TRAGEDY AND HOPE Two deaths deeply affected me this week The first was the brutal death of George Floyd. The second was the tragic passing of Rabbi Dr Norman Lamm, former President of Yeshiva University, New York. The way George Floyd was killed demonstrated the dehumanisation that racism brings about, that is at large in American society. As Jews, we know, only too well, what it is to be the victims of racism, and our hearts go out to George’s family. I hope and pray that the outpouring of emotion we have seen, will lead to the road of healing...

Thoughts on Shavuot Torah from Heaven The revelation at Mount Sinai was not just a religious event. It was a political event of a unique kind. It was the birth of a nation. Throughout Genesis, the heirs of Abraham had been an extended family. At the beginning of Exodus we hear them for the first time described as an am, a “people.” Pharaoh says, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are too many and powerful for us” (Ex. 1: 9). What made them a people were many things. There was kinship: they were all descendants of Jacob. There...

MISSION ALERT Earlier this week, was the tenth yahrzeit of Lady Amelie Jakobovits or Lady J as she was affectionally called. Those who remember this remarkable personality would surely agree that she would have brought her unique perspective to bear in dealing with coronavirus pandemic! Her father was the distinguished Rabbi Elie Munk of Paris who wrote an insightful (French) commentary to the chumash that has been translated into in English, The Call of the Torah. In his remarks at the beginning of the book of Bamidbar, Numbers that we begin this week, Rabbi Munk makes a pertinent observation He...