Excessive Weddings

It has been part of my life as a rabbi to attend weddings; more often than not to “perform.” Read more

Shabbat Vayishlach

Run or stand? Read more

Illusions and Delusions

Those Jews who survived the Second World War were under no illusion that the world cared about them. Read more

Shabbat Vayeytzey

“A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down to Egypt” (Devarim 26:5). This is a well-known line from the Haggadah of Pesach that we read on the Seder night. But what or, more precisely, to whom is it referring? Read more

The Lost Ark

So many people love conspiracy theories, fantasies, and lost causes. Read more

Shabbat Toldot

Role of Women

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Shabbat Chayey Sarah

Was Hagar Abandoned? Read more

A thought

What is Wrong with Us? Read more

Shabbat Lech Lecha

The Wandering Jew
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Carmel Reunion

I have just returned from a very moving and memorable reunion of pupils of the Jewish Boarding school Carmel College my father founded in 1948 until it closed in 1997. Read more

Shabbat Ki Tavo

Mount Ebal Read more

Shabbat Reay

Tom Lehrer

In Memoriam: 1928-2025 Read more

Shabbat Eykev

The Future

This past Shabbat, as every year before the Fast of Av, is called Shabbat Chazon, and we read the negative Haftarah from the First Chapter of the Book of Yeshayahu (Isaiah). Read more

Shabbat VaEtchanan Nachamu

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Ninth of Av and the Holocaust

Every year, the Ninth of Av ( this year on Sunday) raises the issue of the Holocaust. Read more

Shabbat Devarim

Words
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Sir Thomas More

I was always interested in history. Having been brought up in England, I have a particular interest in its history. Read more

Shabbat Mattot & Massei

Should we settle in Israel Read more

Fasting

In The Economist of June 20^th, there was an interesting article under the heading “Do longevity drugs work.” Read more

Shabbat Pinchas

Qualities of Leadership Read more

Is peace possible?

For the past two years, I’ve been conflicted, even close to despair, over whether real peace is ever possible in Israel, and under what conditions. Read more

Shabbat Balak

War and Peace Read more

Why pig is not kosher

Edward Gibbon the English historian (1737 to 1794) wrote six volumes of The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Read more

Yalta

Anyone interested in history will know that the Yalta Conference was a meeting between the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union that took place in February 1945, towards the end of the Second World War. Read more

Why do we eat cheesecake on Shavuot?

The festival of Shavuot (AKA  Pentecost), which falls on Monday and Tuesday for the Diaspora, marks the 49 days or seven weeks from Passover. Read more

Shabbat BaMidbar

The Bible is the most amazing of documents on so many different levels. Read more

Jerusalem Day

This morning, I overheard a conversation in the gym in which someone was declaring, in reference to the murders of the two Jews in Washington, that there are crazy people everywhere and murders happen. Read more

Shabbat Behar & Bechukotai

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