Human beings have always told lies. The purpose of lies, of course, is to try to cover up truth. It is just that some lies, under certain conditions, are considered less morally evil than others. All ethical systems have grappled with whether it is ever permissible to lie, and they have come up with range of possibilities, such as white…
General Topics
New Book – Commitment and Controversy: Living in Two Worlds. Collected essays and blogs
I have been blogging for ten years to my “select” audience, on anything that tickled my fancy or felt appropriate in any week. Sometimes the blogs were theological, sometimes political, often historical, or even serendipitous. It wasn’t always clear if I was flying a kite. Sometimes my readers thought I was angry, when I was just sad at the abuses…
Bad Decisions
“Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana was not referring to Israel, but he might have been. When all is said and done, the fast of Tisha B’Av, the Ninth Day of Av, is a fast that symbolizes and commemorates bad decisions. The Israelites were always very good at that. The wonder is that…
Napoleon
A few weeks ago we had the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, the one which finally ended Napoleon’s career. My history teacher made us read Pieter Geyl’s “Napoleon For and Against”, which illustrated the two opposing opinions as to whether Napoleon was good or bad, and I learnt you do not always have to decide one way or…
Divine Supervision
I have always felt that in a democracy it should not be the role of a state to impose personal religious practices on its citizens. Any state bureaucracy tends to become corrupt and atrophies. Its employees become pen-pushers, placeholders concerned with protecting their positions, perks, and powers. So it is with religious bureaucracies like the Vatican. One sees this too…
Christians in Zion
Recent reports that some Charedi Jews disrupted a Christian mass on Mount Zion really upset me. When insensitive bullies who dress as and proclaim their obedience to Judaism treat Christians disrespectfully, especially those wishing to worship, they themselves are proving how far they fall short of Jewish values. The Jerusalem Post reported that “hundreds of Jewish protesters sought on Sunday…