I am pleased that Shimon Peres is to be the president of Israel. Yes, I’d have preferred a religious Jew who could also have represented the spiritual greatness of our people, though I confess I don’t know that many rabbis who would have fitted the bill. But it’s nice to have someone at the top (even if it is symbolically)…
Blood Libels
The 20th of Sivan, this week, is the anniversary of the Blood Libel at Blois in France in 1171, when the Jewish community of about 40 people (at a time when the total Jewish population of France was no more than a few thousand) was massacred. Half were burnt to death singing the Aleynu prayer as they perished. The great…
Ghetto Life
I am always surprised that whenever I am critical, no matter what the subject, some of my readers assume that I am depressed. So let me admit that this piece is indeed influenced by spending time in one of the world’s great ghettos, Antwerp. But I hope you won’t think this another “angry” piece. In purely material terms, life here…
Why?
In reference to my post “Am I A Believer?”, several readers have told me that the most troubling issue is less belief, but more what actually happens, or is allowed to happen, on earth. To make matters worse it is religion that is often the cause of much of our suffering. Of course we must separate religion and what humans…
Hatikva
For as long as deep in the innermost heartA Jewish soul stirsIt is towards the East and to Zion that the eye longingly looks. We have not yet lost our hopeThe hope of two thousand yearsTo be a free nation in our landIn the Land of Zion and Jerusalem. These are the English words of the Hatikvah (blame me for…
Am I A Believer?
It is a fundamental of most religions that there is a God who has created and runs our universe. But, in the Bible, which really is a book about God and His intervention in human affairs, there is no actual command that is worded, “You must believe in God.” And in a way this makes wonderful sense. You can encourage…