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...
TAKING THE ARBA MINIM The Arba Minim are taken every day of Succot, except on Shabbat. Whilst there is nothing intrinsically Shabbat-unfriendly about a Lulav, the rabbis of the Talmud decreed, that just like a shofar, a Lulav and Etrog are not taken on Shabbat. The concern is that individuals may carry their Lulav in...
NEVER STOP WALKING One of the greatest early Chassidic Masters was an individual of outstanding piety and humility, Reb Zusha of Hanipol (1718–1800). He wrote no books, yet his contribution to our spiritual history has been immense through his store of teachings and stories. He once said that he was not worried that on the...
ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse” [Devarim 11:26] The opening words of this week’s parasha have sparked much discussion. A nuance of the Hebrew is lost in translation. The verse begins with Re’eh—“See”—in the singular, as if addressing one person, and then...
