Times: Shabbat starts tonight with candle lighting at 8:24pm, Shabbat ends Saturday night at 9:27pm. The weekly Torah portion is Bo.

Mincha in the CBD: Mincha is on summer break. We will gauge demand in early Feb once people are back from holidays.

Study: The Wednesday shiur & lunch will resume from next week – 1.00pm on Wednesday, 24 January at Billing Bureau.

Kosher Food in the CBD: Glicks is now doing deliveries to the city, and there are further developments in the wings.

Thought of the Week with thanks to Rabbi Leon Anaf. The great achievement of the Jews during the first Shabbat Hagadol was that they actually performed a deed which was calculated to anger the Egyptians – they would sacrifice their “holy” lambs. This obviously aroused the anger of the Egyptians

The question then arises: The Egyptians had just suffered the ten plagues yet they proclaimed “this is the finger of G-d”. Why were the Egyptians so upset about the sacrifice of their holy sheep? They must have realised that the G-d of the Hebrews was mightier than their gods.

The answer is that there is a tremendous difference between accepting something intellectually and acting upon it.

The difference between the behaviour of the Egyptians and the Jews is that although the Egyptians realised the might of G-d they were not prepared to act on this knowledge and forgo their attachment to their holy sheep.

The Jews, by their brave action on Shabbat Hagadol, showed that they were prepared to act on their beliefs.