“ Is it true that if I donate an organ to another person I will not be allowed to be buried and go to heaven?” When I recovered from the shock of being asked this question after a Shabbat morning service, I asked the young person, a student at one of the best Orthodox Jewish Day schools in New York, where…
General Topics
Origins of Orthodoxy
I have just read Jacob Katz: On the Origins of Orthodoxy. It is an important collection of articles by and about the late Professor Katz, transcripts of interviews, as well as a bibliography. Edited by Giti Bendheim, Menachem Butler, Jay M. Harris, Uriel Katz and published by Shikey Press. This book is to be recommended both because of Professor Katz’s importance as…
Talmud for Dummies
I do not waste my time on TikTok ( indeed I have all but cut myself off from any social media simply to save my time for more important things). But now and again someone sends me a clip, usually for amusement. One I received recently was of a pretty young lady called Miriam Anzovin who delivers herself of a highly amusing…
Gerontocracy
Old age, Senior Citizens, Geriatrics are all rather pejorative terms for people who have reached a certain age or stage in their lives. Like me! Shakespeare’s famous description of the stages of humanity is in “As You Like It.” Human beings go through seven stages from infancy to old age, dotage, and death. “The Last scene of all that ends…
Time
We have just celebrated another New Year. I was not specifically thinking of 2022, although that too. Or of Tu BiShvat, the Fifteenth Day of the Month of Shevat. The New Year for Trees. One of four different New Years as recorded in the Talmud ( Rosh Hashana ). Why are there so many New Years? Which got me thinking about…
Do Not Trust Princes
I was born during the Second World War when it seemed that Hitler was going to conquer the world. Of course, had he, I would not be here today. I grew up during the Cold War when we fully expected Russia to drop a bomb on us. The powerful Stalinist Soviet Union challenged the West both ideologically and militarily. The…