WHO IS HOLY? When Korach makes a 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 described as a holy nation. As members of the Jewish people, we each share in that intrinsic holiness. If that is the case, then it is wrong for one individual or group of individuals to have unelected rights over all...

CATCH 22? The recent TV adaptation of Catch 22 is receiving good reviews. Joseph Heller, in his original 1961 novel, coined the term, Catch 22, to refer to a paradoxical situation where a person can’t escape because of contradictory limitations. The phrase very quickly entered public discourse. Moses is faced with a Catch 22 situation at the beginning of the sidra. The Children of Israel are advancing to the Promised Land. As is apparent from the account in Devarim 1:22, they approach Moses with the request that they send out spies to reconnoitre the land. Moses is faced with a...

THE SEVEN BOOKS OF MOSES This week, we are into Beha’alotcha, the third sidra of the fourth book of the Torah, the book of Numbers or Bemidbar. Yet there is a passage in the Talmud (Shabbat 116a) that states that there are not just five books of the Torah, but seven. The extra two are found in this week’s sidra. If you look inside a Sefer Torah, you will see that two verses, 10:35-36, are enclosed by two inverted nuns. The verses are very familiar. They are said whenever the Ark is opened to take out the Sefer Torah and...

WAGON WISDOM With the race now on to see who will become the next leader of the Conservative Part and the next Prime Minister, the challenge for every candidate will be how to unite the party and the country and to heal the wounds of the Brexit campaign. The words of Abraham Lincoln in his Second Inaugural (quoted by Rabbi Lord Sacks in his recent Newsnight interview) are particularly pertinent: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; …let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds…” A powerful symbolic message emerges...

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 was culture: they...

HOW HIGH? The late Rabbi Dr. Louis Rabinowitz (1906-1984, Chief Rabbi of South Africa,) was once arriving in Israel and he saw them unload from the El Al plane two coffins that had been flown to Israel for burial. As the coffins were being carefully moved he later recalled: “At that moment I understood the meaning of the phrase in our morning prayers, Vetolichenu Komemiyut Le’artzenu – ‘bring us upright to our land.’ We pray that G-d grant us the opportunity to come to Israel komemiyut, upright- alive and well, rather than in a box!” The word komemiyut is used...

STRONG HOUSES Continuing uncertainty over Brexit arrangements have led to stagnations in Britain’s property market. In biblical times, over and above economic conditions, there were Torah restrictions in buying and selling land and houses in perpetuity. In summary: Land should not be sold unless there is dire need. Land sold may be redeemed after two years by the vendor or his relatives. Land not redeemed automatically reverts back to the original owner with the onset of the Jubilee (50th) year. An exception is the sale of a house in a walled city. Here the situation is almost in the reverse:...

A MEETING OF MOADIM Much of this week’s portion is familiar to us as Parshat HaMoadim, the festival leining for the second of Pesach and the first two days of Succot. The special times, beginning with Shabbat and continuing with Pesach, Omer, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succot and Shemini Atzeret are listed and described. The word, Moed, is related to the word, Vaad, committee or assembly. It is effectively an appointment in time for meeting with G-d, much as the Ohel Moed, the Tent of Meeting or Tabernacle, was a meeting-point in space. There is a Moed of a...

BIODIVERSITY This week, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) issued an alarming report. Hundreds of thousands of different species of animals and plants are facing extinction because of human activity. Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history — and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely. The appreciation of the importance of biodiversity can be seen as we look carefully into the underlying idea behind a verse in this week’s parsha. There are a series of laws which deal with the intermingling of species: Do...

WHAT MAKES AN ITEM SPECIAL? This week witnessed the beginning of the enthronement of Naruhito as the new Emperor of Japan. What was striking was the simplicity of the ritual. In contrast to the coronation of a British Sovereign where fabulous jewels are part of the pomp and ceremony, unadorned wrapped boxes, containing a wooden scepter, a stone-bead necklace etc. were brought before the new Emperor. It was obvious that for the Japanese, it wasn’t the intrinsic worth of the emblems that was important. It was the fact that they are associated with their history which can claim to be...