Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

It’s a Shabbat afternoon on the 13th Shevat, only two days before Tu Bishvat, the New Year for Trees.  It is 3.00 pm The sky is a nondescript grey and the ground visibly muddy. It has obviously been raining recently. This sounds like an ordinary January day. In Jewish synagogues around the world, the Parsha (Weekly Portion) of Beshalach which recalls the Exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Sea of Reeds (Yam Suf) has been recited a few hours earlier. Except, this isn't your "average Shabbat in January", it is a date that has ingrained itself into the annals of world history. The date is 27th January 1945 - Auschwitz is being liberated. The descendants of those Jews who crossed the Yam Suf, another group of slaves, are on the brink of leaving another Hellhole. This one, north-west of Egypt. 3,000 years after a different, more triumphant Exodus. Lt.-Col. Anatoly Shapiro was a highly decorated Soviet Red Army officer and  Ukrainian

I am going to use three well known quotes in this sermon:  Shakespeare (c. 1596-1599): "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown" (Henry IV Part II Act 3) French National Convention (1793 - attributed to Voltaire but not supported by evidence) "Ils doivent envisager qu’une grande responsabilité est la suite inséparable d’un grand pouvoir." - roughly translated as " They must consider that great responsibility follows inseparably from great power." Lord Acton (1887) "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" A number of events have taken place around the world since we met last Shabbat, not least the targeted killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, under the direct orders of President Trump. I am not going to comment on the rights or wrongs of this action, but the tragic downing of a Ukrainian airline which killed 176 people by Iran, along with deaths of dozens of

Last week, my wife and I went to the see the newest film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's semi auto-biographical novel, 'Little Women', which was simply wonderful.  I have long been a huge fan of this story, perhaps because I can relate to the tale of four headstrong young ladies, which remind me of my own four daughters! The March girls don't have an easy time, growing up during the American Civil War, with a father who is absent for most of the time and who gets wounded in battle, but this is more than compensated for by the presence of their gentle and stoic 'Marmee'.  Amongst the many events that take place, a few stand out in my mind, most notably, the rivalry between Amy, the youngest of the girls and her older sister Jo, an aspiring writer. In one pivotal scene, Jo and Meg have been invited to the theatre by their neighbour, the handsome Laurie. Amy begs to come along but is refused from doing so by Jo, even though Meg (the oldest sister) w