The way most of us pray today is very different to the way it was originally intended. What goes on in most Jewish “houses of prayer” of whatever community, denomination, sect, or form is usually far from an exciting, uplifting spiritual experience. According to Maimonides (Laws of Prayer Chapter 1:11), it remains a Torah obligation to relate to the Almighty…
Ridiculous Weddings
It has been a pleasurable part of my life as a rabbi to attend weddings. I have attended hundreds of weddings of various sizes, styles, numbers, and traditions. Some of course I have enjoyed more than others, and not a few have been the occasion of as much conflict, anger, and dispute, as happiness, love, and delight. But I am…
Real Artificial Protein?
For years there have been artificial substitutes for meat, most often soya based. Some have been edible, especially when mixed with other foodstuffs. But none so far has come near to satisfying passionate meat eaters. According to a recent report, real progress is being made to generate laboratory grown meat that tastes as good as the real thing without all…
The Shah: What Israel should learn from Iran (and Egypt and Syria and Lybia)
I have recently read “The Shah” by Abbas Milani 2011, and certain significant parallels strike me as very relevant today. As a senior army officer, Reza Shah Pahlavi ousted the old Qajar dynasty in 1925. He modelled himself on Kemal Ataturk and wanted to drag Iran out of the medieval grip of the Shia mullahs and transform Persia into a…
Selfie
The Oxford University Press is the nearest thing to an authoritative arbiter of the English language. English speakers, unlike the French, do not have an Academie to impose a centrally mandated straightjacket on language. Each year, however, they do decide on “Word of the Year.” This year it was “selfie” (or, as others claim, “selfy”). The word hit the news…
Nelson Mandela
I first became aware of Nelson Mandela in 1956. I was fourteen and a very disruptive teenager. My father was going on a fundraising tour of South Africa in support of Jewish education and he decided to take me with him in the hope of mitigating my rebelliousness. For much of the time, while my father was busy, I was…