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| Home » Writings, Speeches, Broadcasts » Thought for the Day » 2001 |
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| Chanukah |
| 10/12/2001 |
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Thought For The Day - 10 December 2001
Today is the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. And I want to tell the story of the festival, because of what it tells us about our post 11 September world.
Hanukkah happened some two centuries before the birth of Christianity. Israel was then under the rule of the empire of Alexander the Great. A ruler came to power - Antiochus IVth - who was determined to impose his values on the Jewish people. He forbade the public practic... |
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| Peace |
| 3/12/2001 |
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Thought For The Day - 03 December 2001
In the middle of Jerusalem, there's a little street, a pedestrian precinct, full of restaurants and coffee bars. It's one of my favourite spots in the city, and I visit it most times I'm there. On Saturday nights, it's full of young people out for a drink after the Sabbath has ended. And it was there, just after midnight this Saturday that two suicide bombers struck, and then a car bomb, leaving 10 people dead and 180 injured. And as Elaine and I ... |
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| Cloning |
| 26/11/2001 |
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Thought For The Day - 26 November 2001
Yesterday's news that an American team has succeeded in cloning a human embryo gives added drama to a debate that will take place this week in Parliament. Emergency legislation is being put forward to ban human reproductive cloning in this country. And although the Americans deny that they'll use the new technique to clone a baby, an Italian doctor has said that he aims to do just that.
Reproductive cloning means trying to do for humans what Dr... |
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| Sukkot / Tabernacles |
| 1/10/2001 |
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Thought For The Day - 1 October 2001
This evening, we begin the Jewish festival of Sukkot, known in English as Tabernacles. It's a simple festival. We take a palm branch, a citron, and some leaves of myrtle and willow, to remind ourselves of nature's powers of survival during the coming dark days of winter. And we sit in a sukkah, the tabernacle itself, which is just a shed, a shack, open to the sky, with just a covering of leaves for a roof. It's our annual reminder of how vulne... |
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