On Sigd
This week is a week full of Jewish celebration. I don’t mean Thanksgiving – although we could explore its Jewishness for the Americans...
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WRITINGS
Some of my thoughts, articles, and sermons.
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rabbinathan
- Nov 9, 2019
- 4 min
To be Jewish is "to eat and to argue"!
Carmine – this morning you have stepped forward and led us in prayer and read from the Torah. It is your coming of age – the moment that...
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rabbinathan
- Oct 26, 2019
- 5 min
On violence and technology
In his 1972 book, la violence et le sacre (Violence and the Sacred) the French anthropologist Rene Girard explores violence and how it is...
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rabbinathan
- Oct 9, 2019
- 4 min
On our need for a green revolution
This morning’s Torah portion is taken from parshat Nitzavim, a famous passage from almost the very end of the Book of Deuteronomy,...
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rabbinathan
- Oct 8, 2019
- 10 min
"I want to see children"
“There must be in everyone’s life, an instance of misunderstanding that cannot be put right without inflicting a greater hurt – perhaps a...
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rabbinathan
- Sep 30, 2019
- 7 min
Rosh Hashanah morning, 5780
Many synagogues have a high percentage of members who are High Holydays Jews, or as they are otherwise known, twice a year Jews. We have...
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rabbinathan
- Sep 29, 2019
- 10 min
Erev Rosh Hashanah 5780
There’s an old story from a Rosh Hashanah in a synagogue of yesteryear. The shul had ushers, one of whom greeted an older, elderly, woman...
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rabbinathan
- Sep 14, 2019
- 4 min
How can our lives pass so fast?
On this day thirteen years ago – September 14th 2006 – which must roughly be around the time that Sara, our bat mitzvah today was born –...
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rabbinathan
- Aug 30, 2019
- 4 min
Great to be back!
Great to be back! Great to be back at the American Club after a gap of several years Great to be back as a UHC community after the long...
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rabbinathan
- Aug 14, 2019
- 5 min
On our anti-biblical streak
This week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, includes both the Shema and the Ten Commandments. As your mind inevitably wanders off at some...
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rabbinathan
- Jul 31, 2019
- 4 min
On capital punishment
“Let him have it!” I don’t watch television these days, but my childhood was haunted by the flickering black and white television that...
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rabbinathan
- Jul 24, 2019
- 4 min
On the Shikse problem
Jewish men have long had a Shikse problem. That is to say, the allure of a non-Jewish woman is nothing new to our times. In the Torah the...
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rabbinathan
- Jul 10, 2019
- 5 min
On honouring parents
Our sages hasten to remind us that all of the 613 Mitzvot found in the Torah are equally important. This helps us not to neglect ones...
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rabbinathan
- Jul 3, 2019
- 4 min
On populism
If you ask yourselves, what is the defining “ism” of our age, it may well not be capitalism and thank God it is not Corbynism. And yet,...
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rabbinathan
- Jun 8, 2019
- 6 min
On living in tribes
Theodor Herzl passed away in Europe at the young age of 44 in 1904. Known as the Father of the State of Israel, it would take another...
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rabbinathan
- Mar 8, 2019
- 4 min
On International Women's Day
If you looked into the sky last night you would have seen the new moon of Adar Sheni – the leap month – the thirteenth month that...
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rabbinathan
- Feb 22, 2019
- 2 min
Our gifts are divine
Vayakhel reminds us that while everyone is invited to donate and contribute to the building of the tabernacle, the construction itself...
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rabbinathan
- Feb 20, 2019
- 2 min
On washing hands
My late mother was no doubt not the only parent who impressed upon her children, “cleanliness is second only to godliness”. As with much...
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rabbinathan
- Dec 19, 2018
- 3 min
On parental blessings
With this week’s parasha, Vayehi, we complete the reading of the book of Genesis and bring the story of the family of Jacob to a close....
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rabbinathan
- Sep 10, 2018
- 7 min
Rosh Hashanah Morning 5779
The Torah portion that we will be reading this morning is Genesis 22.1-19, the story of the binding of Isaac (Akedat Yitzhak). God tests...
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