To be a Jew is to read. To learn, to study, to exercise the mind in pursuit of God and truth, is the holiest act. The Talmud, in a passage that dazzlingly illustrates the world of the sages, tells of a certain Rav Hamnuna who was taking a long time over his prayers and [...]
This week’s parsha of Vayetze contains much about family relationships and conflict. Jacob, in love with Rachel, is forced by Laban, his uncle, to work the land for seven years to receive her hand in marriage. However, when the time comes for marriage, Jacob is deceived by Laban, who forces him to marry Leah [...]
Among the memories I cherish of an unforgettable Olympic summer was the way 70,000 volunteers transformed the mood of London, turning it for a while into a more gracious place. Helpful, courteous, smiling, they seemed to symbolise the better angels of our nature. Members of my local synagogue who volunteered told me what a [...]
Sukkot, or Tabernacles, is the most joyous of all the festivals. We call it the ‘season of our rejoicing’. And like Pesach much of the celebration lies in the preparation. For a week, we leave the security of our houses and live in huts or booths to remind us of the tabernacles in which [...]
Yom Kipper, the Day of Atonement, is the supreme moment of Jewish time, a day of fasting and prayer, introspection and self-judgement. At no other time are we so sharply conscious of standing before God of being known. But it begins in the strangest of ways. Kol Nidrei, the prayer which heralds the evening [...]
There are banks and accountants to tell us how to invest our money. Judaism tells us how to invest our time. That, according to the Rambam (Maimonides d.1204), is what Rosh Hashanah is about. The shofar, he says, is G-d’s wake-up call. Without it, we can sleepwalk through life, wasting time on things that are urgent but not important, or [...]
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a kind of clarion call, a summons to the Ten Days of Penitence which culminate in the Day of At0nement. The Torah calls it ‘the day when the horn is sounded’, and its central event is the sounding of the shofar, the ram’s horn. More than any [...]
The month of Av is the saddest in the Jewish year, and Tisha b’Av the saddest day. On it the two Temples were destroyed, the first in 586 BCE by the Babylonians, the second in 70 CE by the Romans. It is also the day on which Betar – the last stronghold of the [...]