An op-ed appeared in the New York Times on October 9th pointing out how much murder actually costs a country. It quoted research at Iowa State University that calculated that each murder costs society $17.25 million in victim’s costs, loss of earnings, and the justice, punitive, and prevention systems. Sounds like a lot, but I’m prepared to believe it. The…
Oaths
I have never liked oaths. There is so much swearing nowadays. Oaths are taken in vain and used as common currency. Criminals swear their innocence on the Bible. Politicians swear their probity on their words of honor. Every drunk and lout speaks a language that uses more swear words than civilized language. I am ashamed to say that I allow…
Paranoia
The furor over the mosque in New York is very healthy. It has illustrated paranoia. Screams of the dreaded Islamophobia are heard daily on the “liberal” media. America lacerates itself over its intolerance. Its leadership is fearful that now Muslims around the world will no longer love the USA as much as they used to. I am all in favor…
God in History
I have just finished writing a history of Carmel College, the school I headed for nearly 14 years, and which my father founded at a time when almost everyone in the UK thought Jewish education was bad and regressive. Great Jewish pioneers working when secular state education was excellent had a far tougher time than when it had collapsed in…
Sukot 2010
The Englishman John Keats wrote a beautiful poem, To Autumn, in 1820: Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;Conspiring with him how to load and blessWith fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shellsWith…
Yom Kipur 2010
Every year on Yom Kipur, Jews list their errors and determine to be better. But you and I know that most of us are unlikely to change very much, if at all. The religious bigot is going to stay a bigot. The Chasid will not turn into a Litvak. The hardliner will not become soft, nor will the man who…