Judaism has never advocated poverty nor recommended it as a spiritually uplifting experience. Indeed, the Talmud describes the feeling of poverty as akin to death. Nor has it ever suggested that “money is the root of all evil” or that “it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven than a camel can pass through the…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Chief Rabbis
The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, has voted to make changes to the positions of Chief Rabbi in Israel, notably to merge two positions into one. Of course, those who stand to lose their perks are up in arms! It is risible that religious positions should be decided by governments altogether. Indeed, I find it a joke that similar appointments are…
The March of Folly
This past week we have witnessed the universality of folly. In Iraq Moqtader Al Sadr, that murderous political fanatic with the blood of the saintly Al Khoei on his hands, continues to defy everyone except his own armed thugs. They have hijacked holy places in pursuit of a purely political agenda (something hitherto only seen in Bethlehem). He stands in…
Agudah Rediscovers Its Peacenik Roots
It is a common misconception that all ultra-Orthodox Jews are political extremists. In Israel for example, most, though not all, very Orthodox rabbis have always argued that peace is more important than land. After all, they base themselves on the main and moderate Pharisee leadership two thousand years ago, at the time of the Roman occupation, who wanted to negotiate…
Double Standards
In Africa, millions are fleeing their homes, tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children have been murdered, a campaign of ethnic cleansing, driving people from their homes is underway. And would you believe it? Not a motion in the United Nations, no condemnation from the Security Council, not a peep, just a visit from Kofi. If anyone ever…
Archbishop and Evangelicals
By most standards the Church of England is a failed church. Its peculiar brand of English Christianity is neither charismatically exciting nor is it intellectually rigorous. Its academic approach owes more to higher Biblical criticism than it does to modern deconstruction. Theologically it is caught in a time warp. Occasionally a bishop will emerge who challenges the nostra of faith…