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Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:01pm and ends on Saturday at 7:57pm. The weekly Torah portion is Pekudei, and it’s Parshat HaChodesh and Mevarchim Chodesh Nissan. Rosh Chodesh is on Sunday.

Mincha will resume at 1pm at A-P GF/459 Collins on Mon 7 Apr. Join the WhatsApp group for any updates.

Weekly sushi & shiur continues on Wed at 1.30pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: fencing law. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Mandi Katz.

This week’s Torah portion Pekudei brings to an end both the book of Shemoth and the work of building the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

The portion includes a succinct description of the Mishkan presented to Moshe in all its splendour and order, and we are told that Moshe saw the work, done as G-d commanded, and he blessed the people.

Moshe then moves on to setting up the Mishkan, and implementing its role as the centre of life for the people. Shemoth concludes with a description of the divine cloud over the Mishkan by day and the fire that covers it by night that will accompany the people in their travels.

In this way Shemoth is bookended by the presence of the cloud and the fire, first mentioned in the portion of B’shallach at the beginning of the journey, as a guide to the people in their otherwise chaotic journeying.

The difference of course is that by the end of Shemoth the cloud and fire have become G-d’s dwelling place – a transformation made real by the work, creative energy, and donations of people .

From the broken and unruly mob that left Egypt led by a cloud and fire that simply appeared before them, they have stepped up to execute G-d’s requirements for the creation of the Mishkan. They evolve and develop – as we will see – in readiness for the rules and regulations of Vayikra and then the challenges and  dramatic tensions that will occur in the episodes of  Bamidbar.