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...
RABBINIC PLATFORMING The late Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm, (d. 2020) head of Yeshiva University (whose yahrzeit fell last week) used to remark that he knew of only one joke in the Mishna: the statement that “rabbinic scholars increase peace in the world!” Yet, the late Rav Kook (d. 1935) addressed this question. He said it was not so much the men, as their method. The Mishna’s statement about peace refers to the approach of Torah study. Peace is obtained not by suppression of contrary views but by allowing them to be expressed and then having an intense discussion about them....
JUBILEE AND COMMUNITY This weekend is all about numbers! Of course, the number 70 is on everyone’s mind as we celebrate Her Majesty’s magnificent milestone. But this Shabbat we begin to read the Book of Numbers, which opens with the numbering of the Jewish people in the desert. This will not be the first time when we acknowledge a royal Jubilee in the synagogue. I recall the occasion when we held a special service at St John’s Wood Synagogue to mark the Queen’s golden Jubilee. That event was graced by the presence of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. On...
COUNT DOWN OR COUNT UP? This Shabbat will be the 42nd day of the Omer. Six of the seven weeks from Pesach to Shavuot will have passed. The Sefer HaChinuch (Spain 13th cent.) poses an obvious question. If the Omer count represents the time that the Israelites, having left Egypt, anticipated receiving the Torah on Mt Sinai, why do we count up? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to count down? 40 days until Shavuot…39, 38, 37… Maimonides (d.1204) compares the count to two people, deeply in love, who have been parted. They are anxiously counting off the days to when...
