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

Shavout starts tonight – make an Eruv Tavshilin – light candles at 4:54pm. Light candles for second day of Shavuot/Shabbat on Friday before 4:54pm. Shavuot/Shabbat ends Saturday night at 5:54pm.

Pre-Shavuot lecture “Will ChatGPT make us irrelevant” with Rabbi Yoni Johnson on Tuesday was a success! You can check out the details and listen to here.

Mincha continues at Ainsworth Property – 7/459 Collins St (North Tower), at 1.00pm and we use the WhatsApp group to confirm numbers.

The weekly lunch & shiur continues on Wed at 1.10pm at A-P 7/459 Collins – and via zoom, followed by mincha. Current topic: default lease notice terms.  Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Benjamin Jones.

The Torah was given on Mount Sinai in the desert, an ownerless public place. The message is that anyone who wishes to properly accept it is welcome to do so. If it had been given in the land of Israel, the nations of the world may say that they have no portion in it, as Israel belongs to the Jews.

Why was Mount Sinai chosen to be the site for the giving of the Torah? The conventional answer is to teach us humility, since Mount Sinai was the most humble
of all mountains.

It was not the biggest, or strongest, or prettiest, as we learn in the Midrash. If so, why was the Torah not given in a low lying valley? Surely that would have been a stronger lesson in humility?

We can learn from this that a Jew must be able to distinguish between being confident and being arrogant. Arrogance is distasteful. Confidence is crucial, so we don’t feel we’re
inadequate. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. The Torah therefore, was given on a humble mountain.