In The Economist of June 20th, there was an interesting article under the heading “Do longevity drugs work.” The subtitle was that animal studies suggest that certain drugs are no more effective than long-term fasting. The article was comparing a series of pharmaceutical drugs that are being touted as guaranteeing longevity. “As elixirs of life go, long-term fasting is the surprising candidate. Yet…
Is Peace Possible?
For the past two years I’ve been conflicted, even close to despair over whether real peace is ever possible in Israel, and under what conditions. The existential evil that Hamas and indeed Iran and its proxies represent has been devastating. And the almost universal betrayal of Israel by hierarchies, leaders, intellectuals and journalists incomprehensible. At the same time the debate…
Why Pig is Not kosher.
Edward Gibbon the English historian (1737 to 1794) wrote six volumes of The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. His conclusions have been disputed ever since. But he ushered in a new era of historical and social theory that has dominated western thought ever since. We like to find simple easy explanations which never work out exactly…
Yalta
Anyone interested in history will know that the Yalta Conference was a meeting between the leaders of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union that took place in February 1945 towards the end of the Second World War. There is a famous photograph of Roosevelt and Stalin sitting next to an unhappy Winston Churchill who realized he was being marginalized. As…
Why do we eat cheesecake on Shavuot?
The festival of Shavuot (AKA Pentecost) which falls on next Monday, and Tuesday for the Diaspora, marks the 49 days or seven weeks from Passover. It is one of the three biblical harvest festivals. In Temple times as many as possible were expected to come up to Jerusalem to celebrate a national holiday. But in fact, Shavuot is the orphan of the Biblical Festivals. Pesach has its…
Jerusalem Day
This morning, I overheard a conversation in the gym in which someone was declaring, in reference to the murders of the two Jews in Washington, that there are crazy people everywhere and murders happen. And that may be so. But crazy people are easily inflamed by the poison that the press and social media spread like manure. And there is an…