JBD – Jews of the Melbourne CBD is now on LinkedIn. Follow us here.
Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:20pm and ends on Saturday at 8:19pm. The weekly Torah portion is Noach.
Mincha continues on summer schedule at 1.45pm at A-P GF/459 Collins, using the WhatsApp group to confirm a minyan each day.
Weekly sushi & shiur continues on Wed at 1.20pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom – followed by mincha at 1.45pm. Current topic: property set-backs. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.
Thought of the Week with thanks to David Werdiger
In this week’s Torah reading, Noach is commanded to build an ark – “teva”. But the Hebrew word “teva” also means “word”. The Baal Shem Tov explains that the words of Torah act as a shelter to protect us from the metaphorical storms of the world around us.
The commentators explain that the sin that was the tipping point for God’s decision to bring the flood was a unique form larceny – money stolen in very amounts too small to be prosecuted.
With this in mind, we can also take the term “teva” at its most literal – that we must fully enter into our words – our promises, contracts and conversations. Words are not strategic tools, used to worm our way out of commitments or commit “victimless crimes”. Our ultimate shelter is our integrity, and our words are our currency.