Shabbat Ki Teytsey: Lost chickens
August 19, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
“If you see your brother’s ox or sheep wandering and you are tempted to ignore it, you must return it to him. And if your brother does not live nearby, you should bring the animal home and keep it until he comes to claim it, and then you must return it. Read more
Weekly Torah. Shabbat Shoftim Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9
August 13, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Who is Responsible? Read more
The Igbo Jews
August 13, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
In 1960 Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom. As with many new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic, cultural, religious, or political realities. Read more
The Spirit of the Law: Shabbat Re’eh Deuteronomy Chapters 12:26-16:17
August 6, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Synagogues
August 6, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
It is only a month to the “Days of Awe,” the Yamim Noraim. Read more
A chosen people
July 30, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
I dislike the expression “The Chosen People”. Read more
Torah for Shabbat: Shabbat Nachamu, The Shabbat of Comfort after the Ninth of Av.
July 23, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
As Moses continues his speech to the children of Israel, he repeats two core texts that underpin the whole of the Jewish way of life. Read more
Uncritical Race Theory
July 23, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Let me say at the outset that Critical Race Theory is a dangerous, completely unsubstantiated pseudo theory of race that has now become dogma in academia. Read more
Get follies
July 16, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
We often witness the insensitivity and negativity of rabbis who seem unaware of the damage they can do when they claim to be upholding Jewish Law. Read more
Are we Khazars?
July 9, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Arthur Koestler was another brilliant, but deeply disturbed Jewish intellectual to emerge from twentieth-century Hungary (no need to mention all the others). Read more
Torah reading: Shabbat Pinhas
July 2, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Our reading this week starts with God praising Pinhas for his dramatic action in killing Zimri and his mistress the Midianite princess Cozbi, as they defied Moses and the rest of the community. Read more
Women Rabbis, again!
July 2, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
What is it about Chief Rabbis? Perfectly nice, intelligent human beings, yet when they get to be Chief Rabbis their spines turn to jelly. Read more
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen: Shabbat Balak
June 25, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
It seems strange that the whole Parsha we read this week should be named after a Midianite/Moabite King, Balak, and be devoted to a non-Jewish magician Bilam.
Read more
Thought for the week
June 25, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
On Sunday is the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. It is a minor fast that lasts from dawn to dusk and ushers in a period of mourning that leads up to the 9th of Av when we commemorate the loss of two Temples. Read more
Religious politics
June 18, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The personal attacks on Naftali Bennet coming from the Charedi parties in Israel because he has been instrumental in excluding them from power and has stood up to their blackmail are disgusting. Read more
Hate Signalling
June 11, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
I have a love-hate relationship with the New York Review of Books. Read more
Philip Roth
June 4, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Philip Roth (1933-2018) was one of the most successful American novelists. Read more
Conversion
May 28, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The Bible nowhere explicitly talks about conversion, only about taking care of, and not oppressing the stranger, the Ger. Read more
Whose side are you on?
May 21, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The latest round of fighting between Palestinians and Israel continues what has been a Hundred Years’ War and will in my opinion continue possibly for another hundred. Read more
Shavuot, Torah, and Humanity
May 14, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
As rockets continue to rain down on our families in Israel, and a civil war rages with mobs of hooligans attacking peaceful citizens and neighbours, I pray for three things. Read more
Armenian Genocide
May 7, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
April 24th is the date of the annual memorial that Armenians observe to recall the horrific massacres carried out by the Turkish Government in 1915. Read more
Meron
April 30, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
This week we celebrated Lag BaOmer, which is the thirty-third day of the Omer that I described two weeks ago. Read more
What’s wrong with us?
April 23, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Israel’s 73rd Independence Day was an annual reminder of as close to a miracle as it gets. Read more
What is an Omer?
April 16, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
No, not the town in the Negev! The Biblical Omer refers to the sheaf of barley that was brought to the Temple, the day after Pesach, to mark the beginning of the new agricultural year. Read more
Big and Little Lies
April 9, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The culture we live in nowadays is one of lies. The truth is that it has always been thus even if at certain stages, the lies have been more venal and destructive than others. Read more
Missing Children
April 2, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
One of the darkest episodes in the history of Israel is the ghastly story of the missing children of poor immigrants from Arab lands, airlifted to Israel (on the Wings of Eagles project) in the early years of the State. Read more
Freedom
March 26, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The New York Review of Books has recently devoted a lot of space to a review of “The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King” by Peniel E. Joseph. Read more
Who is a Jew?
March 19, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
Why is there such a fuss over the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to allow converts to Judaism, as defined by the Reform and Conservative movements, to qualify for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return? Read more
Mr Cohen of Ballachulish Ferry
March 12, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
A week ago, I gave a Zoom talk for the Scottish Jewish Archive centre. Read more
1848
March 5, 2021 by Jeremy Rosen
The course of human civilization, if one can use that term, has progressed and continues to, in a series of slow cycles. Read more
