Nothing typifies the ambivalence of Jewish life today more than the famous Midrash that is repeated in the Talmud: Rebbi Shmuel Bar Nachman in the name of Rebbi Yonatan said, “[At the Red sea] the angels wanted to sing a song before the Holy One Blessed is He, but He rebuked them saying, ‘My handiwork is drowning in the sea…
General Topics
Cranmer
If you have not heard of Cranmer then you really ought to check him out. I do not mean Thomas Cranmer, the sixteenth century English politician and Archbishop of Canterbury who did Henry VIII’s bidding and was largely responsible for the process of transforming England from a Catholic into a Protestant country. You might say he campaigned for the power…
Negativity
Looking back at my posts over recent weeks, I am reminded of how easy it is to fall into the trap of feeling a victim. And inevitably, this feeling of being under attack distorts one’s perspective. Of course I respond to attacks on Jews. I defend our religion and I defend Israel when I feel the attacks are dishonest or…
Durban II
You may recall the scandalous “World Conference Against Racism” in Durban in 2001. United Nations initiated, funded, and promoted what turned into an unabashed, orchestrated orgy of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hatred. While humans were being murdered, raped, and discriminated against in most of the countries sitting on the Human Rights Council, the only aim was to vilify Israel and accuse…
Purim Now
We have always reinterpreted Biblical stories to suit changing times. One of my favorite examples of how fanciful it can become is the relatively modern “conceit” that the Ten Sons of Haman hint at or predict to the Ten Nazis sentenced to death at the trials at Nuremburg. Actually 12 were sentenced to death but Goering, who was said to…
Democraphobia
Intellectual and political fashions come and go. Enlightenment loosened the grip exercised by religious authority on free thought, but then in France the liberators became murderers. Nationalism destroyed the old European autocratic empires, but then nationalism proved to be a force for xenophobic evil and destruction. History came to an end according to the American, Fukayama, and then he changed…