We often witness the insensitivity and negativity of rabbis who seem unaware of the damage they can do when they claim to be upholding Jewish Law. The most recent case concerns Jewish Divorce. In recent years civil courts in the UK ( and the USA) have legislated to help wives whose husbands refused to give them a religious divorce, a Get.…
General Topics
The Khazars
Before I get to my weekly blog, I owe the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom an apology on two counts. First of all because after my stinging blog last week about refusing to allow Dr. Taylor Guthartz to teach at the London School of Jewish studies, he reversed his decision. That takes guts, strength, and humility. But much more…
Women Rabbis, again!
What is it about Chief Rabbis? Perfectly nice, intelligent human beings, yet when they get to be Chief Rabbis their spines turn to jelly. Once again, a British Chief Rabbi has put his foot in it, or rather, got into an unnecessary fight in which there are no winners, and a little common sense might have averted making fools out…
Why Another Fast?
On Sunday is the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz. It is a minor fast that lasts from dawn to dusk and ushers in a period of mourning that leads up to the 9th of Av when we commemorate the loss of two Temples. These Three Weeks of mourning are an Ashkenazi custom. They are not mentioned in the Talmud and most Sephardim…
Religious Politics
The personal attacks on Naftali Bennet coming from the Charedi parties in Israel because he has been instrumental in excluding them from power and has stood up to their blackmail are disgusting. They offend every principle of Jewish morality. But it’s not surprising. This is why I am delighted they have been removed from positions in government in the latest…
Hate Signalling
I have added a PS on the Weekly Torah Reading. I have a love-hate relationship with the New York Review of Books. I love the range of articles and reviews on literature and culture. They provide me with a feast of information and ideas. But I hate the political biases of many of its writers. It might have the best…