One of the most disturbing features of the pandemic has been the behavior of huge swathes of the Charedi community across the globe. There have thank goodness, been exceptions. Rabbis of significant standing who have insisted their communities obey the laws of the land and limit public gatherings and services even at a cost to religious observance. But there are…
General Topics
Sucot and the World
Rituals, laws, and customs exist to reinforce the fact that ideas are all very well, but we need actions to bring about change within ourselves and the world at large. We are individual organisms that think and feel. But we are not alone. The family, the Mishpacha, is crucial and often emphasized in the Torah. It provides love, support, protection, nurturing, and…
What’s the point of fasting?
Here are some of my thoughts on the significance of Yom Kipur. Rosh Hashanah inaugurates the Ten Days of Repentance, the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah. But repentance is only a process that leads up to Atonement. Although one can atone at any time during the year, there is something special about Yom Kipur. It creates a unique atmosphere of solemnity, sadness, and regret. …
Repentance
We are in the season of repentance. But what actually does repentance mean? What does it do? If repentance is intended to change us, make us better people, it does not appear to work. I have never noticed that after the Ten Days of Repentance (note, not the ten days of Atonement) are over, anyone seems to have changed in any…
Rabbis and Politics
Rabbis should stay out of politics! Here we go again with this nonsense. This may sound strange coming from me. I have consistently deplored religious politics and the negative, destructive influence that rabbis and religious parties have on Israeli life. But I believe there is a difference between party politics and political issues. In Britain, there was always a convention…
Betrayal
The culture wars are raging around us. Anything or one who is unacceptable to the Culture Police is to be banned, silenced, and censored. Any writer or artist from the past who lived in a different era, with its different norms, must now be removed from politically correct syllabuses. Even as radical a thinker as Steven Pinker, best-selling Harvard professor whom…