Over the years I have noticed so often that the most mediocre or the most flawed of individuals, or sometimes the most inappropriate or even downright bad, get into positions of authority and power, when far more able, appropriate or effective people are overlooked for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it’s just the way self-perpetuating oligarchies ensure they have “their”…
General Topics
Munich
Hillel saw a skull floating down the river. He said, “Because you drowned others, they drowned you, and those who drowned you will in turn be drowned.” This thought kept coming back to me during the Spielberg film Munich that is creating such a stir because of the way it portrays Israelis avenging the cold-blooded massacring of the Israeli Olympic…
It’s That Time of Year!
This is a very strange time of the year for those of us who are not Christians. We look on bemused as throughout the West all the tools of materialism are cranked up to panic point in the desperate quest for us to spend as much of our money as possible on buying, often totally unwanted and unappreciated, gifts. It…
Symbols
So the International Red Cross has voted to accept Israel as a member so long as Israel uses a diamond (with a Star inside) as its symbol. “Proper” religions like Christianity and Islam will use their Crosses and Crescents but all the rest have to make do with the diamond. Why am I not ecstatic? Obviously because the only honest…
Fools and Their Folly
Last week the Jewish Telegraph drew attention to an article published in The Dubliner, written by Justin Keating, a former minister in the Irish Government. In it he said, amongst other inanities, that: There is no link between the Jews of the Bible and Jews today. Most Jews today have no connection to those who went into exile two thousand…
Saints or Sinners
For those of us who take our Bible seriously, the narratives of Genesis are meant to be moral pointers to correct human behavior. If so, then it is very difficult to explain why our great forefathers did certain things. Or should I phrase it this way–Why did the Torah not edit out those uncomfortable incidents, if, as the Talmud in…