Times: Shabbat starts on Friday at 7:26 pm and ends on Saturday night at 8:26 pm. The weekly Torah portion is Vayeira.

Mincha in the CBD: We will seek to resume mincha at L2/430 Lt Collins on summer schedule (1.45pm) once there is demand. Join the the WhatsApp group to stay across the latest details.

Study: The Weekly Shiur is now returning to hybrid in-person plus zoom, on Wednesday at 1.20pm at Warlows Legal, 2/430 Lt Collins, and the lunch part is back! Current topic: interesting stories of overweight marshals and trusting your gut. Details here.

Thought of the Week with thanks to David Werdiger. In this week’s Torah reading, Abraham pleads with God to save the condemned cities of Sodom and Amorah.

He asks God “if there are fifty righteous people within the city, would you still wipe out the entire city?” The commentator Tiferet Shlomo wonders why Avraham qualifies that the fifty righteous people need to be “within the city”? It’s obvious he’s talking about the cities that are to be destroyed.

He explains that sometimes, people are only righteous in the synagogue i.e. in their observance of mitzvot, but in the city – in their commercial dealings and their relationships – they are cruel and corrupt. The test of righteousness is that it must be both in our relationship with God and our relationship with others. The midrash famously states that when a person dies and is brought before the heavenly court for judgment, the first question asked will be “were you honest in business dealings?”