The Shabbat before Purim is always called Shabbat Zachor. The Shabbat to remember. Its origin lies in the Torah, first of all in the Book of Shemot, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they took a longer route out in order to avoid having to face the Amalekites. To avoid conflict. Emerging from slavery they weren’t yet in a fit state to…
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
I first heard of the Christian polymath Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola ( 1463-1494) from the late Jack Lunzer, the owner and curator of the Valmadonna Trust Library that a few years ago was sold off at Sotheby’s in New York in 2017 and ended up at the National Library of Israel. This amazing collection of Hebrew manuscripts and books was kept originally in…
Sons of Noa(c)h
Anyone studying the Talmud in depth knows that one enters a very special but complicated world with its own rules and methods, like no other. In recent years it has begun to be looked at (I hesitate to say studied) by a far wider cross section of people. Not necessarily from a religious point of view ( although the Talmud is…
Rabbi Aviezer Wolfson ז״ל
A personal tribute. I have recently pointed out some of the negative aspects of the Yeshiva World. This week I want to pay tribute to a remarkable example of the best of the Yeshiva world. Rabbi Aviezer Wolfson was not widely known outside of the Charedi world, where he was a giant. He died recently and was eulogized in the Charedi press. But…
HKOPS & Trump
President Donald Trump has raised universal hackles by his Gaza proposal. First he dared to suggest that both Egypt and Jordan should, whether temporarily or otherwise, take in Gaza refugees. And then he added that he wanted to recast the hell hole that Hamas has turned Gaza into, to the Singapore of the Mediterranean. The Palestinians will never accept it.…
Samson Is Israel
Shimshon ( Samson) is the great Jewish hero. The symbol of Jewish defiance and overcoming odds, throughout the ages. Yet the character described in the Book of Judges (Shoftim) is both complex and contradictory. From birth he was a Nazarite. The Nazir was described in the Book of Bamidbar (Chapter 6) as anyone, man or woman, who chose to be more religious, to take on an…