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Times: Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:17 pm and ends on Saturday night at 8:13 pm. It’s Shushan Purim today! The weekly Torah portion is Tsav and Parshat Parah.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha will resume on 4 April (after DST ends) at Warlow’s Legal – 2/430 Lt Collins St. Join the WhatsApp group to stay across the latest details.

Study: The Weekly Shiur continues on Wednesday at 1.20 pm at Warlow’s Legal – 2/430 Lt Collins St. – and via Zoom. Current topic: Eating rights for human and animal workers. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to David Werdiger. Toward the end of Megillat Esther, it speaks of the establishment of the holiday of Purim, and states that this holiday will endure forever (Esther 9:28). Why, of all the Jewish holiday, is Purim special in this way?

The Mishna states that “if one reads the Megillah chapters out of order, one has not correctly fulfilled the mitzvah”. This is interpreted allegorically to say that if we understand the story of Purim as purely a historical incident, we have not truly taken in the message of Purim.

In exactly one month, at the Pesach Seder, we will sing the words “in every generation, they rise against us to destroy us, and God saves us”. The historical cycle of Jewish struggle and redemption is not one that we can consign to the past.

It is an essential and enduring part of the Jewish story. At the centre of that story is our belief in God’s role in ensuring our survival as a people.