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Shabbat starts on Friday at 4:59pm and ends on Saturday at 6:01pm. The weekly Torah portion is Chukat.

Mincha 1pm continues at Ainsworth Property – GF/459 Collins Mon-Wed. Join the WhatsApp group where we take a count to confirm each day.

Weekly sushi & shiur will continue on Wed at about 1.10pm (after mincha) at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: paying employees in a timely fashion. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Rabbi Dovid Gutnick.

The Torah reading of Chukat starkly confronts the theme of death.

There is death by the Divine Kiss (twice), death by thirst, death by disobedience,  death by vipers and serpents. There are those yearning for death and there are those who fight to the death.

At the beginning of the reading we are taught of the remedy to proximity of death: the chok (statute) of the Torah; the ritual of the red heifer. This is a representation of a progressive journey through the experience of death.

The blood and ashes: the visceral experience of death. Scarlet thread: the sense of fragility. Cedar and hyssop: sprouting, flourishing, decaying, disintegration and regeneration. 3 and 7 days: The healing passage of time. Casting and sprinkling: vitality and movement as opposed to the torpor of death. Water: the flowing of rebirth and a return to life
 
We hope and pray for the day when “He will remove the spirit of impurity from the earth,” and ultimately “death shall cease forever.” May it be speedily in our days.