The Festival of Sucot doubles up as the Festival of Ecology. Yes, indeed. You might think that ecology is a modern notion. But there are very specific laws in the Torah about treating the agricultural world with respect and consideration; about not destroying fruit trees or needlessly laying waste even under battle conditions. Scorched Earth is not a biblical tactic. And there…
Honey
As we approach Rosh Hashanah, and think of dipping our apples into honey in the hope of a sweet year, it’s a good time to talk about honey itself. Honey has many benefits. It cures, it is hallucinogenic and of course, it is sweet. Xenophon of Athens was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. He died in 354 BCE. He tells the story…
King Charles 3rd
Carmel College was a Jewish Public School my late father had founded in England in 1948. I had the honor to be its headmaster and then Principal from 1971 -1984. We celebrated our 25th anniversary (a year late) in 1974. And 25-year-old Prince Charles as he was then, spent a day with us on our beautiful Thames side campus in Oxfordshire.…
New Moon
There was a popular Israeli song in the forties that my father loved, and he taught his pupils at Carmel College We always used to sing it at the last Shabbat meal of the academic year. “Hayamim Cholfim, Shana Overet, VeRak haManginah Tamid Nisheret,” “The days go by, the years pass on, and only the tune remains.” And we naughty pupils…
Kissinger: Good or Bad?
Whatever you may think of Henry Kissinger, he has been the most influential secular Jew by birth (outside Israel), in world affairs in recent times. Regardless of the merits of the cases for and against, there is no doubt that he equaled many of the achievements (and compromises) of the Court Jews of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Both because of…
Jewish Valentine’s Day
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…