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Shabbat starts on Friday at 5:05pm and ends on Saturday at 6:04pm. The weekly Torah portion is Kedoshim.

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 continues 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 Geoffrey Bloch.

This week’s Torah reading contains the negative commandment “Do not favour the poor in judgment.” But this is not new. The identical sentiment appeared twice in the portion of Mishpatim, read about 3 months ago. 

Perhaps this recurring refrain in the Torah is to warn us against one of man’s greatest social frailties, namely his inclination to be compassionate rather than to be just. Indeed, misplaced compassion can lead to great evil.

Students and faculty in western universities and politicians around the world profess their compassion for Gazan civilians but fail to recognise the justness of Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas. Their misplaced compassion renders them blind to the monumental injustices perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. Indeed, they have little or no compassion for the innocent Israelis murdered, brutalised and abducted on that day.  

There are many examples of objectionable social behaviour meriting the death penalty listed in this week’s reading. Yet, by comparison, each such example is dwarfed by the massive evil perpetrated by Hamas.

The reading is, of course, replete with other positive commandments which oblige us to be compassionate in certain circumstances, for example, by allowing the poor and the stranger to gather produce, by giving charity, by not stealing, by paying wages when due and by honouring the presence of the elderly.

But above all, we must never allow compassion to determine any of our attitudes without first asking ourselves where the justice in each case lies.