FOUR FACES OF LEADERSHIP What does it take to lead under Covid times – or indeed at any times? What are key qualities that are needed by a Prime Minister or President, Chief Medical Officer or Head of NASA’s Mars Perseverance Team, home-schooling parent or community Rabbi? Our mystical text, the Zohar, uncovers a key...
WHOLE AND BROKEN Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair spoke very movingly at one of the memorial events for the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. He mentioned how they had studied bible together. I recall Rabbi Lord Sacks once recounting a question that Tony Blair had asked him: Why is there so much detail in the...
GOING THROUGH THE DOOR There is a curious law that is described at the beginning of our parasha. A Hebrew slave who had served his six-year term and was entitled to go free but chose to stay with his master, was required to have his ear pierced. After the judges decided that this genuinely was...
CALL UP THE FROG(S) The second of the ten plagues, frogs, commences in this week’s parasha with the words: Vata’al HaTzefarde’a Vetchas Et Eretz Mitzrayim (Shemot 8:2) Literally, this means: “The ‘frog’ came up and it covered the land of Egypt.” Hebrew, like English, will sometimes use a word that can have both a singular...
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL EGYPTIANS 13th century BCE: Moses leaves the comfort of the royal palace and goes out for himself to see the condition of his fellow Israelites under Egyptian slavery. He is shocked to discover that an Egyptian Taskmaster is beating a Hebrew slave for apparently no reason. To his horror, the slave is...
FOOD FOR THOUGHT One of our most important responsibilities as intelligent human beings is to identify the cause and effect of the decisions we take. Sometimes it takes a David Attenborough to draw to our attention how our disposal of plastic is having a deleterious effect on our environment. Yet matters are not always as...
LIFE’S CHALLENGE – A LESSON FROM RABBI LORD SACKS At the end of the sidra we read how Joseph found himself in prison together with the Pharaoh’s baker and butler. One morning the men awoke, disturbed by dreams they had the night before. Joseph offered to listen and attempt to interpret the dreams. The butler...
This coming Sunday marks the Shloshim of Rabbi Lord Sacks, Moreh Morenu HaRav, R. Ya’akov Zvi ben R. David Arieh, zecher tzaddik livracha. A major tribute is being broadcast on Sunday at 7.00 pm, (www.RabbiSacks.org/shloshim) which include contributions from leading figures in the Jewish and non-Jewish world (including HRH the Prince of Wales). The event...
CREATING HOLINESS One lesser known facet of Rabbi Lord Sacks z”l was his extensive knowledge of music, both classical and modern. We were once discussing that the word, sulam in Jacob’s dream, is translated more accurately as a stairway than a ladder. “Oh, you mean like Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven!” When Jacob wakes up,...
LETTING THEM KNOW THAT WE LOVE THEM The sidra begins by telling us that Isaac and Rebecca were childless and that they prayed for a child. “And Isaac prayed to Hashem opposite his wife, for she was barren” (Bereishit 25:21). Rashi (d. 1105), explains that Isaac and Rebecca stood in opposite corners of the room...
