Archive for September, 2019

From The Rabbi – Parshat Ki Teitzei 5779

Yesterday, my friend Eric asked me “are you okay?”, and I responded that I was Baruch Hashem feeling well. Sensing my surprise, he then he went on to explain to me that it was ‘Are you okay Day’. My initial reaction was “Do we need a special day to remind us to ask each other how we are feeling? It then dawned upon me that, due to the fact that, as human beings comprised of body and soul, we often become self-absorbed, from time to time it helps to be reminded about thinking of others and to behave more altruistically.

This, in essence is what this introspective month of Elul is all about, affording us the opportunity to take stock of our lives and put the important things into perspective. Thank you Eric, I hope that you are well too…

We are currently concluding our most fascinating JLI course, ‘With All My Heart’, which has been for me personally a most interesting and enriching course and I commend the many communal members who have attended this course, which will certainly help make the upcoming High Holidays a more e meaningful experience.   

We read this week “When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof ” (Deut. 22:8). While nominally a public safety instruction; to ensure that people don’t unwittingly take a tumble from the top floor of your building, Biblical commentators learn an important life-lesson from the subtext of this verse.

Too often we build the house and assume that the “and they lived happily ever after” will just automatically happen. We start off all confident and sunny-side-up, but don’t erect any precautions for the inevitable stumbles and spills. We just assume that because we want things to work out, they will, without any ongoing care or further attention needed.

But life isn’t like that. If you don’t maintain, you profane. Before getting into the car for the first time you should have already booked it in for its first service. Before signing the contract on the house you should already have a gardener and cleaning crew on retainer, and it makes sense to first go for pre-marital counseling before walking down the aisle together.

A fence of prevention is worth a pound of falls. Even as we embark on life’s adventure we should be mindful of the possible mishaps that lie ahead. We put up a guard rail not because we fear failure, but in expectation of accomplishment.

Never be afraid to embark on a new venture or to start afresh, because if you set the requisite safeguards in place from the beginning, there is every chance that you will succeed.   

With Rosh Hashanah just two weeks away, we will be distributing information in the next week regarding various activities and service times.      

בברכת כתיבה וחתימה טובה, לשנה טובה ומתוקה – may you to be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet ew year.

Rabbi Levi and Dvorah Jaffe

Thank you Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum of Moorabin Hebrew Congregation for the above message

From The Rabbi – Parshat Shoftim 5779

Being the first finals weekend for the AFL, we are pleased to welcome some of the Richmond supporters from Melbourne, who will be spending Shabbat with us in Brisbane, so that they may attend the game on Motzoey Shabbat (Saturday night). May the Lions and the Tigers fight well and put on a good contest, and let’s see whose prayers are more effective in Shul tomorrow…

Elul, the current Jewish month, is the unique time for all of us to conduct our spiritual check-up, much like the concept of having a periodic ‘Physical’. To take stock of our spiritual position, and search within our soul for its healthy characteristics as well as our necessary growth points, and prescribe a spiritual fitness program tailored for our neshamah (soul).

This concept is very much connected to the opening words of this week’s Torah portion, which always falls out in the beginning of the month of Elul, which instruct us to place judges and officers at the gates of our cities. On a personal spiritual level, this refers to appointing judges and officers at the ‘gates’ of our bodies, our mouths, ears, eyes and nose, to ensure that our various bodily faculties and senses are used appropriately, in a healthy manner, to be discerning about when and for what we should be opening and closing these ‘gates’.    

May we all merit excellent health, physically and spiritually which, in addition to the obvious blessings of Hashem, requires constant effort and workout. 

בברכת כתיבה וחתימה טובה, לשנה טובה ומתוקה ​​​​​​​ – may you to be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet ew year.

Rabbi Levi and Dvorah Jaffe