Time

We have just celebrated another New Year. I was not specifically thinking of 2022, although that too. Or of Tu BiShvat, the Fifteenth Day of the Month of Shevat. The New Year for Trees. One of four different New Years as recorded in the Talmud ( Rosh Hashana ). Read more

Do not trust princes

I was born during the Second World War when it seemed that Hitler was going to conquer the world. Of course, had he, I would not be here today. Read more

Another scandal

Why does every religion seem to have a problem with sex criminal clergy sheltering under its protection? Read more

Shabbat Vayehi: Predictions

The twelve tribes have now come to live in Egypt under Josef’s protection. Read more

Shabbat Lech Lecha: No one is Perfect

Abraham is the first, full character study in the Torah. Read more

American culture

The debacle in Afghanistan has proved how difficult it is to change another country’s culture. Read more

Appeasement

I was brought up to despise the word appeasement. It was the ideology favoured by much of the British aristocracy and political leaders before the Second World War. Read more

Royalty

I am amazed that so many Americans are enamoured with the British Monarchy and with its least impressive of its scions who hog the headlines precisely because of their limitations. Read more

Synagogues

It is only a month to the “Days of Awe,” the Yamim Noraim. Read more

A chosen people

I dislike the expression “The Chosen People”.  Read more

Uncritical Race Theory

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

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

Philip Roth

Philip Roth (1933-2018) was one of the most successful American novelists. Read more

Big and Little Lies

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

Finding Love

Did you know that there is an ancient tradition that on two days in the year, unmarried girls used to go out dancing in the vineyards around Jerusalem in order to find a marriage partner? Read more

Jerusalem reborn

The Jerusalem I first came to in 1958 was a very different and much smaller town than the Jerusalem of nearly one million it is today. Read more

Prayer in the time of COVID-19

The great advantage of having to pray alone during this period of lockdown is that one can actually take the time to pay attention to the words being said and to focus on their meaning and relevance (rather than keeping up with the congregation). Read more

Yeshayahu Leibowitz

My nephew Dov, a philosopher, scholar and rabbi of YAKAR Jerusalem, sent me a brilliant essay he recently published entitled “ On Social Distancing and deontology.” Read more

Israel and the Diaspora

As we approach Israel’s independence day, the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora remains ambivalent. Read more

Covid? Don’t Despair!

We are living under conditions that we have never experienced before. Read more

Sin? Not such a big deal

Next week we will restart the annual Torah reading cycle and that always reminds me of Sin! Adam and Eve and all that. Read more

Why do bad things happen

For thousands of years, we have been asking why God lets bad things happen to good people and good things happen to very bad ones. Read more

Remember

The occasion that we now call Rosh Hashana, is referred to in the Bible only as Zihron Teruah – the Day of Remembering with Sound. One is bound to ask: “remembering what? And what does the sound of the Shofar have to do with it?” Read more

The Jews of Mashhad

History is going out of fashion. It is declining as a subject taught at universities. It is seen as irrelevant to the great surge of technology and finance and out of favour with the politics of “me” and “now”. Read more

Billy Rose

Who was Billy Rose? If you have visited the museum complex in Jerusalem, not far from the Knesset, you will be familiar with the Billy Rose sculpture garden…writes Jeremy Rosen. Read more

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