STAR PERFORMER The magnificent images from the James Webb Space telescope, released this week, have been breathtaking to behold. We can now see, in crisp detail, stars and galaxies that are billions of light years away. These images were a mere blur in the previous best system, the Hubble Telescope. Now a spectacular amount of detail has been thrown into focus. A dawn of a new era of astronomy has begun. For thousands of years, man has been gazing up at the stars. In the bible, G-d tells Abraham to look at the stars and says to him: “This is...

WHEN A LEADER ERRS IN JUDGEMENT As I write these words, the Prime Minister has just announced his resignation. As support whittled away, Boris Johnson found himself in office but not in power. The cumulative effect of a number of errors of judgement made his position no longer tenable. Even the greatest leaders are vulnerable to errors of judgement. In this week’s parasha, the people are dying of thirst. G-d tells Moses to take the staff and speak to the rock to provide water. This would have been a powerful demonstration of G-d’s concern for His people’s needs. Instead, rather...

TOPPLING A LEADER How do you topple a leader? What is the best tactic to use in order to create a takeover without the use of force? On the face of it, Korach, in this week’s parsha, has adopted a very smart tactic. When he makes his bid to be leader of the Jewish people, he doesn’t assert that he is wiser, richer or more powerful than Moses. He simply says: “All the community are holy. What right do you have to assert yourself over the rest of us?” (Bemidbar 16: 3.) In one sense, Korach is right. We are...

CATCH 22? When Joseph Heller published his novel, Catch 22, in 1961, he hadn’t realized how quickly his title would become a catch phrase. What started as an illogical rule in army bureaucracy, soon came to include any situation where a a person can’t escape because of contradictory limitations Moses is faced with a Catch 22 situation at the beginning of the parasha. The Children of Israel are advancing to the Promised Land. In the book of Devarim (1:22) we read they approach Moses with a request: Can we send out spies to reconnoitre the land? Moses now faces a...

AI AND THE MENORAH The scenario is the Tabernacle or Temple. The Kohanim are getting their instructions on how to light the golden Menorah. They are told: Beha’alotcha, “when you cause to rise up.” When lighting the Menorah the Kohen needed to hold his taper to the wicks until the lamps could burn independently. What applies to lamps applies to Jewish souls. The challenge of a parent, teacher, rabbi/rebbetzen or educator is to light the flame of Jewish identity in another until that person can grow and develop self-sufficiently – “burning independently.” But let me pose a contemporary question. Should...