Condolences to Harry (Cheski) New and family on the passing of his father

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

Yom Kippur starts on Friday at 7:15pm and ends on Saturday at 8:15pm.

Mincha continues at 1.45pm at Ainsworth Property – GF/459 Collins Mon-Wed. Join the WhatsApp group where we take a count to confirm each day.

Weekly sushi & shiur is in recess until after Sukkot and will resume on on Wed 30 Oct at 1.20pm (mincha 1.45pm) at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: strata titles. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Ezra May.

Yom Kippur seems to have an internally inconsistent and contradictory nature to it. On the one hand, there are five restrictions of Yom Kippur, actually called “afflictions” by the Torah. And on the other hand, the Talmud describes Yom Kippur as one of the two happiest days in the whole year. There even is a mitzvah of simcha – joy – on Yom Kippur, as it is called a mo’ed. An example being, in the uncommon case, that if one is required to eat on Yom Kippur, they should make kiddush first.

A resolution of it being both a day of joy and of affliction, is that that both the joy and the affliction stem from the same point. The Talmud elaborates that the joy of Yom Kippur is due to it being the day in perpetuity when we can potentially reach our spiritual heights as we cleanse ourselves of sin. Likewise, the afflictions remove the physical distractions that normally disrupt us from focusing on the spiritual. Therefore the joy of the day is us achieving atonement, which is only able to be achieved through observing the afflictions of the day.
Want to contribute to the thought for the week? It’s only 150 words! Contact David so we can add you to our roster.