WRITINGS

This week is a week full of Jewish celebration. I don’t mean Thanksgiving – although we could explore its Jewishness for the Americans...

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...

In his 1972 book, la violence et le sacre (Violence and the Sacred) the French anthropologist Rene Girard explores violence and how it is...

This morning’s Torah portion is taken from parshat Nitzavim, a famous passage from almost the very end of the Book of Deuteronomy,...

“There must be in everyone’s life, an instance of misunderstanding that cannot be put right without inflicting a greater hurt – perhaps a...

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...

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...

On this day thirteen years ago – September 14th 2006 – which must roughly be around the time that Sara, our bat mitzvah today was born –...

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...

This week’s Torah portion, Vaetchanan, includes both the Shema and the Ten Commandments. As your mind inevitably wanders off at some...

“Let him have it!” I don’t watch television these days, but my childhood was haunted by the flickering black and white television that...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

Vayakhel reminds us that while everyone is invited to donate and contribute to the building of the tabernacle, the construction itself...

My late mother was no doubt not the only parent who impressed upon her children, “cleanliness is second only to godliness”. As with much...

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....

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...