The history of the Jewish people is replete with descriptions of Jews who hated themselves for being born Jewish and who therefore hated Judaism, other Jews and many times humankind generally. These self-haters were traditionally recognized in the Jewish world as being traitors and as a danger to Jewish survival. In the Bible we read of such people as Ravshakeh, the Jewish, Hebrew-speaking,...
I have had to spend considerable time over the past few weeks with my father who was taken ill and was being treated in a local Jerusalem hospital. Having been a community and synagogue rabbi for decades, I am no stranger to visiting hospitals and patients. Yet, this latest experience of visiting the hospital a number of times every day taught me a lesson, viscerally and emotionally, that I had...
June is traditionally the month of marriages in the Western world and judging by the number of wedding invitations that my wife and I have recently received, this June appears to be an especially bountiful month. The institution of marriage is one of the fundamental ideas and supports of Judaism. The Jewish family is the only method of proven continuity in the Jewish world and it has been...
Having just recently celebrated the holiday of Shavuot and with the onset of the current summer season, Jerusalem is awash in flowers. The Jerusalem municipality has planted flowers all over the city and private citizens have also done their part from their balconies and flower boxes. One of the features of Israeli life is the constant presence of flowers. There are weekly Shabat flowers, paying...
All societies are governed by standards of behavior, accepted norms and the setting of goals, both societal and personal. In dictatorships these norms, goals and challenges are set by the ruler or by an oligarchy that rules. In a democratic society the setting of standards must spring from the society itself. But what standards does such a society set for itself? Are these standards to be...
I recently received a flyer advertising a new set of CD-Rom disks that contain 15,000 scholarly Torah-oriented books on its shiny small surfaces. I have a decent library of books in my home but not by any stretch of exaggeration can my library be said to contain 15,000 books. In order to house the books that I do own I have had numerous bookshelves and bookcases built in various areas of our...
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