I would hazard a guess that some fifty percent of people who call themselves Jews, had no idea that last Sunday was the Tisha B’Av, Ninth of Av, much less fast. And I would go further and say that seventy percent have no idea that today is the festival of Tu B’Av, the Fifteenth of Av. A date in the Jewish calendar that…
Messianism and the Fast of Av
Regardless of how well or badly Jews have integrated into their host societies, in each generation, they have fasted over the two destructions of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE and 70 CE. And have prayed to be able to return. But there remains a division between those Jews who see the return as a miraculous manifestation of Messianism…
Universalism
The three weeks from the Seventeenth of Tammuz until the Ninth of Av, have for thousands of years been a period of mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, twice. First by Babylonia in 586 BCE and then by Rome in 70 CE. This period will culminate after the Ninth of Av which this year will be the…
Trades Unions
In my rebellious youth, I always supported Trades Unions. The record of how the world, in general, has treated workers is not a good one. Although the first Unions were founded at the end of the eighteenth century, in many ways treatment of workers deteriorated in the West, dramatically, during and after the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. Employers putting…
Zealotry
Nowadays, aggression seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Especially when it comes to political issues and identities. The aspect of aggression I dislike most is zealotry. It is often excused as simply the result of passionate commitment. And commitment sometimes is very necessary. But in practice, it is too often no more than thuggery. There is just…
Kopul Rosen and The Eichmann Trial
A few weeks ago, I mentioned the Netflix film “The Trial of Adolph Eichmann” and a brief clip of my late father Kopul Rosen speaking in a BBC panel that appeared in it. The clip was of a short response my father gave to the question of whether the trial might increase anti-Semitism, to which he reacted with characteristic scorn. …