer her enemies, rather than handcuffing and preventing her from doing so, as in the past.

May the hostages return to their families and may there be a true and lasting peace in Israel.