An Oxford University Professor, Lawrence Goldman, together with Sir Lloyd Dorfman and other influential alumni, have suggested the British government should intervene because they believe that Oxford University has lost its moral compass in accepting money from tainted sources. In this case, the twelve million pounds comes from the inheritance left by Max Mosley’s father, Oswald Mosley, the leader of the…
General Topics
The Case for King David
All major Biblical personalities are described as being imperfect beings. It was not until the challenges of other religions deifying their founders, that Judaism followed suit. In the Talmud, some claimed that men like King David were saints in a rabbinic mold. “Whoever said that King David sinned, is mistaken” (TB Shabbat 56a). David certainly was a complex character. Weren’t…
Forced Conversions
As we come to the end of Chanukah, apart from the heroics, there is another side to the Hasmoneans I am not particularly proud of. To be specific, it is their propensity for forced circumcision and conversion. In those days, two and a half thousand years ago, victorious armies, in addition to massacring defeated people, sometimes branded the losing army and…
Why Celebrate Chanukah?
For some, Chanukah is just a Jewish answer to Xmas. But why do we make such a fuss of it? Isn’t it just glorifying militarism? Two thousand, three hundred years ago, the Jewish people, whether in Babylon or Jerusalem, had been allowed to continue their religious traditions, unhampered. So long as they were loyal to the overriding political authority of…
Discipline
We live at a time when discipline is regarded as a bad word and a destructive educational policy. Such an idea is allied to the ideology that competition is unhealthy, and meritocracy is bad. Is there a Jewish response to this? Judaism’s primary sources all stress that every human being, no matter what race or color, however intelligent or gifted, however…
A man of substance
I love to get feedback. Even when it is critical. Given the range of human opinions that’s hardly surprising. But there is one criticism I feel the need to respond to. Why do I sometimes quote or pass on opinions from people I often disagree with on many other issues? A recent example was Melanie Philips whom I admire for…