Shabbat Mattot & Massei: Where should you live?

As the children of Israel approach the land of Israel, they had to pass through what is now Transjordan. The domains of Sihon the Emorite and Og of Bashan. Read more

Fast of Tammuz

We have just had the Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. It commemorates the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the moment at which the Romans destroyed the walls and a prelude to the destruction of the Second Temple. Read more

Shabbat Pinchas: Succession

Pinchas was the grandson of Aharon, the zealot who took the law into his own hands. Read more

Blasphemy and Brian

In 1997 “The Life of Brian” by Monty Python comedians was a tremendous hit in Britain and a scandal. Read more

Shabbat Chukat Balak: Faith or magic

This week we have two very different weekly readings of the Torah combined into one. Read more

Charter Schools and Isidore of Seville

I have always been a fan of Charter Schools (naturally, there are poor ones too). Read more

Shabbat Korach: Quakes, Fires, and Almonds

The earth opened up, fire from heaven, and sticks sprouted almond blossoms and nuts. Read more

Talmud on a desert island

One of the longest-running radio program series on the BBC is Desert Island Discs.   Read more

Shabbat Lech Lecha: All About Spirit

This week’s Torah reading is dominated by the story of the 12 men sent by Moses to scout out the Land of Canaan. There’s a dispute as to whether they went to tour, to undermine, or to spy. The Torah uses all three words. Read more

Happiness

The American constitution says that Americans have the right to happiness. What is happiness? Can the pursuit of happiness be a right, an experience, a state of mind, or an aspiration? Read more

Shabbat Bha’alotecha: Arguments

The Torah this week starts very optimistically with the events that come at the end of the first year when they are within sight of the Promised Land. Read more

Divorce

Both in the Torah and in the Talmud, marital difficulties are the topic du semaine. Read more

Shabbat Naso: Wine and Women 

The case of the Sotah, the woman suspected of adultery, is a very difficult issue to understand. Read more

Shavuot and the Culture Wars

As far as the Bible was concerned, the festival of Shavuot ( Pentecost) that we celebrate this weekend was no more than a harvest festival.  Read more

The Coronation

Whatever one may or may not think of monarchy, the coronation of King Charles was a magnificent pageant. Read more

Shabbat B’Midbar: War and Conscription

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Evolving Judaism

Many people think that Judaism is so conservative that it simply doesn’t change, and we are still rooted in a tradition that is 3000 years old.

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Shabbat Behar & Behukotai – The Good the Bad and the Ugly

The book of the Torah called Vayikra or Leviticus, is also called the Book of Purity. Read more

Hypocrites

We Jews have always been outliers. Now it seems everyone else wants to catch up with us and claim victimhood, discrimination, abuse, and alienation and the only way to cope is to be mean to everyone else. We are admired and despised, and we are our own worst enemies. Read more

Shabbat Emor: Mourning

The Torah contains no specific rules about death and mourning for ordinary people. Read more

Israel at 75

I have recently read two great books. “Israel’s Declaration of Independence: The History and Political Theory of the Nation’s Founding Moment” by Neil Rogachevsky and Dov Ziegler (Cambridge University Press). Just published. And the 2019 “A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion” by Tom Segev (Picador). Read more

Shabbat Acharei Mot & Kedoshim: Morality

For many of us reading the third Book of the Torah, Leviticus( Vayikra), is not a particularly inspiring or easy exercise. Read more

Memorials to the Holocaust

This week we witnessed another impressive Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel when the country came to halt to remember. As well as the return of the annual March of the Living pilgrimage to Auschwitz. Elsewhere? Hardly anyone noticed. Read more

Shabbat Tazria & Metzorah: Healthy in body and mind

The chapters of the Torah that we are reading now are concerned with health and what happens when our bodies do not function effectively or normally. Read more

Firstborn

I am a firstborn male. And I fast on the eve of Pesach because all the Egyptian firstborns were struck down by the tenth plague and I (metaphorically) survived! Read more

Shabbat Tsav and Shabbat HaGadol: The Big One

The Shabbat before Pesach is always called Shabbat HaGadol. The Great or Major Shabbat. Although the section we will read is Tsav (Leviticus Chapter 6-8:36). Read more

Passover or Passout?

Moses had trouble understanding Rebbi Akivah who lived about a thousand years later (according to the Talmud). Read more

Shabbat Vayikra: Sacrifices

At this time of the year, the Torah readings are all to do with sacrifices. I shall confess that the thought of killing animals does not fill me with any great enthusiasm. Read more

Same old story

I never cease to be amazed at how certain themes of Jewish history keep on repeating themselves. Read more

Shabbat Vayakhel Pekudei: Repetition is Good

It is an interesting phenomenon that the major events of the Torah that play a crucial role in the life of the people from a philosophical point of view are repeated in slightly different ways. Read more

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