From Chayei Sarah to the BBC The resignations of BBC Director-General Tim Davie and News CEO Deborah Turness mark a moment of reckoning. Their departure followed revelations that a Panorama documentary had edited a Donald Trump speech in a misleading way, and came amid deepening concern over the BBC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza. Jewish...
Between Heaven and Earth: A Dialogue In this week’s parasha, Abraham takes audacity to a new level. G-d informs him that he will destroy Sodom because of its wickedness and Abraham argues back! “Shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?” (Bereishit 18:25). Abraham doesn’t let go. The argument goes back and forth....
ABRAHAM AND SARAH’S FANCLUB When Abram and Sarai came to the land of Canaan, they didn’t come by themselves. They arrived with Lot, Abram’s nephew. They arrived with all their possessions. Then the verse adds: “and with the souls they had made in Charan.” (Bereishit 12:5). Rashi (in his second, peshat explanation) observes that the...
A KING’S VISIT This week King Charles visited Manchester, meeting members of the Heaton Park Synagogue after the Yom Kippur attack that claimed two lives. It was a brief encounter, yet it carried the weight of something larger – the moral presence of a leader standing beside a wounded community. The timing, in the week...
LET THERE BE LIGHT Every year, as we begin Bereishit, we stand again before the mystery of creation. The Torah opens not with a commandment, nor with the history of Israel, but with a vision of a universe coming into being through Divine speech: “Vayomer Elokim, Yehi Or — and God said, let there be light.” This...
