I am amazed that so many Americans are enamored with the British Monarchy and with its least impressive of its scions who hog the headlines precisely because of their limitations. How interesting that so many royals are seduced by actresses! When I was the Principal of Carmel College in 1973, we hosted Prince Charles for the day to celebrate our 25th anniversary.…
General Topics
The Igbo Jews
Please scroll down after the blog for my Weekly Torah. In 1960 Nigeria gained independence from the United Kingdom. As with many new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect earlier ethnic, cultural, religious, or political realities. Their boundaries were lines drawn on maps by the colonial powers who arbitrarily carved up Africa with no regard for…
Synagogues
It is only a month to the “Days of Awe,” the Yamim Noraim. Actually, I have no idea where the term High Holidays comes from. But each year I am faced with a conundrum. Do I go to a synagogue as a rabbi to perform or as a private person to pray? I don’t find most synagogues particularly good places to pray…
A Chosen People
I dislike the expression “The Chosen People”. It is not that I have any problem with the idea that different peoples may have different missions and cultures that are unique to them. It is just that I do not believe that this endows them with any automatic superiority. The idea of “The Chosen People” long predates Judaism. Every early power and…
Uncritical Race Theory
Let me say at the outset that Critical Race Theory is a dangerous, completely unsubstantiated pseudo theory of race that has now become dogma in academia. It, along with the equally false theory of Intersectionality, are the most serious threats to the sanity and unity of the United States since the Civil War. They are responsible for the current woke idea that the…
Shabbat Shalom
Devarim/Deuteronomy Friday, July 16th Chapters 1-4. We start the last book of the Torah this week with an opening speech that Moshe delivers to the people just before he is going to die, and they are about to enter Canaan. It is a recapitulation in prose and poetry of the events and laws of the past forty years. In it,…