The Spirituality of Song With Ha’azinu we climb to one of the peaks of Jewish spirituality. For a month Moses had taught the people. He had told them their history and destiny, and the laws that would make theirs a unique society of people bound in covenant with one another and with God. He renewed the covenant […]
To Renew our Days The moment had come. Moses was about to die. He had seen his sister Miriam and brother Aaron pre-decease him. He had prayed to God – not to live forever, not even to live longer, but simply, “Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan.” (Deut. 3:25) Let […]
Not In Heaven When I was a student at university in the late 1960’s – the era of student protests, psychedelic drugs, and the Beatles meditating with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – a story went the rounds. An American Jewish woman in her sixties traveled to north India to see a celebrated guru. There were […]
We Are What We Remember One reason religion has survived in the modern world despite four centuries of secularization is that it answers the three questions every reflective human being will ask at some time in his or her life – Who am I? Why am I here? How then shall I live? These cannot be […]
The Limits of Love In a parsha laden with laws, one in particular is full of fascination. Here it is: If a man has two wives, one loved, the other unloved [senuah, literally “hated”], and both the loved and the unloved bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife, then when […]
The Greatness of Humility At a dinner to celebrate the work of a communal leader, the guest speaker paid tribute to his many qualities, his dedication, hard work and foresight. As he sat down the leader leaned over and said, “You forgot to mention one thing.” “What was that?” asked the speaker. The leader replied, […]
The Deep Power of Joy On 14 October 1663 the famous diarist Samuel Pepys paid a visit to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Creechurch Lane in the city of London. Jews had been exiled from England in 1290 but in 1656, following an intercession by Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel of Amsterdam, Oliver Cromwell concluded […]
The Spirituality of Listening It is one of the most important words in Judaism, and also one of the least understood. Its two most famous occurrences are in last week’s parsha and this week’s, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” and “It shall come to pass if you surely listen to My commandments […]
The Power of Why In a much watched TED talk Simon Sinek asked the question how do great leaders inspire action?[1] What made people like Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs stand out from their contemporaries who may have been no less gifted, no less qualified? His answer, most people talk about what. Some people talk about how. […]
To 120: Growing Old, Staying Young On 27 March 2012, to celebrate the diamond jubilee of the Queen, an ancient ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace. A number of institutions presented Loyal Addresses to the Queen, thanking her for her service to the nation. Among them was the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Its […]
