HEAVY LIFTING One of the most striking visual images in the Bible is found in the second portion of this week’s parasha. Jacob arrives at Charan. He sees shepherds gathered at a well with a large boulder covering its opening. He notices that they won’t be able to remove the rock themselves, until more shepherds...
DON’T BE A PHILISTINE To call someone a philistine today is to label them as indifferent to culture and the arts. [The usage seems to have originated from a conflict between the cultured university students and the townspeople in 17th century Jenna, Germany.] The original Philistines are referred to in this week’s parasha. We encounter...
LIVING THE GOOD LIFE The first verse of our parasha seems unnecessarily repetitive in its use of the word,‘years’: “And Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years and seven years, the years of Sarah’s lifetime.”(Bereishit 23:1) Our major commentator, Rashi (d. 1105) makes an observation that, at first glance, strains credulity. He says: The...
JONATHAN SACKS’ LEGACY This coming week, on 20th Marcheshvan, is the first yahrzeit of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z”l. At shul we are holding an evening of learning, music, and words of inspiration in his memory this Wednesday, 27th October. Please join us in this tribute to him. He passed away on the Shabbat of...
ABRAHAM AND SARAH’S DISCIPLES 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 12:25.) Rashi (in his second explanation) observes that the straightforward...
AVERTING THE FLOOD At the end of this month the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, will be held in Glasgow. Postponed from 2020, it is regarded by many as possibly the last chance the world has to take coordinated action on the threat of climate change. The biblical precedent for a world-wide climate crisis...
THE HOME WE BUILD TOGETHER Act One, Scene 1 – “In the beginning.” The drama of Bereishit, of creation, never fails to stir the imagination. Act One, Scene 2. In seventeen weeks’ time, we will read of a second act of creation: the Israelites are to create a Tabernacle or portable home for G-d that...
BE YOURSELF When we want to emphasise something in Hebrew, we often repeat the word, rather than say ‘very’. Sometimes we do so in English. We might say: “Emma Raducanu played a great, great tennis match,” though it would be more usual to say: “she played a very great tennis match!” In this week’s parasha,...
GROWING WITH OUR CHILDREN Jewish parenting. What could an event in the bible that took place every seven years have to say about that? This week’s parasha, tells us about Hakhel, or the national assembly of the people which took place during the Succot after the Shemitta or Sabbatical year. “At the end of every...
THE FOURTEENTH PRINCIPLE OF FAITH During 2020, I lost not only my dear friend Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, but also, earlier in the year, I lost the teacher he and I shared, Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch. Jonathan Sacks wrote that even though he had studied at Oxford and Cambridge with some of the leading intellects of...
