On Sunday is the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. It is a minor fast that lasts from dawn to dusk and ushers in a period of mourning that leads up to the 9th of Av when we commemorate the loss of two Temples. These Three Weeks of mourning are an Ashkenazi custom. They are not mentioned in the Talmud and most Sephardim…
False Prophets
Shabbat Balak Friday June 25th Numbers Chapters 22-24. It seems strange that the whole Parsha we read this week should be named after a Midianite/Moabite King, Balak, and be devoted to a non-Jewish magician Bilam. Not only, but there was a suggestion (Talmud Brachot 12b) that the poem should have been recited with the Shema every single day. The only reason…
Religious Politics
The personal attacks on Naftali Bennet coming from the Charedi parties in Israel because he has been instrumental in excluding them from power and has stood up to their blackmail are disgusting. They offend every principle of Jewish morality. But it’s not surprising. This is why I am delighted they have been removed from positions in government in the latest…
Magic or Mysticism
Shabbat Chukat Friday, June 18th Numbers/Bamidbar 19-22 The idea of purity in the Torah is a very complex one. In Western society, we associate purity with physical purity. Impurity means dirty or unclean. But this is not how the Torah sees the idea. The Hebrew words are Tahor and Tamey are spiritual and mental states, not physical ones. Appropriate would be a better translation for the word Tahor, or…
Hate Signalling
I have added a PS on the Weekly Torah Reading. I have a love-hate relationship with the New York Review of Books. I love the range of articles and reviews on literature and culture. They provide me with a feast of information and ideas. But I hate the political biases of many of its writers. It might have the best…
Shabbat Korah
Parshat Korah ( Numbers 16-19). Shabbat in New York starts at 8.08 pm. Playing Politics When Korah and his group protested against Moses, they threw back at him the words he had used when confronted by Eldad and Medad who were prophesying outside the Tabernacle )Numbers Chapter 11). He said, “If only God would give everyone the gift of prophecy and His…