I was very much in favor of going into Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein and his nest of sadistic, genocidal, lunatics. Not because of his pathological hatred for Israel, but simply for humanitarian reasons, because of the way he was decimating Marsh Arabs, Kurds and Shiites, not to mention Iranians. At the time I was strongly against the Coalition tactics…
Reformative Judaism
I often attack the inconsistencies and abuses of Orthodox Judaism. But I must say, sometimes our problems do seem to pale into insignificance compared to those of other denominations! There was a time when Reform Judaism was the largest and most dynamic branch of Judaism in the United States of America. This was at a time when the movers and…
When is kosher kosher?
It is often said that a person is what he eats. Then I guess a person’s attitude to matters of food must say a lot about his religion. It is one of the great features of Judaism as a religion that it creates a framework for daily living that involves thinking and acting rather than just affirming vague ethical ideas…
Great Leaders?
Very few Jews, let alone others, have heard of him. A few weeks ago Dayan Eliezer Waldenberg, the author of the magisterial compilation of legal opinions, Tzitz Eliezer, died at the age of 89. He was, in my opinion the greatest living authority on Jewish Law with particular reference to science and medicine. He was my halachic mentor. But more…
Gay Israel
This week, the Israeli daily, Haaretz reported: In a precedent-setting ruling, the High Court of Justice yesterday ruled that five gay couples who wed outside of Israel can be registered as married couples in the Population Registry. A majority of six justices to one ruled that the Interior Ministry would have to register five gay couples as married based on…
Agunah Again
It has been a while since I last wrote about one of the subjects that really concerns and troubles me, the Agunah. An Agunah (literally, the tied/encircled woman, see Ruth 1.13) is a woman whose husband refuses to give her a divorce, or is unable to (perhaps he has been killed or kidnapped but more usually he’s just being a…