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Gaza and Shoes

The incursion into Gaza is painful to witness. No human being of any degree of sensitivity can be unmoved in the face of human suffering, even when it is self-inflicted. No I do not approve of much of Israeli policy, but I simply cannot understand why, given its vulnerability, Gaza’s masters insist on provoking Israel into retaliation. I can only…

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Judah who?

Why is Judah Maccabee not mentioned in the Talmud? There are all sorts of reasons suggested. The Maccabee dynasty, with the exception of the remarkable Queen Shlomzion (Salome Alexandra) was strongly anti-rabbinic. The dynasty came to identify itself with the rich Sadducceean aristocracy, rather than the poorer Phariseean populace, whose leadership came to dominate post-destruction Judaism. It was Judah who…

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Life After Death

The Torah does not explicitly say there is life after death. Which seems strange given the tremendous significance all the surrounding the Middle Eastern cultures attached to the idea. Just think of the Greeks and Hades, the Egyptians and their Pyramids, and the Babylonian Ziggurats–all testaments to the significance of what they thought happened to the body after death. Not…

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Mumbai

The tragic massacre by Muslim fanatics, of innocents in the Chabad/Lubavitch House in Mumbai, reminds us of two things. “Hatred,” as the Talmud says, “distorts the mind,” and spews evil out randomly. And who but Chabad would have a centre in a place like Mumbai, hardly a hotbed of Jewish religious life. What more is there to be said about…

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Walk In The Park

I have often commented on how ridiculous it strikes me when I see soccer players running onto the field of play and cross themselves before engaging in battle. I feel exactly the same way about Muslim athletes bowing down to kiss the turf or the cinder track. And I guess Israeli sportsmen are only immune because they are virtually all…

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Brain Death

I wrote recently about the sad, premature death of a wonderful man I knew. He needed a lung transplant to survive. One was available. But the transplant could only work if the organs were removed while the brain-dead donor’s heart was still beating. Rabbinic authority in Israel was consulted and refused to allow removal before the heart stopped. Attempts were…

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