IN THE SAME BOAT A group of people were travelling in a boat. One of them took a drill and began to drill a hole beneath his seat. His friends said to him: “What on earth are you doing?” The man replied: “Why does it concern you? I’m only drilling under my own place” They...
INTRODUCING LOT What do you know about Lot, the nephew of Abraham? Lot was the son of Abraham’s brother, Haran, who joined Abraham and Sarah on their epic journey to an unknown land. Our Sages point out that it was to Lot’s credit that when Abraham told the Egyptian border officials that Sarah was his...
THE LIGHT OF THE UNIVERSE Have you heard of BOAT? I read about it this week BOAT is an acronym for Brightest Of All Time. It is the name that has been given to the biggest cosmic explosion ever detected, that occurred on 9th October. It seems to have been the result of a massive...
OF SERPENTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA As we start the drama of Creation, it is always worth remembering that the Torah speaks to us and about us. Let us set the scene: Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Did the serpent lie? In the account in the parasha, the serpent cunningly says to...
The Broken Etrog – by Rabbi Mendel Cohen It had been a difficult year. Poor weather, dangerous travel conditions and high tariffs had made it almost impossible for the Jews of Ukraine to import etrogim (citrons) for the holiday of Sukkot. The etrogim—waved together with the lulav bundle every Sukkot after the recitation of special blessings—were...
PARENT AND TEACHER The Times reported this week that more than 700,000 people have fled Russia, to avoid the military draft. This calls to my mind an earlier era of refuseniks – Jews who were denied permission to leave the Soviet Union for Israel. Under communism, it was forbidden to teach Torah. An underground network...
GO FOR GROWTH In my Rosh HaShana sermon I quoted the well-known story of the Chassidic Master, Zusha of Hanipol (1718-1800), who said that he was not worried that on the Day of Judgement they will ask him: “Zusha, why weren’t you like Moses? Zusha, why weren’t you like King David?” “I will reply: ‘I’m...
