Honey

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and think of dipping our apples into honey in the hope of a sweet year, it’s a good time to talk about honey. Read more

Shabbat Nitzavim: Free will and choice

“When someone hears this covenant that God is making with you today, he may feel blessed that he can choose to do whatever his heart desires.” Deuteronomy.29.18 Read more

Shabbat Ki Tavo: Rewards and punishment

The Torah this week contains blessings and warnings. Read more

King Charles III

Carmel College was a Jewish Public School my late father had founded in England in 1948. I had the honour to be its headmaster and then Principal from 1971 -1984. Read more

New Moon

There was a popular Israeli song in the forties that my father loved, and he taught his pupils at Carmel College. Read more

Shabbat Re’ey: False Messiahs

Amongst the fascinating laws in this week’s Torah is one that is significant in what it says about miracles, signs, and False Messiahs. Read more

Kissinger: Good or Bad?

Whatever you may think of Henry Kissinger, he has been the most influential secular Jew by birth (outside Israel) in world affairs in recent times. Read more

Shabbat Eykev: Bread is not enough

It is a strange sentence. “I provided you with the Manah so that you should know that a person does not live on bread alone.” And then, the Torah goes on to extoll the physical richness of the land the Israelites are coming to and how it will provide all the food they could want. Read more

Jewish Valentine’s Day

I would hazard a guess that some fifty per cent of people who call themselves Jews had no idea that last Sunday was the Tisha B’Av, Ninth of Av, much less fast. Read more

Shabbat VaEtchanan: Do they admire us?

Almost hidden in the long speech of Moses this week are two sentences that I have great difficulty reading because even though they are magnificent, they fall short of reality. Read more

Shabbat Devarim: Optimism despite it all

The Book of Devarim, the last book of the Torah, is dominated by the personality of Moses even more than the previous three books. Read more

Universalism

The three weeks from the Seventeenth of Tammuz until the Ninth of Av, have for thousands of years been a period of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, twice. First by Babylonia in 586 BCE and then by Rome in 70 CE. This period will culminate after the Ninth of Av which this year will be the 7th of August ( actually starting the night before). Read more

Trades Unions

In my rebellious youth, I always supported Trades Unions. The record of how the world, in general, has treated workers is not a good one. Read more

Shabbat Pinchas: Women’s Rights

Halfway through this week’s reading comes the episode of the daughters of Zelofchad.  Read more

Zealotry

Nowadays, aggression seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Especially when it comes to political issues and identities. Read more

Shabbat Balak: Prophecy

Three people are called prophets in the Torah Abraham, Miriam, and Moses. Read more

Kopul Rosen and The Eichmann trial

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the Netflix film “The Trial of Adolph Eichmann” and a brief clip of my late father Kopul Rosen speaking in a BBC panel that appeared in it. Read more

Shabbat Korach: What were they thinking?

When I try to put myself into the minds of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness, I simply cannot understand their mentality (but then sometimes I don’t even understand myself). Why are they constantly complaining about everything? Read more

Older or wiser?

There is an expression “There is no fool like an old fool.” I have often wondered whether this is a comment on stupidity or old age. And please don’t tell me it’s not woke to talk about old anything. Read more

Shabbat Korach: Falling on Your Face

Last weekend I tripped and fell flat on my face in the street. Just miraculous (or fortunate) that I fell on the tarmac instead of the paving stones. Read more

Who was Sanballat?

Does this name mean anything to you? He is mentioned in the Bible as someone who tried desperately to prevent the Judeans from rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. Read more

Shabbat Shelach Lecha: Grasshoppers

Moses was instructed by God to send men to go on a tour of the Land of Canaan. Read more

Robespierre and Saadyah

Robespierre  (1758 –1794) was one of the most controversial figures of the French Revolution. Read more

Shabbat Beha’aloteha: Women and Race

Miriam and Aaron complained to Moshe about his wife, calling her Isha Cushit, a woman of Cush ( Numbers Chapter 12 ). Read more

Remember

Yizkor.  “Remember…Don’t forget” (Deuteronomy 25:17&19). Read more

Shabbat Naso: Alienation and Reconciliation

This week’s reading consists of seemingly disparate themes but really, they all connect in a parable of alienation and reconciliation. Read more

Shavuot

You might think there is little left original to write about the Festival of Shavuot that we are about to celebrate. Read more

Shabbat BaMidbar: Words and Silence

We start a new book of the Torah this week, Bamidbar. Which in non-Jewish terminology is the Book of Numbers probably because it starts with a census. But in Hebrew, it is In the Desert! Read more

Yom Yerushalayim

Sunday May 29^th is Yom Yerushalayim.  Some people may say it was a miracle, to regain the Old City of Jerusalem after two thousand years. I think it was proof that only by being proactive and determined can one survive and thrive in a hostile world. Read more

Shabbat Behukotai: Carrot or Stick

I have always resisted threats and felt it counterproductive to employ them to enforce or encourage people to become religious even if these are tools that all religions have used at one stage or another to preserve their power and authority. Read more

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