The Torah's Isolation-Busters - Turning the Negative into Positive

31st July Shabbat Nachamu Edition

Tisha B’Av, the Fast of the Ninth of Av is over for another year and tonight, we will enter Shabbat Nachamu – the Shabbat of Comforting.

This is named after the first words of tomorrow’s Haftarah, where the Prophet Isaiah tells us: "נחמו נחמו עמי" -‘comfort, comfort My people, says Gd’ which introduces the Sheva Denechamata, the seven Shabbatot of comfort between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah.

Our discomfort this year has however lasted more than three weeks. We have seen our friends and families wracked, shattered and broken by the disease which seems to show no sign of abating in other parts of this country and the wider world.

Tomorrow should have seen the end of lockdown as we know it, with wedding receptions being allowed to take place, alongside the opening of leisure centres such as bowling alleys and skating rinks. Unfortunately, as we see time and again, the disease dictates our agenda.

How can we be comforted if we are still stricken?

How can the ‘Shabbat of Comfort’ make a difference to our lives?

As I have mentioned before, there is an anomaly in the order of creation.

On the Third Day….Gd said, “let the earth sprout vegetation: herbage yielding seed, fruit trees yielding fruit, each after its kind, containing its own seed on the earth. And it was so. And the earth brought forth vegetation….”

On the fourth day, Gd created the sun, moon and stars which led to the introduction of seasons.

How can anything grow before the sun provides the light it needs to do so?

Our Sages tell us that on the Third Day, Gd created the potential for growth, which only came into effect once the fourth day’s gifts had been provided. Similarly so, when we comfort someone who Gd forbid has become a mourner, are we aware of how long it takes for that comfort to really set in? Perhaps we might say something that only makes sense weeks or months after the end of the Shivah.

And so it is with this Shabbat.

We have seven weeks to imbibe the comfort offered to us by our prophets.

One can’t recover from a trauma in a single day, let alone a week, let alone a month.

Many people who have suffered a loss may take years to come to terms with what has happened and sometimes, this can even last a lifetime.

For the process of comfort to have any effect, we need to ‘set the ball rolling’ and that is what Shabbat Nachamu is teaching us. It is about providing the potential.

‘Comfort, comfort My people’….you have as much time as you need to heal.

We have survived many revolutions and wars, plagues, both large and small and here we are, still standing and still extant.

Let this Shabbat begin the process of healing.

Nachamu, nachamu, Ami.

Shabbat Nachamu Shalom.

29th July: Week 19 - Tisha B'Av edition

We are but a few hours away from the commencement of the saddest day in the annual Jewish calendar. Tisha B’Av not only commemorates the anniversary of the destruction of both Batei Mikdash (Temples) and subsequent tragedies that occurred to us on the very same day (including the start of the First Crusade in 1096, the expulsion of the Jews of England, France and Spain in 1290, 1306 and 1492 respectively, the commencement of WW1 which was directly responsible for WW2, the formal approvement by Himmler of the Final Solution in 1942) but in essence, marks the day when we lost our sovereignty as an independent nation living in our own land.

The last two-thousand years of galut/exile can be traced back to the events that manifested themselves on the ‘ninth day of the fifth month’.

On that very same day.

To call this a coincidence would be frankly absurd.

What can we do to accurately mark the gravity of the day?

We already fast for twenty-five hours and sit on low stools.

We read the harrowing book of Lamentations – Megillat Eicha.

We read the Kinnot, mournful elegies that describe our fall from grace, our trauma, our heart-shattering history.

We cry and we grieve.

One might be forgiven for allowing this day to pass. After all, isn’t ‘Har Habayit BeYadeinu’ – ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands’?

This is the famous statement uttered with disbelief by the late Lieutenant General of Tzahal, the IDF when Jerusalem was miraculously captured on Wednesday, 7th June 1967.

If you’re reading this in Yerushalayim, you can even bring it up on your phone whilst you pray at the Wall!

So what are we doing mourning the destruction of the Temple?

OK, it’s not been rebuilt (yet) but wouldn’t it be great to have it back?

If Tisha B’Av were only about the destruction of the Temples, we wouldn’t be readying ourselves for the fast. I wouldn’t have given my shaver a well-earned rest over the last twenty-one days and I’d be listening to my favourite bands.

But the day is more than a memory of upturned stones and crushed dreams.

Tisha B’Av is about Wiley and Corbyn. It’s about Nasrallah and Hamas. Iran and The UN. It’s about Muslims hating Jews. Christians hating Jews and Jews hating Jews.

And as long as any of the above are able to successfully poison the little blue planet on which we all live in disharmony, Tisha B’Av has a purpose.

So I will pray that in this year when COVID-19 has scrupulously avoid discriminating against gender, religion and ethnicity, political views or how much anyone has in their bank accounts, we too learn a lesson or two from its acceptance of all.

Instead of killing and maiming, we might learn to tolerate and love, accept and forgive.

And perhaps next year, none of us will even remember Tisha B’Av as being a day of mourning. Instead, we will bask in the arrival of the Messiah and a golden dawn for the entire world.

If you are fasting, have an easy one.

With love and blessings to you all.

24th July: Shabbat Chazon Edition

You can blame King David!

Our greatest king, unifier of tribes, conqueror of Jerusalem and no slouch on the musical front (although Miriam the prophetess [aka Moses’ and Aaron’s big sister] was an adept tambourine player in her own right, as per her performance described in Shemot/Exodus 15.20-21) composed most of the Psalms. He added, edited and compiled the poems that had been written by his predecessors to create the one-hundred-and-fifty masterpieces that comprise the Biblical Book of Psalms – Sefer Tehillim. More than a third of the Psalms are addressed to the ‘Director of Music’ and many others providing instructions upon which musical instruments they should be played (e.g) Psalm 81 which recite on Thursdays tells us to ‘raise a song, beat the drum, play the sweet harp and lyre’. In our daily prayers (including Shabbat and Yom Tov), we commence the main body of our service with Pesukei De-Zimra, which literally means ‘Verses of Song’. Music is the heart and soul of our religion.

King David understood that if you’re going to engage people in prayer, the best way to do this is through song. A visitor to either of the Batei Mikdash/Temples would have been hard-pressed to avoid hearing the sweet sound of the Levites playing their instruments, accompanying the many Psalms that were recited throughout the year on a daily basis during the Avodah (during the twice-daily Tamid offering) as well as on other special occasions.

A late friend of mine, Ian Sweiger (of blessed memory) once told me something that I’ve never forgotten. We were discussing the importance of music and he said that ‘music has the power to move the masses, create revolutions and change the world’. I didn’t quite understand what he meant at the time but have subsequently learned that John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance” played a significant role in helping to end the Vietnam War after it was adopted as the anthem of the anti-war movement.

The rise and development of our Synagogues over the last two thousand years have demonstrated the staying power of music. Can you imagine taking a Torah Scroll out of the Ark without its musical accompaniment? The many tunes we use to bring our prayers to life are so embedded in our consciousness that omitting them would be an anathema to our sensibilities. How can someone recite Adon Olam at the end of Shacharit on a Shabbat without using a popular tune? Any chazan/cantor who did this, would not last very long in his post!

All this brings me to Shabbat Chazon which starts tonight and precedes the saddest day of the Jewish year, Tisha B’Av, which begins on Wednesday night. You might reasonably think that the last thing we would wish to do on Tisha B’Av is to sing. Scientific research however, seems to indicate that the act of singing might release endorphins from our brains, leading to our using this natural anti-depressant as a way to cheer us up…but who wants to be happy on Tisha B’Av?

If you are interested in reading more about this, please click on the following links:

https://ideas.time.com/2013/08/16/singing-changes-your-brain/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/advertising/todayshealthywoman/ct-ss-thw-health-benefits-of-singing-a-tune-20180314dto-story.html#:~:text=Singing%20is%20a%20natural%20antidepressant,to%20alleviate%20anxiety%20and%20stress.

From the outset, the reading of Megillat Eicha/The Book of Lamentations, one of the gloomiest and most heart-wrenching entries in the entire Old Testament, is accompanied by an unforgettable tune. Yes, it is dirge-like in nature, but at the same time, once heard, cannot be forgotten. The music brings the book to life, highlights its content and fills us with a sense of remorse, but nonetheless, stirs us in a way that could not be possible were the book to be read without this tune. The music it turns out, is central to the theme of the day. This is so striking that we will recite tomorrow’s Haftorah (Chazon Yishashayu – the vision of Isiaiah) using the identical tune.

Tonight, in a similar vein, we will recite Lecha Dodi to the tune of one of ‘Eli Tzion’ one of the kinnot, liturgical poems that we read on Tisha B’Av. Throughout this Shabbat, our day of rest and respite from the world, we will cite the upcoming fast not through prayer, but via the tunes associated with that day.

Music, the tool by which our soul expresses its yearning, is central to our religion. Whether happy or sad, ecstatic or depressing, it creates a chain that stretches back through our history to King David and beyond.

May the following year give us the chance to sing once again ‘in the hills of Judah and the courtyards of Jerusalem, a sound of happiness and joy – like the sound of a bride and groom’ and next year, Please Gd, we will celebrate Tisha B’Av as the festival it will turn into with the coming of Messiah, may he come speedily in our days, Amen.

Shabbat Chazon Shalom.

21st July Week 18

If you think about the films you’ve watched, how many scenes would you consider to be really enchanting?

For me, there are very few that are as special as the moment Dorothy (hitherto appearing in sepia) opens the door of the bungalow to reveal the land of Oz in all of its full Technicolor glory (you can watch the clip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8#action=share). It doesn’t matter how many times you view it – it is pure ‘movie magic’.

My father, who arrived in the USA at the age of eleven, spent most of his youth in movie theatres. He tells me that he vividly remembers the December Sunday morning when he was watching an Abbott and Costello movie and suddenly the lights came on and someone announced that Pearl Harbour had been bombed. I guess that was the end of the movie!

He loves the cinema and has inculcated this into me, which explains why I’ve seen so many films, since as long as I can remember. In my book collection, some of the oldest I possess date from my childhood, and they are almost all centred around film. I was one of those annoyingly precocious kids who would show off his knowledge of such and such actor’s dates (birth, death etc) and film appearances as a result of reading and re-reading the tomes from cover to cover. If you wonder why I am constantly referring to film scenes, blame my dad!

Back to Dorothy, or rather the switch from black and white (or sepia) to colour…

Recently, I discovered an interesting new feature on my mobile. The manufacturer is aiming to help its users wean themselves off their phones before going to sleep and one can now set the device to enter ‘wind-down’ mode. This means that, at your preferred time, the phone enters this mode and changes from colour to black and white (or as they refer to it today – ‘greyscale’) and whilst dampening the glow, also silences any notifications.

You also set the time when you would like this to stop the next morning, at which juncture the display turns back to colour.

At first, I found it quite disconcerting to suddenly have my display washed of its colour but have gradually come to appreciate that this is for my own good. However, the ‘magic’ really kicks in if I happen to wake up before the time when the mode is due to switch off. I am therefore treated to my very own ‘Wizard of Oz’ moment as the colour gradually returns to the display.

My early exposure to black and white films had an interesting side effect. As a little boy, I genuinely believed that until shortly before I had been born, the world was solely visible in black and white! It sounds crazy but granted the widespread use of black and white in many films until the mid-1950s, excluding some musicals from the 1940s onwards, why wouldn’t this be the case? When you’re a child, you’ll believe what you see and truth be told, some of the greatest films ever made didn’t come within a mile of Technicolor.

We are currently entrenched in the difficult period that is known as ‘the three weeks’ and are about to enter the even more challenging ‘nine days’. Our thoughts are affected by what happened to our ancestors before films were even conceived of. We might have seen illustrations or etchings in our books of someone’s interpretation of what it might have been like to live through those times. Even if we consider the Holocaust, aren’t most of our memories ironically coloured by black and white photographs? When ITV started broadcasting recently discovered colour films from the 1930s and later, wasn’t it was a jolt to our systems?

Because, if we see something in colour, it seems to be more accurate, more relatable and ultimately more disturbing. Sometimes, it seems easier to understand and conceptualise disturbing images in black and white, perhaps because we feel more distant from the event. On the obverse side, the stark reality of viewing a picture in its natural colours, reminds us that we too are part of the world in which the photograph was taken.

I like the movement from a monochromatic viewpoint to a coloured one as it allows me to appreciate the contrast between the two – to understand that just as there are more than two colours in our lives, there is enough room to view the same photograph from both compositions. To really appreciate the rich colours in our lives, we have to acknowledge that black and white are indispensable.

Once the black and white period of the three weeks is over, I will let the colour back into my life and I know that I will appreciate it all the more as a result of the change.

Stay safe and be blessed.

17th July Shabbat Edition

Of all the five books of the Torah, I find the book of Bamidbar (which we will conclude by reading the double-parshiot of Matot and Masei tomorrow) to be most the most depressing, frustrating and at the same time utterly fascinating.

When we undertook our physical and metaphorical journey through the book a mere eight weeks ago, the Bnei Yisrael/Israelites were fresh-faced (let’s put aside the matter of the Golden Calf for now) and optimistic, having entered into the second year of their sojourn in the desert. The Mishkan/Tabernacle had recently been erected, and they were eagerly anticipating their imminent entry into the land ‘flowing with milk and honey’. We learned about their tribal formations around the Ohel Moed (Tent of Meeting) and their sophisticated method of communication, marvelled at their dedication to bringing the generous gifts to the Mishkan and celebrated their unity.

It was all going swimmingly well.

And then it started to go all wrong.

First the complaints about the Manna and then the ugly episode about the quail. This was followed by the catastrophic reverberations emanating as a result of the spies’ evil reports and even Moses’ authority and legitimacy as a leader is challenged by one of his family members. The nation that is on the cusp of entering the land of Israel finds that the only locations they will visit over the next thirty-eight years will be located in a series of deserts. There is no milk and certainly no honey to be found in any of these.

And then we lose Miriam.

Moses hits the rock, is barred from the entering the land he led our people towards and Aaron dies.

At the top of a mountain.

In the desert.

As John Lennon famously sang in his first post-Beatles album it seems as though “the dream is over”. Could it get any worse?

A new generation of Israelites is within sniffing distance of the borders of the land, and then we have the episode at Ba’al Pe’or, initiated by Bilaam, where the Prince of the Tribe of Shimon openly commits immoral acts with a Midiante princess. Moses is weeping and Pinchas, Aaron’s grandson saves the day. How the mighty have fallen!

Where did it go wrong?

Why did it go wrong?

Why did our people ‘throw it all away’?

Perhaps the Parsha of Masei provides us with an answer. It begins with the following verse:

“These are the journeys of the children of Israel, by which they went forth out of the land of Egypt, by their hosts under the hand of Moses and Aaron”. (Bemidbar/Numbers 33.1)

There follows a comprehensive list of all forty-two stops in their journey along the Egypt-Canaan Express (a misnomer if there ever was one!) “And they journeyed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the day after the Passover, the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of the Egyptians, whilst the Egyptians were burying those that had been smitten amongst them, even all their firstborn….” (3-7).

To Rameses to Succoth and onto Etham etc – until they arrived at their current destination by the banks of the Jordan.

Rashi asks a brilliant question: “Why were these stages written - what’s the point of detailing every single stop along the way?” (the list concludes in verse 49). He answers by telling us that Gd was demonstrating his kindness to the Israelites, by not wanting them to move aimlessly from place to place for the entire forty-year period without a rest.

Of the forty-two sites, fourteen were visited before the sin of the spies (and the decree about the forty years) – which detailed the journeys from Rameses to Ritma, from whence the spies were sent and another eight were places they visited after the death of Aaron, from Mount Hor to the Plains of Moab, all of these within the last year of their sojourn. So that in the thirty-eight years, they only journeyed to twenty places, thus allowing them to rest for considerable periods of time. If one is a seasoned traveler, making twenty trips in thirty-eight years is not in any way exhausting – especially as some people I know visit Israel twice a year!

I believe that we can take a profound message from this.

Gd’s anger with the people was understandable, and He could have extended their misery by making the punishment worse, yet, even though they were excluded from entering the land, He still nourished and protected them. He didn’t abandon them and even thought to lighten their journeys by limiting the number. In lockdown, many of us look forward to being able to step out again soon and change our surroundings, if only for a short while.

In life, we cannot stay sedentary if we want to progress. There is a whole world out there and one needn’t travel far to gain a great a deal of satisfaction from the experience.

Perhaps that is the message of the Book of Bamidbar. Just because one dream is over doesn’t mean that another one isn’t waiting to enchant us.

The book that began our journey took us on a detour that we should have avoided, but here we are, about to enter the Promised Land and Moses’, the greatest leader we’ve ever had, is on the verge of delivering three of the finest oratories in the entire Bible. Perhaps we needed that thirty-eight year journey to fortify us for the three thousand years of challenges that we encountered.

We might still be the wandering Jews but ironically enough, it is our wandering that has ensured our very survival.

Shabbat Shalom

15th July Week 17

‘Well, we all have a face

That we hide away forever

And we take them out

And show ourselves

When everyone has gone

Some are satin, some are steel

Some are silk

And some are leather

They're the faces of a stranger

But we'd love to try them on’

Billy Joel, “The Stranger” (1977)

It’s ironic that when we wear a mask, we often reveal so much about ourselves.

We Jews are not averse to covering our faces, in fact, one of our five megillot (scrolls) even encourages us to do so, as we re-enact the topsy-turvy story that we know and love as the Book of Esther.

The Festival of Purim itself represents a mask symbolising the hidden hand of Gd. So it is not without a sense of deja-vu that I face the prospect of having to wear a face mask for the foreseeable future – this time, to save both my life and that of others.

It is not unnatural to take much for granted, not least the ability to leave our houses with our faces open to the elements and to be able to express our emotions to the people we meet. Our faces are the shop-windows to our expressions and thoughts. If you are happy, your face beams and others can see your smile. When you are upset, the corners of your mouth turn downwards in sync with your narrowing eyes and arched eyebrows. From our noses down to our chins, our expressions can show so much to the people we are communicating with. We don’t need to think much about how we can demonstrate our feelings simply with our eyes.

Here we are, in July 2020 and very soon, the face that we might wish to ‘hide away forever’ will no longer be so difficult to achieve as the masks we wear, be they satin, silk or simply cotton, will hopefully do their job of informing others that our eyes have been elected as the mode of communication to protect the airways we need from Gd forbid inhaling or exhaling poisonous droplets.

“When Moses descended from Mount Sinai, with the two Tablets of the Testimony in the hand of Moses….(he) did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant when He (i.e Gd) had spoken to him. Aaron and all the Children of Israel saw Moses and behold! – the skin of his face had become radiant; and they feared to approach him. Moses called to them and Aaron and the leaders of the Assembly returned to him….Moses finished speaking with them and placed a mask on his face. When Moses would come before Gd to speak with Him, he would remove the mask until his departure; then he would leave and tell the Children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. When the Children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that Moses’ face had become radiant, Moses put the mask back on his face, until he came to speak with Him.”

Moses' countenance was too coruscating for the Israelites to bear, as it reflected the Divine interaction that he had experienced. He therefore had to adapt the way he looked to protect their sensibilities. He wore a mask when he spoke with the people and took it off when he spoke with Gd.

We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves, when everyone has gone.

The masks that we are about to adorn our faces with, could impact the way people relate to us. We just need to remember that, underneath the mask, we are still the same people.

For the protection of ourselves and others, I guess that this is the time to find other ways to let them know how we feel.

I guess, it’s a case of ‘the eyes have it'.

10th July Shabbat Edition

I would like you to visualise two hot-air balloons which are currently sitting in a field, waiting to be launched.

Looking back at the week, we are going to ‘place’ two news stories, one into each basket see how they impact on the balloon’s ability to fly.

In one case, the story, when ‘placed’ into the left basket will weigh it all the way down and make it nearly impossible to fly, whilst the other story will cause the balloon on the right to soar high up into the sky.

Both stories concern relationships, because these are ‘relationship balloons’.

Let’s look at story No.1:

In the left balloon, we have the very sad breakdown of a relationship between two people who might have loved each other once, but now, there is nothing but ugliness and recrimination left.

Enter the stage, actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.

Having heard and witnessed the alleged behaviour of both this week (particularly Mr Depp’s), we are left in no illusion as to the fact that this was a manifestly violent and troubled relationship. I don’t know what happened and why it did, but by all reports, neither party brought the best out of the other. Whatever it was that led to either one to react the way they did, it is sadly apparent that they knew exactly what they needed to do to push the other ones' ‘buttons’ to bring out the worst in each other.

Behind the sensationalist headlines and sadly all-too-familiar voyeurism so beloved by the media, this was a story of two unhappy individuals who probably should not have decided to partner up, let alone, enter marriage. The end result is nothing to be proud of. However, the outcome, whether or not Mr Depp wins his case, there will in effect be no winners (except for the media and the ex-couple’s respective legal teams.)

Despite every attempt to launch this balloon, it stays firmly in its place. It’s not going anywhere.

Now, story No.2:

In the right basket, I ‘place’ the story of Lily Ebert, a 90-year Auschwitz survivor, who was liberated, along with two of her sisters when was 16 years old. Recently, she had been looking through some of her belongings accompanied by her 16-year great-grandson, Dov Forman (how interesting that they were the same age?) and together they discovered a German banknote which had been given to her by one of her liberators. He had hastily inscribed the legend “A start to a new life….good luck and happiness” around the edges of the note. Her grandson decided that he wanted to trace the soldier who had taken a few moments to inscribe these notes. “I joked with my great-grandma that I'd be able to find the soldier in 24 hours."

He sent a message on Twitter (aka a ‘Tweet’) which was reposted by the Auschwitz Museum to its one million followers and soon enough, Private Hayman Shulman, a GI was found to be its mystery scribe.

Lily, who had lost everything she owned said: “We had not a piece of paper, we had nothing, you cannot know that, you cannot explain it, especially today. People cannot understand humans being without anything - you had the rug that you had on your body and that was it. I lost my whole family - mother, sister, brother, uncles, aunties - more than 100 [relatives], I'm sure..."

Sadly Private Shulman died seven years ago but Lily and Dov will be contacting his family over the weekend through a video chat and her message to his family is: “This man was really the first nice human touch (I'd received) and that really means something."

No sooner have we ‘placed’ this story into the right basket that the balloon soars into the air. There is no stopping it.

Relationships can take so many different forms. One can have the kind of relationship that Mr Depp and Ms Heard will always be remembered for and which will no doubt embitter their lives for many years to come….or the fleeting kind where a stranger shows kindness to the extent that three-quarters-of-a-century later, he is remembered with love, admiration and respect. How we act towards our fellow human being defines not only us, but them too.

Johnny and Amber could learn a great deal from Hayman and Lily because if you want your life to lift you up, you have to fill it with the right material.

Shabbat Shalom

7th July Week 16

I knew. “No, it’s not. It’s a technical fault”. I drew a deep breath and said: “buses and trains don’t just burst into flames. It’s a terrorist attack”. My teaching colleagues weren’t convinced and thought I was being over-dramatic. Unfortunately, they soon realised that I was correct. Having heard about bus bombings in Israel for a good part of three years or so, I was painfully aware of the signs. Fifteen years ago today. London was in a state of jubilation. Just the day before, the announcement had come through that the 2012 Olympics would be staged here. Although it was five years later, this was something really special to look forward to. And then that Thursday morning happened. Within an hour, we were sending the kids home and I couldn’t get a signal on my phone because our mobiles had been blocked by the Security Services. My heart was palpitating as a result of the adrenalin kicking in. I sat my car with the radio playing and wondered what would happen next. The feverish news reports were flooding in, each one describing the carnage in more grisly detail. It didn’t take long until the photos of those killed appeared in the media. Lives shattered and families ripped apart. CCTV footage of the terrorists and their backpacks at the Mainline and Underground stations and realisation that these people were home-grown. They were ‘one of us’. And then finding out about Miriam Hyman, just one of the 52, but all of 32 years old herself. Her kind, open face comes to my mind whenever I think of 7/7 because to me, she represented everything that was lost on that terrible day. A beautiful young lady with her life ahead of her. She could have been one of my daughters. And had I been in the vicinity of the attacks in a different job, I too might have been Miriam. If you’d like to find out more about Miriam Hyman and the wonderful charity set up in her memory, please click on this link: http://www.miriam-hyman.com/ For Miriam and the other fifty-one innocents who lost their lives fifteen years ago today - Yehi Zichrom Baruch. May their memories be a blessing for their families and friends.

3rd July Shabbat Edition

The Torah’s Isolation-Busters: Shabbat Edition

In my previous missive, I concentrated on what happened to Moses in the first of this week’s two Parshiot, Chukkat. Today, I’m going to look at someone whose role in the second Parsha lies at the very heart of the reading – the evil prophet Bilaam ben Be’or (known more widely as Balaam).

In 1967, Professor Henk Franken of Leiden University, Holland made a remarkable discovery. On an archaeological dig in a site called ‘Deir ‘Alla’, which is situated along the Jabbok river (a tributary of the River Jordan) Professor Franken and his team discovered the remains of an ancient building which he dated to the Second Iron Age, which would place it at the time of the two Biblical Kingdoms of Judah and Israel. It appears that the building had been destroyed around the year 800 BCE. Whilst digging around, they found fragments of an ancient inscription written in ink, which would have been part of an ornamental plastered wall. The archaeologists hypothesized that the building might have been destroyed by an earthquake (perhaps the one that is referred to in the Prophet Amos 1.1) but could not establish the building’s purpose.

When they pieced some fragments together, they were astonished to read an inscription (in a language similar to Aramaic) that told of a prophet called Balaam bar Beor who had received a revelation of some sort of (Divine) wrath predicting an apocalyptic event that was about to transpire. On receiving this, Balaam fasted, cried and then predicted the future to anyone who came to enquire this of him (you can read the source I referred to at the link below) https://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php?id=19874&pt=1&pid=14607&level=0&cPath=43,14206,14375,14607,19874) )

Archaeologists and scholars have spent hundreds of years trying to verify that events described in the Torah and the rest of the Tanach/Old Testament took place by citing ‘proof’ through such finds. Frustratingly for many people, this dream has turned out to be a fruitless endeavour, strewn with red herrings (which apparently are quite tasty, if you work out that they only exist as heavily smoked kippers). Every time a new artifact is dug up in Israel or its middle eastern environs, lots of people become very excited, as though this discovery validates in their eyes, the authenticity of the Bible as a verifiable and empirical proof of its worth.

As a deeply spiritual Jewish man who has never doubted the Divine Authenticity of the Torah, I am always keen on hearing about such discoveries but treat them as a visual tool to help me comprehend the texts I am so familiar with. You can read descriptions about the flooring in the Second Temple but it is only until you see reconstructions from the actual fragments (see https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-second-temple-courtyard-flooring-restored-1.5437343) that they help to bring the Bible to life.

I think it is supremely ironic that we have archaeological proof that Bilaam/Balaam existed, but yet none regarding either the Exodus or indeed Moses! Surely, it would make more sense to have the latter over the former but I think that this is precisely the point. If we were to find ‘proof’ of the Exodus, would that dent our belief as to whether or not it happened? Would it make the Seder experience any more memorable or relevant than its three thousand year history has already managed to achieve?

Finding the reference to Bilaam is exciting because it adds another level to our appreciation of the events described in this week’s Parsha.

That Bilaam was a thoroughly evil man, an anti-semite in the best tradition (if one can call it this) is irrefutable.

That we found evidence of his existence which matches the narrative in the Torah is of course noteworthy.

That Bilaam and his belief system are both gone is also true.

And there’s the rub.

Despite the lack of archaeological evidence - after three thousand, three hundred and thirty-two years, we are still the same nation that Gd, through Moses, brought out of Egypt. We still celebrate the same festivals (with some additional bonuses like Chanukah) and recite the identical prayers that were taught to us by Moses, such as the Shema and the Priestly Blessing, which he learned directly from Gd at Sinai. If you are looking for evidence that everything in the Torah is authentic, you don’t have to search very far because we, the Jewish Nation are the living, breathing and vibrant proof that the Torah and its two accomplices are, in the words of that not so ancient beverage, ‘the genuine article’

30th June Week 15

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Imagine you’ve been assigned a task that you feel is so far above your abilities that there is no way you can succeed in completing it.

Your manager assures you that you’re more than capable of, not only facing the challenges but also overcoming them. You beg him to give the work to someone else, but he resolutely refuses.

“You’re the only one I trust to do this. Now stop arguing and get on with it!”. You have two options that you can pursue.

You can either begrudgingly accept or alternatively, offer your resignation.

Let’s say that you feel you really can’t proceed and offer your resignation. Your manager refuses to accept it and despite your vehement protestations, keeps on trying to convince you to take on the project. Eventually, he wears you down and you go ahead.

No sooner have you started than you encounter a hurdle….and then another…and then another. You put on a brave face, grin and persevere. Over time, you feel as though the task is getting easier, but the minute you drop your guard, another hurdle appears to trip you up. It gets to the point when you can continue no more out of sheer frustration and rock-bottom morale. Then your manager pulls another ‘trick’ out of his hat and convinces you to keep trying.

The task you undertook has taken much longer than you’d originally thought it would, but your manager promises you a tempting reward upon its completion. It is a reward that will impact significantly on your life and by this time, you are so involved in the work that the reward almost seems to be too far to attain - but you persevere.

As you are entering the last stretch however, all kinds of hurdles appear and you stumble, making a mistake that you shouldn’t have fallen prey to. Your boss says “thank you for all you’ve done” and you will “need to finish the job but I’m afraid the reward is no longer available as it’s been withdrawn.”

You’re crestfallen. After everything that you’ve been through, all those challenges you’ve overcome, all the nonsense you’ve put up with and now, you’re being punished for something that many people consider to be a minor misdemeanour.

It doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Have you guessed the story yet?

Do you know the identity of the protagonist?

If not, I’ll reveal the answer.

You are Moses.

And you’ve just been told that you can’t lead the Children of Israel into the Promised Land because you lost your temper and disobeyed the commandment from Gd to speak to the rock.

Thirty-eight years ago, Gd told you to hit the rock and when you did so, water came forth. Today, you did the same thing but didn’t follow instructions. You hit the rock, not once but twice.

Our Rabbis have spent thousands of years trying to understand the reason why Gd punished Moses so severely for hitting the rock.

We know the following from the text:

“And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you didn’t believe in Me, to sanctify in the eyes of the Children of Israel, therefore you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them” (Numbers 20.12 – from Parshat Chukat, one of the Torah portions that we will read on Shabbat.) Gd is telling Moses and Aaron (who was also told to speak to the rock) that they failed to create a Kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of Gd’s name in front of the people and in their positions, as leaders of the Children of Israel, this warranted such a harsh decree.

I defy anyone not to feel a lump in their throat as this exact moment. If you can identify with the aforementioned metaphor and you are Moses….how would you feel?

Perhaps, Moses’ burst of anger against the people, whom he referred to as “rebels” before hitting the rock was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’? After more than forty years of complaining, rebellions, licentiousness and stubbornness, he’d just about had enough. Perhaps, losing his beloved sister just before this episode (which in fact was the catalyst for the complaints about lack of water – when Miriam died, the well she had always provided was withdrawn from the nation). Perhaps, it was all too much for a man aged one-hundred and nineteen years. Perhaps conquering the land demanded a very different skill set than leading them through the desert.

I have always found this episode to be one of the most heart-breaking in the entire Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu - Moses our Rabbi is the greatest leader and teacher we’ve ever had. Yet even he was not perfect and this very human misstep cost him the reward he so richly deserved.

The work ‘Chukat’ means ‘Statutes’. These are the laws that we are given for which there are no reasons. We don’t know why we can’t eat certain animals and fish.

It just is.

We don’t know why the Torah spends the first part of this Parsha teaching us the strange laws of the Red Heifer/

It just is.

And similarly so, we don’t know why Gd punished Moses in such a way.

It just is.

Sometimes, there are so many questions but very few answers. As people of faith, we ask many questions and seek so many answers, but sometimes, the only response we have is…

It just is.

26th June Shabbat Edition

I would like to dedicate today’s words to my dearest mother who is celebrating her birthday today. May she be blessed with many, many more years of good health, until 120!

For anyone who might think that celebrating the anniversary of one’s birth is a relatively new custom, I have some news for you – it isn’t. In fact, it is very ancient.

In the Torah, we have a vivid description of a person’s birthday celebrations and it’s not someone who readily springs to mind.

To explain it properly, there is a rather interesting backstory, because in our history, nothing is ever straightforward!

Cast your minds back to last December which seems like an awfully long time ago. We were steadily making our way through Sefer Bereshit/Genesis, and we finally encountered Joseph.

The poor lad has been sold into slavery, then accused of attempted rape, is languishing in jail and has just sung “Close Every Door To Me” (well, maybe not the last bit, but I had to get a reference in somehow). He’s joined in his cell by two unfortunate gentlemen, the infamous Butler and Baker. One morning, after a restless night, they discover that he has an incredible talent in being able to interpret dreams. They readily relate their respective dreams (which are more like nightmares), firstly the former and then the latter.

Joseph obliges and tells the Butler that he will be restored to his position in ‘three days’. The Baker hopes for a similar response but is crestfallen to hear that in the same amount of time, he will be hanged from a tree (‘Sad to say your dream is not the kind of dream I'd like to get - Pharaoh has it in for you - your execution date is set….’ - I couldn’t resist).

So what happened three days later?

The Torah states the following (Chapter 40.20-22)

cupbearing, and“And it was on the third day, Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he counted Chief Butler and the Chief Baker amongst his servants. And he restored the Chief Butler to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup on Pharaoh’s palm. But the Chief Baker, he hanged, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.”

And there you have it, the Bible’s description of how the ancients celebrated their birthdays. Granted, this is a rather regal birthday boy who threw a feast rather than a party, but still, he knew how to celebrate his big day in style, including a public hanging, which I’m sure you would agree is overly excessive for our contemporary honourees. Unfortunately, in all the celebrations, the Butler forgot to have a word with his master about freeing the young Hebrew man who had correctly predicted his dream.

Still, when thinking about Pharaoh’s ‘big day’, it’s nice to know that custom or celebrating one’s birthday and throwing a party (with wine, noch) has a very ancient history.

L’chaim to all who are celebrating their special day alongside my mother today!

Stay safe, be blessed and Shabbat Shalom.

23rd June Week 14

On 26th March, nearly three months ago in the Gregorian Calendar, I wrote the following paragraph in Isolation Buster No.3:

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the Land of Egypt saying: “This month shall be to you the beginning of the months. It shall be to you the first of the months of the year.(Exodus 12.1-2)” The very first mitzvah that was given by Gd to the Israelites was to establish a calendar and the date on which this commandment was given….was on this very day – Rosh Chodesh Nisan! So, today is not just Rosh Chodesh but THE Rosh Chodesh that starts a whole new year and the one on which our entire calendar is based.”

Today is Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the first day of the new month and a full three months in our calendar from that entry.

Looking back at that entry, I wonder how many of us could have predicted the gargantuan change that would soon change our lives.

Before Covid exacted its deathly toll.

Before George Floyd and the aftermath.

Before Reading.

Before.

In exactly three months’ time, Rosh Hashanah will be upon us.

So here we are the centre point, caught between the past and the future.

This is a time for remembrance, gratitude and hope.

In order to appreciate the last two, we must give deep thought to the first:

To the innocent victims we have lost to the cruel, unrelenting disease in our families, amongst our friends, in our communities and in the wider circle beyond. For each precious soul we lost, yehi zichro baruch – may their soul be a blessing to their loved ones.

May the Omnipresent comfort you amongst the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. May you find solace amongst your family, friends and community.

We are united.

We are one.

In terms of gratitude, we consider the following:

To those who recovered, we thank Gd who “bestowed much good on you, and may He continue to bestow on you much good” (Birchat HaGomel)

To those who have not been sick, we thank Gd for protecting us. Shechechiyanu – You have given us life, sustained us and brought us to this time.”

We do not know the contents of our life over the next three months but let us take a moment at this seminal time, close our eyes and pray that when Rosh Hashanah is upon us, we will only have one of the above brachot to recite.

Shehechiyanu – Please Gd, give us life, sustain us and bring us in full health to that time.

Hatikvah - let the hope that is hard-wired into our psyche, give us the strength to overcome the next three months.

May Gd protect you, your family, your friends, our people.

The World’s people.

Amen.

19th June Shabbat Edition

Black Lives Matter.

This is not a controversial statement, particularly in light of the events that we have witnessed over the last month but today, it resonated more than ever.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released some statistics that make for grim reading. It found that in hospitals and communities, black males were three times more likely to die from Covid-19 than their white counterparts.

Between 2nd March and 15th May, black men had the highest mortality rate with 256 in 100,000 compared with 87 in the same number. That is a shocking and highly disturbing statistic.

According to a report in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/19/black-men-england-wales-three-times-more-likely-die-covid-19-coronavirus) , when the figures were adjusted for population density, socio-demographic factors and religion, the figure was twice as much and 1.4 times as much if you were a black woman, compared to a white counterpart. Muslim, Sikh and Hindu men came next in terms of deaths, followed by our Jewish brothers at 188 deaths per 100,000 people (keeping in mind that it is harder to gage the deaths by religion than through the skin colour of the deceased).

Covid-19, a microscopic virus has claimed the lives of 42,334 people at the time of writing. Each death, each loss, each broken and shattered family is a tragedy of indescribable proportions and one passing would be too much. In the cold light of day, if we can parse it down to one single phrase which encapsulates the entirety of the damage that Covid has wreaked on the population of this country, it is “Black Lives Matter”.

This doesn’t mean that other lives don’t matter but when a black man is three times more likely to die from the disease than a white person of the same gender, the phrase takes on an even more poignant meaning.

It is not for me to explain the reasons why this has happened because they are well documented.

As a teacher who has spent most of his professional life working in non-Jewish schools, I have taught children from many different backgrounds.

Our role as teachers is to educate.

To inspire.

To give children a chance to find their own strengths and build on their weaknesses.

To provide them with the skills they need to leave school with confidence and knowledge.

With the opportunity to be able to carve their own niches in their chosen fields.

To thrive in a way that may not have been possible for their parents.

A child is a child is a child.

Some will be well-behaved, others not.

Some will possess charismatic personalities that light up the minute they walk into my classroom (and proceed to wreck my lessons!), others not so. It doesn’t matter, because as far as I’m concerned, the only important factor is how the child works and progresses under my tutelage. I care not a jot for the colour of their skin or the religion they practice. But I do care if they succeed or struggle. If they contribute in class or mess around. If they respect themselves and their peers or act in a way that lets them down.

Black Lives Matter to me because when I come to teach a little black boy whose father has died of Covid (and is included in that horrific statistic), that child’s life will have been affected, and he might very well face a tougher struggle than the white girl he is sitting next to.

Black Lives Matter.

Shabbat Shalom.

17th June Week 13

I have written previously how much I’ve cherished the Tanach since I was in short trousers. Its narrative and morals inspire and shake me at the very same time and its personages fill me with wonder, as flawed as they may be.

I’ve often wondered what it must have been like living in Biblical times. Obviously, given the choice, I would have preferred to be around when people like King David or his heir, Solomon ruled the roost, as it seems as though the country was at peace and life was more settled. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to live through the destructions of either Temple – if I’d been able to survive! When I was a kid, there were precious few resources available. Most of the photos in books I read were either in black or white or faded colours, so trying to visualize life in the Biblical epoch was pretty much left to one’s imagination.

This is where the cinema really came into its own as far as I was concerned. Before the advent of the internet, the only way to experience something akin to living in those distant eras was to see Hollywood’s magic at work. As I’ve written before, I still have vivid memories of watching ‘The Ten Commandments’ along with my father at the cinema. Another memory I also had, was a TV scene picturing a young future King David felling Goliath. That and the fact that King David was Gregory Peck (or the other way around).

My fascinating with all things cinematic taught me years later that the film I had watched was called “David and Bathsheba” and it was only after acquiring the DVD a few years ago that I understood how both the young and older king were linked.

In the last few weeks, I’ve added a couple of DVDs to my limited collection by purchasing two more titles, one of which I had taped years ago on VHS, namely ‘Samson and Delilah”. I completed the trilogy by acquiring “Solomon and Sheba”, one of the rare occasions one sees Yul Brynner with hair! I suspect the reason for this was that Tyrone Power had died suddenly whilst on location on the set, brandishing a sword (in Spain of all places) and so they brought Mr Brynner in to replace him at the last minute and Mr Power was not bald!

Viewing the three films in close succession has been most interesting and revealing. Samson and Delilah dates from 1949, David and Bathsheba, 1951, Solomon and Sheba, 1959.

Obviously, when viewing Hollywood’s interpretation of the Bible, you are acutely aware that no Biblical prophet or holy man was in any way connected with the outcome! You have subplots that have been imagined by the respective scriptwriters which haven’t come within a thousand light years of anything described in the Bible….but that said, they do try to generate a sense of authenticity by having the actors mouthing lines from the Psalms and various other tomes with a sincerity that looks genuine.

It is also interesting to see how Hollywood has made a point, at least in Samson and Delilah (hereafter ‘S+D’) and Solomon and Sheba (‘S+S’) of ensuing that the females’ character parts are more thoroughly and sensitively written than their male counterparts. Hedy Lamarr as Delilah is particularly effective, which doesn’t help Victor Mature’s limited range (but he is THE Samson everyone remembers and that’s what counts). Gina Lollobrigida also stands out as Sheba, the Queen of Sheba (go figure that one out). In the case of David and Bathsheba (D+B), Susan Hayward plays the character with a great deal of sensitivity and pathos, which is exactly how one might imagine her to be. It works because Gregory Peck is, well, Gregory Peck. That man could do no wrong!

I am amused by some of the errors, not least the Magen David/Shield of David emblems on the shields in S+S and to a lesser degree in D+B. A little research would have informed the scriptwriters that the symbol has only been a Jewish symbol for less than a thousand years! If they’d used a menorah instead, they would have struck the right note.

The dialogue in all three films is pretty stilted although at least in D+B, which is less of a Biblical ‘swords and sands’ epic and more of a character study, it is used pensively and expressively. Without a doubt, the most entertaining and memorable is S+D but with Cecil B. De Mille as director, that’s to be expected.

I also can’t miss out mentioning one of the all-time unusual credits – the famous Zionist Revisionist Vladimir Jabotinsky wrote a book on Samson and this one of the sources used in the film. Sadly (or perhaps not), he didn’t live long enough to see the result.

Most of all, at least these films, in their glorious Technicolour grandeur provide some sort of idea of how life in the Bible might have transpired. The granddaddy of them all is of course “The Ten Commandments”, which was made midway through and was released in 1956. It manages to provide spectacle, entertainment, fantastic effects, which stand up even today and Charlton Heston as Moses. I suspect he might have been Gd’s choice if he’d been consulted!

It’s possibly not everyone’s idea of the Bible, but compared to some recent films (like Ridley Scott’s 2014 film, ‘Gods and Kings’ which I really disliked), these old chestnuts seem like absolute classics….not unlike the famous book they’re based on.

Before the internet, Hollywood helped to provide some imaginative ideas that lived on this little boy’s mind and for that, I will be forever grateful.

12th June Shabbat Edition

I’ve been reading a book recently that’s upset me a great deal. It describes in graphic and gruesome detail numerous incidents where numerous and famous members of our nation have been directly responsible for cold-blooded murder, incest, rape, theft and kidnapping. This book has affected me so much that I have written to Amazon and requested that it be removed immediately from sale. I’m even considering creating a petition that, if I can collect enough signatures, will be presented to the No 10 Downing Street. Yes, I’m that bothered.

I emailed Amazon a few days ago and received the following response this morning:

“Dear Rabbi Wolf, thank you for your email and comments.

Whilst we appreciate your legitimate concerns and sympathise with your plight, I’m sorry to report that Amazon cannot consider removing a book that has sold an estimated five billion copies worldwide, namely The Bible”.

What can I do? I can’t conceive of any tome that paints our nation, our ancestors in a more negative light. In the first few chapters, you have descriptions of fratricide, sodomy, incest between a father and his daughters, brothers selling their sibling into slavery…should I continue? And they haven’t even made it into Egypt yet.

Reading through the rest of the Tanach, the situation doesn’t improve either, with brutal tribal infighting, civil wars including an almost genocidal war between the eleven tribes and Benjamin and this is before the establishment of two Monarchies! How can we treasure these books when they depict us in such a negative light – the first of which is held to be dictated letter for letter by Gd to Moses.

There is a movement afoot to ‘cleanse’ Britain of its colonialist past. It started with the forceable removal of an offensive statue and seems to be gaining pace, to the point that a side-splittingly funny episode of ‘Fawlty Towers’ has been removed from a cable channel because it might insult somebody or other. The statue of Winston Churchill, who single-handedly stood up to Hitler and the Cenotaph, where the annual commemoration ceremony for those who lost their lives protecting this country, have been boarded up to protect them from being defaced and potentially ruined.

Where will this end?

My deliberately flippant reference to the Bible, our Tanach is very much tongue-in-cheek because what makes the Tanach so invaluable to Judaism (and by extension, Christianity and Islam) is its refusal to whitewash the frailty of humanity and the mistakes that our ancestors made, which we struggle to understand – and that is the reason why we need to comprehend what happened and how we can improve ourselves as a result of knowing our history. It presents us with the cold hard reality and knowledge that if we act in a certain way, it is inevitable that we will suffer a similar fate. Humans don’t change. Situations might be different, but we need the Tanach to show us the way to mould our behaviour so that we can improve ourselves and be the “best that we can aspire to be”.

Similarly, removing damaging or removing statues of people who, though great, were also human and committed human acts, does not make the history that they were involved in forming any more palatable. Do they honestly believe that if they remove the statues, they will remove the history attached to the people portrayed? I need to know that certain people were flawed and although being a slave-owner is completely unacceptable in these days, this wasn’t the case two hundred years ago. I can’t know how to better myself if I don’t have a point of reference on which to improve my own personality. What transpired in the Bible doesn’t happen in the same way today, but perhaps because we’ve witnessed the traps that our ancestors fell into, we might be able to learn how to avoid them and their misfortune will be our gain.

George Santayana famously said: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

In these troubling times, I cannot conceive a more appropriate quote.

10th June Week 12

I’m going to start by stating my position that I completely condemn the actions taken by a group of people who toppled the statue of Edward Colston and threw it into the river. That they have started a movement across the country to achieve the removal of statues of controversial historical figures does not excuse their criminal behaviour. What they did was illegal and I strongly believe that they should be prosecuted as a result.

If we are however trying to redress the balance for all ethnic minorities, we should make people aware of the actions of Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester, who died in 1265. He was a French nobleman who led "baronial opposition to the rule of Henry III" and is remembered as being one of the ‘progenitors of modern parliamentary democracy’. He went to war against the King and became "the de facto ruler over England" playing a major role "in the constitutional development of this country". Several prestigious institutions have been named after him, including de Montfort University and the nearby de Montfort Hall as well as a school and bridge in nearby Evesham. He even has a statue adorning the Haymarket Memorial Clock tower in Leicester.

Simon de Montfort also expelled the Jewish Community from Leicester in 1231 stating that they should remain banished "in my time or in the time of any of my heirs to the end of the world". When he returned to England after a Crusade in 1261, he cancelled all debts owed to Jews and part of this action included the massacre by his son, Henry and Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby of five hundred Jews in Worcester and London. There were further massacres by another son, also named Simon (what a lovely family) in Winchester. Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester continued the bloodbath in Canterbury. In 2001,Leicester City Council released a formal statement that ‘rebuked de Montfort for his blatant anti-Semitism’ whilst de Montfort University still thrives to this day, and I recall a successful advertising campaign on TV several years ago. I wonder if he will be included in this new “cleansing operation”.

This country seems to be in the process of trying to rectify mistakes from its past. I hope that, in doing so, it also remembers that we Jews have also suffered a great deal at the hands of the indigenous population.

If the statues of slave traders like Edward Colston and Robert Milligan, we at least deserve to have monuments and institutions dedicated to de Montfort renamed.

Keep safe and be blessed.

7th June #76

I’ve long been a fan of history and maybe, in a different life, I might have read the subject at University. What if I had – would I have chosen a different career?

A relatively recent phenomenon is the appearance of “Alternative History”.

This is a fictional attempt to ask the question “what if….” different historical events had not transpired.

What if JFK had not been assassinated? How would this has impacted on the Vietnam War?

What if the gun that Mark Chapman used to kill John Lennon had jammed and his victim would be with us today?

What if the US had not successfully landed a man on the moon? How would this have changed the space-race?

What if Pearl Harbour had been averted? How would this have determined America’s entry into the war?

What if Hitler had not been successful in taking Germany into the war?

What if the British Government had decided to act sooner on COVID-19

What if?

Writers like Philip K. Dick (“The Man in the High Tower”, 1962) and Robert Harris (“Fatherland”, 1992) have created fascinating and disturbing alternative universes which portray history as being from the side of the victors, Nazi Germany and the result is highly unsettling. If you recall the 1960s, a gritty film called “It Happened Here” dramatized the successful invasion of Britain. It still makes for chilling viewing.

What if?

Did you ever see a film called “Sliding Doors” with Gwyneth Paltrow? The story centred around the protagonist, a young woman who boards a Tube train and as a result, the arc of her life leads in a particular direction.It then contrasts this, with the scenario where she misses the train by an instant and is stopped from boarding the train by the closing of the sliding doors – hence the title of the film – and as a result, her future follows a very different path. In other words, reality and its alternative.

In truth, this concept is not new at all. How many of us wonder what would have happened had Adam and Eve told the snake to get ‘on his bike’ and leave them alone?

Did they really have the choice to make? It’s the old chestnut of Gd providing us with the freedom to make our choices versus Divine Determinism. Assuming that we believe in Gd and that He knows what will happen, why give us choices if we’re going to end up exactly in the same place, because our lives have been pre-determined anyway. It is beyond the scope of this piece to discuss such a topic and it would take more than a few lines to present all the arguments, but there isn’t a day when someone doesn’t ask precisely the same question. I don’t have the answer, but as a person of faith, I do believe that events happen for a reason and though it is always interesting to ask “what if…..?”, does it help to provide us with a better understanding of the world?

History is a record of causes and effects. Because this took place, that happened. Perhaps those events transpired to protect us from worse scenarios. Maybe they were there to teach us a lesson?

Life doesn’t make sense much of the time, and we often wonder why such and such has taken place. Could it be that these are there to remind that we are but human and as great as we think we might be, at the end of the day, Gd is really in charge of everything.

And for those of us who have faith, the greatest question is not ‘what if’ but why. And that’s a whole different discussion.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

5th June #74 and #75

There are a couple of news stories from this week that have featured very much at the forefront of my mind. Firstly, of course, the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent riots across the United States and secondly, the recent distressing news about Madeleine McCann.

I’m going to discuss the latter before the former. We were all shocked when we heard about little Madeleine’s disappearance and hoped that she would soon her reunited with her parents, Kate and Gerry along with her twin siblings, Sean and Amelie.

Thank Gd, there aren’t many people who would know what it must feel like to be in their position. I took a particular interest in the story because Madeleine was around the same age as my youngest daughter (lehavdil elef havdalot – to make a thousand distinctions between both girls) and they would have been in the same year at school. Additionally, Gerry and Kate are a few months younger than I, so we too would have shared classes had we been at school together. I know how wonderful it feels to see my daughter growing up and can’t even imagine the pain that these poor people have endured over the last thirteen years. Their tragic story has shaken me deeply.

I didn’t know George Floyd but I do understand what it feels like to be a minority and to endure a modicum of racism, particularly in the last few years. However, this pales into insignificance when compared with the nasty, brutish, ugly, and unrelenting prejudice that impacts on the lives of Afro-Caribbean people on a daily basis, whether in this country or more violently ‘across the pond’.

In both of the above cases, my deepest sympathies and appreciation of the tragedies are no-doubt influenced by my being able to relate to the victims, both in terms of those directly affected and their wider family.

When tragedy strikes in a far-off country, our natural reaction is to be saddened but at the same time, breathe a sigh of relief knowing that it 'didn’t happen here' and therefore won’t affect me directly.

How many of us took too much notice when Covid19 started wreaking its deadly path through the city of Wuhan? We were very sorry to hear about it and it’s always upsetting to learn that fellow human beings are being struck down, but I thought it would remain confined to the Chinese mainland and at worse, ‘that part of the world’ just like the previous instances of SARS and Bird Flu.

I remember that I used to have a screensaver that fascinated me. It showed a live view of the globe and if you looked long enough, you could see the slow westerly spread of night-time across the world. Whilst Europe was bathed in light, the Far East and then the Middle East gradually changed hue. Within a short time, the darkness was edging into Europe. That’s how I initially viewed Covid19. It started spreading like a dark cloud in a westerly direction, until it had reached these shores and then, before long was striking at my fellow Londoners. This was no far-eastern SARS crisis. It was at my back door and it could even be inside my house.

In 1946, shortly after the end of the war, The German Pastor, Martin Neimöller famously wrote (in an abbreviated form)

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The Torah instructs us: “Do not ill-treat a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in Egypt.” (Shemot/Exodus 22.20)

So in this new version, Pastor Neimöller could have added:

Then they came for the Afro Carribeans/Americans, and I did not speak out –

Because I’m not an Afro Caribbean/American

Then they came for the grieving parents, and I did not speak out –

Because I’m not a grieving parent.

We could have taken the view of those who don’t speak out for Madeleine, George or their families because we have nothing in common with them. But then, we realise that it doesn’t take much for the Georges and Madeleines of the world to find themselves in different countries. Perhaps George might have died here in the same circumstances and an American Madeleine might have disappeared instead. In this age of our ever-shrinking world, we, the people who were slaves in Egypt, understand the plight of those who were slaves not-so-long-ago in the ‘developed world’. We cling to our families and thank Gd that we are blessed to have them, because we too, could Gd forbid find ourselves in the shoes of Gerry and Kate.

For the sake of Madeleine and George and their families, we must speak out because we believe that, were the ‘shoe to be on the other foot’ they too would speak out you and me.

Keep safe and have a blessed and peaceful Shabbat.

4th June #73

You probably haven’t heard of Ole Kirk Christiansen.

He was born in 1891 and died at the relatively early age of 66. A carpenter and master joiner by profession, he saw his business nose-dive during the first years of the 1930s Great Depression. If that wasn’t bad enough, his wife passed away too.

In 1932, Ole and his then twelve-year-old son, Godtfried opened a new business which focused on manufacturing items such as wooden stepladders and ironing boards. They decided to branch out in 1934 into the toy market and create wooden cars, aeroplanes and yoyos. He didn’t have a name for the company, so he launched a competition amongst the handful of staff and offered them a prize of a bottle of his home-made wine. He finally agreed on a name he had devised himself from two Danish words – “Leg” and “Godt” – which means “play” + “well” – and names the company “Lego”.

The first Lego bricks were made out of wood and this proved to be almost catastrophic when a ferocious and devastating fire destroyed his life’s work in 1942. At the time, he had a total of fifteen employees. Not to be deterred, he rebuilt the business and in 1949, started producing bricks in plastic. In 2019, Lego’s net income was 10.8 billion króna, which is equivalent to about £864 million. It is also the world’s largest toy manufacturer. The company is still owned and run by the Christiansen family.

What makes Lego unique is that every single brick fits another, irrespective of how old the set may be, so I could take a brick that I played with in my childhood and use it to construct a contemporary edifice.

Every construction starts with one brick and unless you are following instructions to build a particular model, you can connect colours to one another. When children start playing with Lego, they don’t care whether a red brick is attached to a green one, a white brick sits below a black one or a yellow and brown set form the bottom layer of a wall. It really doesn’t matter which is used because the most important consideration is that the object that the child is creating is solid and won’t break if another brick is added to a row.

In a child’s Lego box, every brick is equal, irrespective of its colour. Every brick connects, irrespective of its colour. Every brick helps to create a structure, irrespective of its colour.

A friend of mine who is Principal of a High School in the United States gave a powerful and moving assembly over Zoom to the students in the upper school. He was talking about the murder of George Floyd and rioting that is currently taking place.

He said that in Bereshit/Genesis, “Gd created man in His own image, in the image of Gd He created him”. It doesn’t say that He created a black or brown or white man, simply a man who was in “His image”. There was no differentiation because like Lego bricks, it really doesn’t matter. You can build a structure with bricks of any colour and what matters is how many you use for the foundations and how you choose to construct them, because each brick is as important as the one it connects to. Because if a society is to grow and flourish, you need people to work together, connect to each other and help each other to build the foundations that are needed to underpin the structure. If one of the bricks comes off, the whole structure can crumble or alternatively, if a few more are knocked off, it doesn’t take much for the wall to give way.

Ole Kirk Christiansen didn’t care which colours he used to create his gift to the world; that was never part of the plan. The universal legacy of the toy means that a child in any country in the world can obtain a Lego set and build whatever structure takes his/her fancy. All that he/she needs to proceed and succeed is imagination and this is fired up when he/she joins two bricks together.

Lego doesn’t discriminate, so why should we?

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

3rd June #72

Once seen, this movie twist is never forgotten and I’m not about to reveal it here. Suffice to say that ‘Planet of the Apes’, is in my humble opinion, one of the greatest science fiction films (from the book by Pierre Boulle) ever made - and the sequels aren’t too bad either (although the final “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” was by far the weakest). Casting aside Tim Burton’s shabby and unnecessary remake, although the recent trilogy didn’t quite reach the emotional heights of the original series, they did provide for thought and I wouldn’t be surprised if the final movie’s scriptwriters went back to the Torah to come up with a script (both Stephnie and I noticed some very Mosaic references).

For those who don’t know the original story, it centres on a team of astronauts who travel to the future and land on a distant planet where history seems to have been turned on its head, whereby apes are the masters and humans are subservient to these simians. The late 1960s/early 1970s series was so successful that it led to a spin-off TV series in 1974 which unfortunately got cancelled by the network after one season as it was branded a “costly failure” due to plummeting ratings.

As I have the original (and newer) films, I thought it would be fun to purchase the TV series which I have been watching occasionally. Like its feature film parent, the episodes were very well written and thought-provoking. Perhaps it may have fared better had it not come immediately on the back of the movies.

I mention all the above because whilst watching an episode entitled “The Cure”, I did a double take. The premise is that two different astronauts have landed on this planet and spend their time fleeing the apes accompanied by their friend, a young chimp called Galen played to perfection by the wonderful Roddy McDowell, which you might recall as being one of the actors who had also starred in the original movies. On their travels, they stay in different locations befriending the population.

Back to the episode. It turns out the humans in a village are dying of a “plague” (you can see where I’m going with this) until the astronauts, Alan and Pete realise that they have been infected with malaria bearing mosquitoes (from a nearby swamp) and they need to come up with a cure from a nearby clump of cinchona trees whose bark is used to make Quinine (how handy!). Sounds familiar? Where the double take took place is the casual use of words that have returned to haunt us, such as ‘quarantine’, masks and gloves. I hadn’t expected to find something so contemporary in a forty-six-year-old show.

This led me to thinking about how blessed our generation has been to have lived without a plague for so long. Until recently, I would have taken the story in my stride and continued with my day, but this stopped me in my tracks. After all, aren’t we all looking for the cure?

The Tanach (Kings II, Chapter 5) tells us about Naaman, who was the commander of the army of the king of Aram (ancient Syria) (Rashi tells us that he was the unnamed archer who slew King Ahab).

He was also a leper. In a series of raiding parties into the northern kingdom of Israel, the army had captured a young Israelite girl, and she ended up as Naaman’s wife’s maidservant. She told her master that he should go to the Prophet Elisha and perhaps he would be able to help him heal from his condition.

Naaman spoke with the King of Aram who agreed to send a letter to the King of Israel requesting (along with ten hand talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of clothing) that he should heal him of his leprosy. When the King of Israel received the letter, he panicked, knowing that he couldn’t heal the commander and the failure to do so might very well lead to war. Elisha heard of the King’s dilemma (which included ripping his clothes in grief and worry) and suggested that Naaman approaches him directly. The communication came through and Naaman travelled to Elisha’s house. As he stood in the doorway, the prophet sent his messenger telling him to bathe in the River Jordan and dip therein seven times, which would heal his leprosy.

Namman was apoplectic with rage feeling slighted that Elisha had not come out to greet him personally and whilst he was there, would wave his hand over the commander’s leprous region and immediately heal him (Harry Potter style).“Are not the Amanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Do I not always bathe in them? Have I become cleansed? Then he turned and went in a fury.”

His servants managed to persuade him to follow the advice which he did. After seven immersions, his flesh “became like the flesh of a young boy, and he became cleansed”. He returned to Elisha thank him and said “Behold, now I know that there is no Gd in the whole world except in Israel! And now, please accept a tribute from your servant.” The story relates how Elisha refused the money, despite Naaman’s pleas and the subsequent episode regarding Elisha’s servant Gehazi who disobeyed his master and chased Naaman for the reward. That’s a different story.

In both of the aforementioned stories, the search for a cure takes a number of routes and not the type that one would have expected. However, in both cases, men use their talents and wisdom to find cures from different locations. In the UK and abroad, there are many eminent scientists who are working day and night to find a cure and a vaccine to relieve the world of Covd-19. Sometimes the most obvious solution might be the hardest to work out, but we must not lose hope that they will succeed in their endeavours. As a person of deep faith, I pray that if we do our bit, Gd will chip in too. This is the concept of Hishtadlut, otherwise known as “Gd helps those who help themselves”.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

2nd June #71

As the child of Belgian parents, I had the fortune of growing up in a Francophile house, where French was the language spoken at home.

I only learned English when I went to nursery. This has served me well in life and I am proud to be bilingual, which enables me to both read and write French.

However, this meant that I was brought up listening to the French nursery rhymes like ‘sur le pont d’Avignon’, ‘meuniers tu dors? (ton moulin va top vite)’, ‘au clair de la lune’ and ‘alouette’.

In the same vein, the stories that were read to me by my parents when going to sleep were not of English extraction!

Before The Beatles and before musicals, my influences came to me from across the Channel and consisted of cartoon characters like Lucky Luke and the king of them all, Tintin.

By the time I’d probably reached my seventh or eighth birthday, I knew every single book and storyline by heart. This was not surprising, giving that my mother had also been an avid fan since her childhood. She tells me that she read the books on a daily basis! I was also lucky to be living at a time when Hergé was still alive, so remember clearly the excitement I felt when my mother presented me with a very special gift – the book that would turn out his last fully realized adventure “Tintin and the Picaros” in 1976. He started work on his last book, ‘Tintin and the Alpha Art’ but this remains frustratingly incomplete. The artist who spent his life trying to escape the shadow of his creation and suffered for his art, perhaps ended up having the last laugh.

In those heady days of the ‘70s and particularly during my childhood, certain earlier stories were hitherto unknown to me, such as the very first adventure, dating from 1929, namely “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets” and the openly racist “Tintin in Congo” was also not part of my collection. Neither was the third book, “Tintin in America’. Although my first acquaintance with the boy reporter had been through the French albums (albeit the later colour editions) , I soon preferred the English versions, although these, days I’m happy to read either version (and I don’t mean this to sound as if I’m showing off.)

I had no idea about the history of how the albums came to be created or of Herge’s controversial past, having been accused not only of collaborating with the Nazis but also peddling in some antisemitic stereotypes, namely the ‘large nosed’ American villain in 1942’s “The Shooting Star”. As a child, I certainly did not notice this. I also didn’t realise how politically astute they were and their role as one of the most influential and important series of books emerging from the 20th Century. If read in chronological order, they cover the centuries key historical events, from the Russian Revolution and African colonialism through Prohibition, the Sino-Japanese conflict of the 1930s, pre-war political machinations in Europe, Black Magic in Peru, The Cold War, The Space Race and even until the various ‘banana republics’ of 1970s South America. They are simply history in animated form. I liked the Asterix books too, but they didn’t come near to the brilliance exhibited by Herge.

My love for all things Tintin (I believe they call me a “Tintinophile”) has stayed with me to this present day, not least in the sheer enjoyment I derive from viewing the cartoons and marvelling at Hergé’s obsession and genius for recreating actual objects in precise detail.

Which brings me to a topic that I discussed back in IB #58, trying to separate the artist from his creations. The jury is out as to whether Hergé was a collaborator or simply a very naïve individual who, instead of refusing to work for nationalist newspapers like the extreme right wing ‘Le Vingtième Siècle’ - he drew comics in the junior section ‘Le Petit Vingtième’) and then the Nazi controlled ‘Le Soir’ – settled for a practical option of finding work in an occupied country. He paid for this dearly after the war when he became persona non grata in his homeland for a few years.

I would like to hope that it’s a case of the latter, which doesn’t excuse what he did, but perhaps explains how sometimes art and politics are forever to be intertwined. After all, there is nothing apolitical about Picasso’s ‘Guernica’.

My love of Tintin and his adventures has led me down some fascinating paths. I was unaware until I was in my late teens that an earlier edition of “The Land of Black Gold” included a fascinating subplot where Tintin lands in Haifa, during the British Mandate and is arrested by the British who think he is a member of the Irgun! Hergé even draws shopfronts in Hebrew. Could this be his way of trying to exonerate himself from the earlier charges?

I could write and write ad infinitum about how influential Hergé’s creations have become over the last ninety years but suffice to say that my childhood and Tintin are so closely fused that to my dying day, he will always represent a wonderful set of memories. You can take a great deal from someone but if they have been blessed to have had a happy childhood, it really helps when adult life becomes challenging.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

1st June #70

It is a sickening and deeply disturbing image.

A policeman is deliberately asphyxiating a man using his left knee to kill him. All the while, his hand tucked into his pocket and his expression can only be described as one of disgust and contempt for the victim below. The man is begging to breathe whilst another officer watches the scene casually.

The offshoot of the incident is rioting in numerous cities across the United States. Businesses that may have taken years to become established have been destroyed and a 19 year old teenager has been shot dead. By the time you read this, no doubt more destruction and perhaps deaths will have occurred.

In chemistry, certain chemicals react well when combined and as a result create a new substance. When solid sodium metal reacts with chlorine gas, the result you get is sodium chloride, otherwise known as salt. However, other chemicals don’t work so well when combined. For example, the toxic mix of fluorine and hydrogen creates hydrogen fluoride, a highly poisonous gas.

When one looks at the crisis that has erupted in the last week and tries to make sense of it, two different points of view emerge:

1. The actions of the police

2. The reactions of the protestors

Over three thousand years ago, the Torah provided a model for the kind of reactions that would lead to a society which values ‘salt’ over ‘poisonous gas’.

“Judges and Officers (in our parlance, police officers) shall you appoint in all of your cities (Rashi - in each city), which the Lord, your Gd gives you for your tribes” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 16.18)

The Torah’s message is plain. If you wish to create a healthy society, you have to start with the organs of government that set the parameters which enable that society to operate smoothly.

The Justice System must be above any reproach and by extension, needs to be respected by the people whom it protects.

Lord Acton’s dictum of “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” could not be more appropriate. Where you don’t appoint or in this case, thoroughly vet, representatives of the Law who don’t believe in the system they have been employed to uphold, you have chaos. Just take a current look at the streets of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles.

With regard to the protestors, the Torah is just as unequivocal in its warnings.

Along with the numerous laws of criminal damage listed in Shemot/Exodus (Chapter 21), one of the tractates of the Talmud (and by extension, the Mishna in the book of Nezikin - damages), Bava Kama deals in great detail with precisely this area. One only needs to look at the verse which ends the Book of Judges (Shoftim) : ‘In those days, there was no king in Israel; a man could do whatever was proper in his eyes’ to appreciate what can happen where a society lives without rules (Judges Chapters 19-21 being a case in point).

A society where the rule of law is corrupted and the subjects feel they can behave as they wish is as dangerous as reacting chemicals. Once joined together, there is no knowing what the outcome will be.

Let us hope that there are enough people who can see enough sense to calm the situation down and as result America takes a long hard look at itself.

I’m not holding my breath, but I refuse to accept these injustices as fait accompli.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

31st May #69

The festival of Shavuot afforded me some generous time to catch up on one of my favourite hobbies, which is reading. One of the topics I decided to investigate, in wishing to link some of my reading with the festival was an understanding of what happened in the Beit Hamikdash/Temple (another hobby) over Shavuot.

Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea as I found out, to my chagrin, that I would have made a pretty lousy Cohen.

This may not mean a great deal because:

a) I’m not a Cohen

b) I’m not living at a time when, if I were a Cohen, I would be required to officiate in the Beit Hamikdash.

However, it would have been gratifying had I been a Cohen, that I could have mastered at least one of the skills that they were required to utilize in their Avodah/Holy worship – that of baking.

Stephnie is rightly critical of my lack of culinary skills.

She had fervently hoped that encouraging me to spend five-and-a-half-years of my life studying to be a Rabbi and focusing on the most Jewish of topics, the laws of Kashrut (aka food) would have meant my spending some time, heck, any time in the kitchen – but this didn’t happen. I can go into the minutiae of what happens if you pour cold a drop of milk into a bowl of chicken soup or whether an antisemiticly inclined shrimp feels the need to jump into a bowl of cheesy pasta (don’t ask because it could happen….), but beyond these technical examples, my mastery of anything beyond boiling an egg, sticking a pizza into an oven or even successfully making some pasta is shamefully lacking.

I am embarrassed about my poor kitchen skills and know that if only I spent more time in that wonderful room, my experience would launch me (in baby steps) into a world of delights that are beyond my wildest dreams…but it hasn’t happened yet.

I look at my friends and relatives’ delicious efforts on Facebook and loudly applaud each cheesecake, honey cake, birthday cake (can you spot the theme yet?) they eagerly remove from their ovens and share the photographic evidence online but as-of-yet, my only shots demonstrate some challah I made for ShabbatUK and that was a long time ago.

Still, let’s say I were to be a baker and a Cohen (they are not mutually exclusive) and we were living at the times of the last Beit Hamikdash, would I have stood a chance in the Temple kitchens?

So my dear friends, I will set a challenge for you today and provide a recipe that is found in the Mishna and Rambam. Before you go out and make it, please be aware that one of its stipulations was that it could only be prepared and baked in one of the rooms off the Azarah (The Court of the Priests) for consumption by the Cohanim over Shavuot. Since we don’t have the Azarah or those gainfully employed Cohanim, we are referring to a historical event – and I’m more adept at the history bit!

In essence, the Jews had to bring a New Meal/Minchah Chadasha Offering that would be used to create the Twin Loaves/Shtei Halechem required over Shavuot. These were created from the Bikkurim, the first fruits that were brought up by the pilgrims. At this time of year, the only products that could be harvested were wheat and barley (the Bikkurim were solely comprised of the seven kinds of fruits or vegetables specified in the Torah and these were: wheat, barley, figs, dates, olives, pomegranates and grapes.)

Ingredients:

Approx. 24 litres (equivalent to three Biblical Se’ah) Newly harvested wheat

Leaven (I don’t know what type and how much but the Cohanim did, so we can trust them on this.)

Method of Preparation:

The Cohen would rub the stalks of wheat 300 times and beat them with their hands 500 times (there was no ‘Kenwood Chef’ in those days!)

He would rub once, beat twice, rub twice, beat thrice….and repeat the process 100 times. This will remove the husk (this is explained by the Rambam/Maimonides in the Mishna Torah (Issurei Mizbeach 7:5)

The grains are then ground and sifted very well. Some say he would do this by hand, but other commentators, including the Rambam say that he would use his foot (ouch!)

The very coarse flour is poured into a large grinder (again, non-electrical) where it is ground very finely by at least two Cohanim who walk in a circle pushing a stick (non-technical term) which controls a large grinding wheel. Hopefully you get the picture. Only the finest milled flour can be used.

The flour is then removed and sifted through twelve different sifters, one after another and each sifter has a finer mesh than the one which preceded it.

This results in the production of two esronim of the finest ground flour, which is equivalent to about 5 litres (Tractate Menachot 6.7).

Another Cohen (and perhaps his friend/brother/cousin) kneads separate loaves at which point leaven is added and forms them into a specific rectangular shape with raised corners (as per Rashi).

Each loaf is baked separately in a designated oven and when removed, are placed onto special trays (Menachot 11.1)

The loaves are ready to eat….by the Cohanim in another part of the Azarah (and interestingly enough, are one of the few examples of chametz being eaten in the Beit Hamikdash).

Having the read the above method, I don’t think it would be unreasonable of me to feel a little nervous of wishing to take on a priestly role!

That said, even the Cohanim had to train to become the master chefs they undoubtedly were…

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

28th May #66 - #68

I’ve written before that no-one really knows the distance between Goshen and Mount Sinai except for the fact that it took the Bnei Yisrael/Israelites forty-nine days or seven weeks to reach their destination. They left Egypt as people steeped in the idolatrous Egyptian culture and over the next month-and-a-half gradually elavated their moral standing to the level where they would be deserving of the incredible gift that they received from Gd at Mount Sinai.

It was a short journey that led to a very long and worthwhile outcome, the benefits of which we are still reaping today.

The Torah is as integral and vital to the Jewish people as water is to living organisms.

Ahad Ha’am, the pseudonym of the poet Asher Ginsburg famously wrote: “More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews”. I would add the same quote with regard to the Torah, for without it, without hesitation, we would not be here today.

Sinai and the giving of the Torah represents and symbolizes the marriage of Gd and the Israelites, where Gd is the bridegroom, and we, his bride. On the eve of Shavuot (Erev Shavuot), the Israelites were in position to enter into that covenant.

Sixty years ago, on Erev Shavuot, another meeting took place in a different location.

It was Tuesday, 31st May 1960 and young man in his early thirties had travelled about 3,600 miles from New York to the Paris to spend the festival with some cousins.

Unbeknownst to him, a young lady was also travelling to the same destination, albeit from the shorter distance of approximately 220 miles from her home city of Antwerp.

That evening, they would meet for the first time and nearly a year-and-a-half later, they too would enter into a covenant of marriage, which happily lasts to this day, fifty-eight-and-a-half-years later.

Paris, the city of light and romance became a midway meeting point for the boy from America and the girl from Belgium.

Shavuot, when the beautiful flowers were in full bloom both on Mount Sinai and in the lovely boulevards of Gay Paree was the catalyst that led to my parents meeting each other and for me, has always been one of my favourite holidays.

How could I not hold the festival in such high esteem when it directly impacted on my being here in the first place?

Simply stated - at the heart of each selfless encounter lies the majesty of the Torah and its focus on educating us and providing us with a peerless moral compass.

Wishing my parents a huge mazeltov on this special anniversary and may they be blessed with continued good health ‘until 120’ and beyond.

To my fellow brethren, Chag sameach and may the Torah continue to inspire you and provide you with meaning and nothing but inner health and boundless joy.

Keep safe and be blessed.

27th May #65

There is a cute joke currently making the social networking rounds:

“A priest, a rabbit and a minister walk into a bar.

The bartender asks the rabbit: “what’ll you have?”

The rabbit says: “I dunno, I’m only here because of autocorrect.”

It reminds me of the time in the late 1980s when the animated film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” was released in the cinemas.

If you remember, they used to display the names of the films on a large white grid over the front entrance. At the Ionic Cinema, near Golders Green Station (which is now a Sainsburys), there must have been a gust of wind, because the Jewish Chronicle delighted in printing a picture with the legend of “Who Framed Roger Rabbi?”

What is it about rabbis and rabbits….and did Richard Adams realise how bizarre it was to name one of the protagonists in his book, ‘Watership Down’, ‘The Chief Rabbit’?

Jokes aside, I’m quite a stickler for spelling and grammar.

I know I shouldn’t, but I cringe when I hear people (mostly amongst the younger generations) coming out with comments like ‘we was going’ or the equally bothersome ‘them things’.

That said, I am as guilty as the next person of firing off texts or WhatsApp messages with ghastly mistakes (which I will of course blame on autocorrect!) such as ‘have a lonely’ instead of ‘lovely’ day….which someone rightfully picked me up on and suggested that I probably meant the latter (I did). In these days of ‘text speak’, I really should be more aware of checking what I have written before pressing the arrow/send/enter button!

The Torah is unfortunately not immune to odd scriptural error.

Over time, a number of typographical errors have slipped into the text, which is one of the reasons we have a concept of “keri ketiv”, where the word is leined (chanted) differently to the way it appears in the text.

Orthodox Judaism believes that every single letter in the Torah was transmitted directly from Gd to Moses, however, that doesn’t mean that over the last three thousand years, errors have not crept in.

It is beyond the scope of this short piece to explain how this happened and I would recommend that if you would like to delve into this more, read an interesting article on the topic on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qere_and_Ketiv).

It is our love for the Torah and our dedication to making sure that we accurately communicate the message that Gd gave our greatest teacher, that dictates the manner in which we read and recite these holy words.

Our Sages tell us that Gd created the world in ten utterances and indeed, the literally meaning of Aseret Hadibrot is the “Ten Words” (but the “Ten Commandments” sounds more exciting!)

Gd therefore teaches us that language is the finest tools that we can use to transmit our thoughts, either verbally or scripturally.

If we err in our spelling and/or grammar through carelessness or laziness, we do ourselves and others a disservice - and when a rabbi becomes a rabbit or vice-versa, one of the two might get offended!

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

26th May #64

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25th May #63

“And the Lord said: “My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for that he is also flesh and therefore shall his days be a hundred and twenty year(s).” (Bereshit/Genesis 6.3)

“And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 34.7)

The Torah is bookended by the message that human life on earth would last for up to one hundred and twenty years.

This is a bracha we say when someone has a birthday (especially when they are a little older). In Hebrew, it is “ad meah ve’esrim shana” and in Yiddish, “bis a hundredt in tzvantzig” (the lovely thing is that both languages are written in Hebrew, so every transliteration is approximate).

Today would have been my maternal grandmother’s one hundred and twentieth birthday (in the Gregorian calendar – she was born a week after Lag-Ba’omer, but I don’t know at which time of the day or night, so I can’t be sure of her Hebrew birthdate.)

Hetty (Henriette) Bienenzucht was born in Podgorje, a suburb of Krokow, the youngest of three sisters, her siblings being Giselle (known as Giza) and Cécile.

Tante Cécile died in 1989 at the ripe old age of 101 and both her and my grandmother are buried nearby in Bushey Cemetery whilst Giza is buried in the Dutch part of Putte.

I was born after Giza died but Tante Cécile was very much part of my life, along with my grandmother when I was growing up. Two of my daughters carry the names of both my grandmother and Tante Cécile. Both my grandmother and great-aunt have very special places in my heart.

Grandma, or mémé as I called her, left Poland as a little girl when the family moved to Antwerp. Tragically, her mother died at an early age when mémé was only twenty. She didn’t live long enough to see her youngest daughter marry my grandfather in 1925 (and in the end, she was the only one of the three who did get married).

She did not have an easy life.

Living through two world wars, she suffered a great deal and spent the last ten years of my grandfather’s life caring for him and demonstrating her adoration for her “Phili” who was the love of her life.

I remember her well.

She was the epitome of a lady. Always beautifully dressed and refined to the highest degree, from the manner in which she spoke to the way she held her cutlery. She was also a very special human being.

My grandfather passed away when I was half-a-year, so I didn’t have the benefit of seeing them together. However, one of the treats I used to have as a child was when my mother would take out an old cine projector and screen and show us reel-to-reel movies of their lives before and after the war. I really loved those evenings. They also showed me my parents before I’d known them, getting married, honeymooning and enjoying their lives together.

There was a fabulous colour film shot just before the war in Knokke, a seaside resort along the Belgian coast, showing my grandparents, young and carefree accompanying their young children, my mother and uncle.

They were unaware of what was lurking around the corner. I have viewed the film so many times, I could recount it from memory.

After my grandfather died, my mother used to take me to Antwerp every few months to visit her and Auntie Cécile. I have vivid memories of a happy childhood spent in their beautiful apartment opposite the “Cholent” Park on the Rubenslei (Avenue de Rubens).

I remember sitting on mémé’s knee and making her laugh.

She had the most wonderful smile and her eyes glistened with pride as we laughed together.

They were unforgettable times.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the 1970s, her health started failing, and so we brought both her and Tante Cécile over to England where they lived in a nursing home a few minutes’ walk from our house in Golders Green. She passed away nearly thirty-five years ago on Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkot).

I have always remembered 25th May in her honour and wondered what would have happened if she’d been gifted a little more time so that she could meet her great-granddaughters.

They would have really loved her.

Today, I celebrate her birth and presence amongst us.

Those who knew her, still smile when they recount their memories of her.

She was an Eshet Chayil, a woman of valour whose price was far above rubies.

May she rest in eternal peace.

Be safe and have a blessed day.

24th May #62

I was a relatively late guest to the party and in hindsight, I wish I’d arrived earlier.

The men would shuffle into Shul, more casually dressed than I’d seen them in the morning and the Canter/Chazzan would start reciting Mincha in a tune that one only heard on Shabbat afternoons. These were the summer months when Shabbat exited way past my bedtime, so there was no rush to rattle off the prayer weekday style.

At the end of the Amidah after Kaddish, the men would sit down and some would start murmuring a long passage which they called ‘Pirkei Avot’ or ‘Ethics of the fathers’.

I wasn’t that interested as there seemed to be a lot of text to read, and I was feeling a little lazy on this Shabbat afternoon.

It’s a shame because I didn’t realize what I was missing.

Year passed, Pesach evaporated into a chametz-filled atmosphere and once again Pirkei Avot reappeared on the horizon.

This time though, I thought I’d take a look at the murmurings and reading a few verses, it was as though I’d stumbled in an Aladdin’s cave of phantasmagorical spiritual delight!

Wow! These weren’t just idle texts, designed to while away the hours, they were thoughtful and profound. Each verse a gem-encrusted pearl of wisdom that simply blew me away in their beauty.

My soul had found its purpose in life and I have not looked back since.

Pirkei Avot is one of the later tractates in the Mishnaic order of Nezikin (damages) and is the only one in the entire canon to focus entirely on ethical and moral principles. It talks about human behaviour and how we can work on our characters to bring out the best part of our personalities, both with regard to the way we treat ourselves and how we relate to others. It is, effectively, a guide book – maybe THE guide book on improving ourselves.

In modern parlance, it’s the first Jewish self-help manual.

Here are few that exemplify their beauty:

My own motto can be found in 1.14

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me.

It I am only for myself, who am I?

If not now, When?”

Three sentences that teach me more about how to act than possibly a thousand self-help guides!

How about 4.26-27

Rabbi Yose of Kfar Bavli said: “When you learn from the young, what is it like? Like eating unripe grapes or drinking wine straight from the vat. When you learn from the old, what is it like? Like eating ripe grapes and drinking old wine. Rabbi Meir said: Do not look at the container but at what it contains, for a new flask may contain old win and an old flask may not contain anything, even new wine.”

Or finally, 5.13

There are four types of human character:

1. One who says: “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours”, is an average person, though some say that is the Sodom type.

2. One who says: “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine”, is an ignoramus.

3. One who says: “what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours”, is pious

4. One who says: “what’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine”, is wicked.

Both Ashkenazim and Sepharadim read a chapter over each Shabbat between Pesach and Shavuot, a time when we are counting our ascent, both physically and spiritually from the immorality that threatened to engulf us when we left Egypt, over the seven-week period until we reached the spiritual heights of receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. Since there are six Shabbatot between Pesach and Shavuot, the Rabbis added a sixth chapter and so, we finish the cycle on the Shabbat directly before Shavuot.

The Sepharadim then set aside the practice until the following year, whilst we Ashkenazim go back to the beginning and start over again, so that we are able to benefit from the wisdom throughout the summer until the Shabbat before Rosh Hashanah.

I always feel a slight tinge of sadness when we finish a round, as if I have lost a valued friend but as soon as we start, back at Chapter One the next Shabbat, my spirits are revived.

Yesterday, we finished the first round of six, which is the reason for today’s thoughts.

Like the Torah however, I know that every ending leads to a beginning and it is that thought, that idea, that wonderful concept in our religion that allows me to take a deep breath and rewind back to the start next Shabbat. It’s a trip that I am never sorry to restart, again and again and again.

Have a dip into the well yourself!

Keep safe and be blessed.

22nd May #60 and #61

Yershalayim.

Jerusalem.

Ir Shalem, Ir Shalom –The Complete City, the City of Peace.

What can I say about our spiritual home that hasn’t been uttered before?

How can I express words that can even come close to describing the eternal debt and boundless gratitude we feel to the boys and girls who fought for Jerusalem, but did not live to see her liberated?

How?

Jerusalem of Gold.

Jerusalem of Old.

I have related on many occasions the story of how my mother won first prize in a competition and was about to go to Israel with my father when the Six Day War broke out.

How they eventually walked through the Lion’s Gate in the recently and miraculously liberated city and made they way down to a rubble strewn vista in front of the Kotel.

How my mother, who was in her early pregnancy with me was so overwhelmed by standing at the Wall, that she didn’t know how to feel or what to say looking up at the Wall.

How the lady next to her was crying from the depths of her heart over the son she had recently lost, fighting to liberate our capital.

How my mother swore to herself that if the baby she was carrying in-utero were to be a boy, he would celebrate his Bar Mitzvah at the Wall.

How that baby did exactly that, just over thirteen years later.

How connected I feel to Jerusalem, not only as an extraordinarily proud Jew, but as someone who imbibed the spirituality of our holiest site whilst still in the womb.

Jerusalem, you are in my blood.

In my soul.

In my heart and in every single breath I inhale and exhale.

We are one.

One.

On 6th November 1980, I stood before the Kotel – the Western Wall, about to become a man.

Shortly after my Barmitzvah, I wrote a piece for my school magazine “Hasmonean” which was published in the following academic year (1981-2).

This is the article I penned nearly forty years ago.

“It was the day of my Barmitzvah.

I woke up. The sun was shining on my forehead.

This was November but I was not in England; I was in Tel Aviv, Israel, and I was in a hotel with a large window looking right onto the beach.

I got up and my mother met me. She had just got out of bed.

“Well”, she said: “Looking forward to your big day?” I grinned and said that I was.

My father had now begun to go downstairs. I got dressed. This was the day that I had waited for, so long.

After I was dressed, I went next door to my grandmother’s room (she had come all the way from New York) and brought her out looking beautiful.

We then went down to the dining room to have breakfast but I could not eat. Besides, I had not put on my tefillin.

After breakfast, we waited for our friends to pick us up to go to Jerusalem. Our friend’s husband was a taxi driver so he picked us up in a taxi and took us up to the Western Wall. The journey took about three-quarters-of-an-hour.

It was a perfect day. The sky was blue. The sun was hot, although it was early in the morning and the scenery on the road to Jerusalem had more meaning to me than at any other time.

We arrived at the Western Wall, the Kotel Hamaaravi, about five minutes late. We went towards the Kotel and we were given a praying table at one corner of the courtyard of the Kotel. All our guests were there before us.

My father started to pray, leading the congregation. I put my Tefillin on. The sun was beating on my forehead when I started to recite the portion of the Law but I did not feel the heat. I was not frightened now, in fact, I felt on top of the world. It was my Barmitzvah and I had been given the honour of reciting the Law at the most holy of places – The Kotel Hamaaravi.

During the week, one only ‘laines’ the first portion. I looked at my mother. She had tears in her eyes. My dad smiled at me proudly. “Well done”, he said. Then all at once I was surrounded by family and friends. They shook my hand. The women kissed me. It seemed like a dream…

The Rabbi there gave me certificates and a book on Israel. He also gave me a lovely Tallith and he made a speech. I felt proud. It was my day.

Then we went to the Hilton Hotel where there was a brunch prepared and I delivered my speech.

I thanked my parents for making this special day possible and my dearest wish on becoming a Barmitzvah in Israel. I talked about the members of my family who not be present.

I missed them, especially my grandfather who had died the year before.

It was the most beautiful even I have ever experienced and I never, never, never will forget it.”

Nearly forty years on and the memory of the day burns brightly in both my conscious and subconscious being.

Jerusalem is embedded deeply into my psyche and today, on Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day, her memory and my memory are one.

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither;

let my tongue stick to my palate if I cease to think of you,

if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiest hour.

(Psalm 137)

May Gd bless you Jerusalem in Heaven and on Earth and thank you from the deepest recess in my being.

You hold my heart, my soul and my memories in perpetuity.

Keep Safe and be blessed, Shabbat Shalom and Yom Yerushalayim Sameach.

21st May #59

In its literal sense, the commandment in Vayikra/Levitivus (19.14) which states:

“You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind.

You shall fear your Gd: I am the Lord” means the following:

1.    One is not allowed to take advantage of those members of society who are deaf, by thinking that we have a free pass to say whatever we like to them (including curses) because they won’t hear. (as an aside, Rashi adds those who can hear, but may nor be present when you insult them). This includes humiliating and embarrassing them without their knowledge.

2.    You shouldn’t cause a blind person to trip over objects.

3.    Gd sees everything and you will be accountable.

Our Rabbis however understood the second command, known in Hebrew as ‘lifnei iver – before a blind person’  to also refer to the prohibition of misleading or tricking someone with false information to gain an advantage over them or knowingly cause them to commit a transgression. Blindness, according to our rabbis related to much more than one’s sight. This is a powerful message, particularly in the wake of ‘insider trading’ and the kind of unscrupulous behaviour that has resulted in the demise of companies (Enron being a notable example) and people.

Sight is a precious gift that is not granted to all and the Torah recognized how easy it is to abuse a person who is not blessed with this sense.

Many years ago, before I qualified as a teacher, I worked in Jewish Care as a Project Manager in a Day Centre.

I was tasked with creating a new resource that would enable visually impaired and physically disabled people to have the ability to use computers.

It was one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever had.

I entered a bare, carpeted room which, within a year, would be furnished with state-of-the-art computer stations, enabling our clients in wheelchairs to use adapted keyboards and for the visually impaired, sophisticated screen-reading and magnifying software. One gentleman whose eyesight was minimal was eventually able to write his autobiography through using those machines.

Our many grateful clients and the wonderful, selfless volunteers who assisted them were simply inspirational.

Many activities, by their nature, preclude access by people with disabilities, but not computers. Not then. Not now.

The accessibility and adaptability of computers is fantastic.

When it came to applying to university to train as a teacher, I could have easily chosen to teach Business Studies, which would have made sense, granted that I had a BA in the subject.

Instead, I decided to go for ICT (Information and Communication Technology) as it used to be known where the majority of teachers would have left university with a BSC in Computing.

I was fortunate in that my degree had included IT as one of the core units and so I was proficient enough in my subject knowledge to teach the material to A Level standard and so I had no problem being accepted onto the course.

The main reason I chose ICT over Business was because it was a subject that I was more enthusiastic about and you don’t want to be teaching something that doesn’t excite you. How could I hope to engender in my students an interest and maybe even a love for the subject that I myself didn’t particularly enjoy?

Once I started teaching, I realized that reason I had opted for ICT was because of its breadth of scope. Unlike other subjects, it encompassed so many different skills and interests. Some children really enjoyed the creative side, such as learning how to use Photoshop or build their own websites. Others were budding accountants whose eyes glistened when they opened an Excel spreadsheet (I hope that these were tears of joy, rather than sheer frustration) and others loved the  challenges inherent in quizzing an Access database and creating colourful queries, using the fill tools. ICT seemed to have it all.

And best of all, it was open to everyone.

“You shouldn’t place a stumbling block before the blind” - computers represent the complete opposite.

For our young, they are the foundations they need to master get ahead in life.

For the young at heart, particularly in these trying times, they are the lifelines to feel a connection with the outside world.

For the seeing and the partially sighted.

For the hearing and the hard of hearing.

For the young and the not so young.

We have truly reached the digital age.

Long may it continue to bring different shades of light into our lives - with or without the amount of vision that is granted to us.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

20th May #58

It is a perennial question to which I have no answer.

How do you justify your respect and admiration and fondness for a piece of work created by a reprehensible human being.

Israel has been struggling with this question since its founding over seventy years ago. After all, Wagner is universally praised as being the composer of some of the greatest classical music the world has ever heard. His ‘Ring Cycle’ which took twenty-six years to compose and lasts for seventeen hours is often cited as being the ‘greatest opera ever written’ by many classical critics. An event held at the UNESCO Headquarters in 2013 was even titled: “Wagner: A Restless Genius”.

And yet the man was a self-acknowledged anti-Semite, whose words, ideas and racist outlook influenced Hitler and the Nazis, in a way that few others could achieve. One of the greatest composers in the history of music was also one of the greatest anti-Semites the world has ever known.

Can we really divorce the artist from his artistry?

Can I listen to his music in all good conscience, knowing without any hesitation that the man would have positively hated me?

This is a question that I ask because another of our ‘friends’, Roger Waters is, or rather, was, a co-founder of one of the most influential and talented bands of the last fifty years, namely, Pink Floyd.

I, like many others, really like their music.

There is no denying the power of “The Dark Side of The Moon” or the beautiful melodies that flow through “Wish You Were Here” to mention but two of their brilliant albums. They are supreme works of artistic creativity and originality, created by very talented individuals. They could not have existed had Mr Waters (I’m being polite) not been involved. He was instrumental (pun intended, I think) in their composition. And they are beautiful works of modern musical art.

Ah, but there’s the rub.

I’m a proud Jew and Zionist and Mr Waters is neither.

The man felt that he had to present his anti-Zionist message by having an inflatable pig emblazoned with a Star of David at a concert in Belgium back in 2013. If he had any sensitivity (which he doesn’t), he would realize that pigs are definite no-go in our religion and adding a Jewish symbol to it is about as insulting as one can get.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre placed him at number 3 in their annual list of top anti-Semites two years ago. He didn’t make the top two – number 1 being The massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue followed by the ‘charming’ Louis Farrakhan.

Mr Waters’ placing might be as a result of either not being as rabid in his pronouncements as number two, or he hasn’t killed any Jews. Being featured on the list at all should bring him no pride.

The truth is that he really doesn’t care and obsessively denies being antisemitic. Some of his best friends are Jews, don’t you know?

Last week, on 14th May, he gave a concert at an online ‘Nakba’ event in which he sang a charming little ditty which included the following lyrics he’d written for the event:

“We’ll walk hand in hand, and we’ll take back the land, from the Jordan River to the Sea.” I guess he’s not up for a two-state solution then!

Between people like Wagner and Waters (what is it with the ‘W’s – thank Gd I added ‘Vecht’ to my ‘Wolf’ surname – who knew?), those of us who end up being reviled by these artists wonder how we can reconcile their talent with their reprehensible attitudes.

I haven’t devised a solution yet and as a result of this dichotomy, deny myself the pleasure of listening to their output.

Maybe I will just to have to make do with watching Mr Waters gather enough rope to destroy his own reputation (he’s also fallen out with fellow bandmate David Gilmour) and any shred of respect he still has.

If at all.

Pirkei Avot (4.17) states: “Rabbi Shimon used to say: There are three crowns – the crown of Torah, the crown of the Priesthood, and the crown of Kingship. But the crown of a good name surpasses them all.”

Mr Waters might have created some wonderful music but as for his ‘good name’, that disappeared a long time ago and in time, his music, as special as it is, will always be tainted by the actions of its creator.

Just as you can’t separate Wagner from the Nazis, however brilliant his compositions were, so the same will apply to Roger Waters.

What a legacy eh?

Keep safe and have a blessed day

19th May #57

Looking at the news, one could be forgiven for feeling that the world as we know it, is about to change drastically as soon as ‘lock-down’ becomes ‘lock-up’ (no, that doesn’t work does it?).

Life is ever-changing and unpredictable and whilst the British Weather seems to be, unusually one of the few constants in our lives – it’s May and there’s sunshine for a few days – it is easy to forget that life could be much worse.

The Torah, in Parshat Shoftim (Devarim/Deuteronomy 16.20) states:

“Justice, justice shall you follow, so that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord, your Gd gives you”.

One hundred and eleven years ago, on 19th May, someone entered our world who embodied everything that the above quote is referring to.

His innate decency, honesty and dogged pursuit of justice, despite endangering his own life to save others, has resulted in his being recognized as one of the most loved and treasured members of our small nation. And the funny thing, is, he didn’t even consider himself Jewish.

But the children he saved, all six hundred and sixty-nine souls, as well as the countless generations that have been born through them, have never forgotten that they owe their lives to Sir Nicholas Winton (Of Blessed Memory).

Much has been written about this Tzaddik/Righteous Man.

When he was in his early thirties, he realized that justice had to be pursued and in doing so, ensured that the children he saved could inherit whichever land they chose to live in when they grew up, be it the UK, Israel or anywhere else in the world where Jews would be able to live securely. He took it upon himself to save those children and give them the gift of life in his own quiet, unassuming way.

He was the perfect example of our patriarch Avraham Avinu/Abraham who said very little but achieved a great deal.

The emotional episode of ‘That’s Life’ when he was reunited with some of the former children he saved (which still bring tears to our eyes) and the love that was showered upon him thereafter is a testament to how very special this wonderful human being was.

He lived until the grand old age of one-hundred-and-six and died, like Avraham “in a good old age, an old man and full of years” (Bereshit/Genesis 25.8) in the country that will forever honour his memory and be grateful for his sheer humanity.

Today, on his birthday, we remember this extraordinary, humble and unique individual, and we say just two words.

‘Thank you.’

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

18th May #56

When Gd created Adam and Eve, he made life very easy for them. In his very first communication with Mankind, Gd says the following - “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good or Bad, you must not eat thereof; for on the day you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.” (Bereshit/Genesis 2.16). There is no response recorded from Adam. The next thing he knows, he’s asleep and Gd is busy creating a mate from his ribs.

The first communication between mankind and Gd was in response to Gd’s question asking where Adam and Eve could be found, since they were hiding after having eaten the fruit. (Adam replied):” I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I am naked, so I hid”.

This fascinating juxtaposition of the initial two-way conversation between Gd and Man perhaps provides an entry-point into how the human mind works, when faced with having deviated from an instruction. Gd told man not to do something.  Man disobeyed the command and realised his mistake, so he’s hiding from his parent. He’s realised that something he did was wrong, and he doesn’t know how to deal with the situation he’s found himself in.

So he hides.  From Gd. In his most vulnerable and newly aware state.

Before the sin of the fruit, the Torah tells us that Adam and Eve were naked – “the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed” (2.25). It wasn’t an issue then but it is now. So Gd responds, “Who told you that you were naked – did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?”

Adam replies, “The woman who you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat”.

And Gd says to Eve, “What is this that you have done?”

She replies, “The serpent deceived me and I ate”.

So, to sum up. The very first conversation between Gd and mankind starts with Adam and Eve disobeying the one command they have been given, the realizing what they’ve done and instinctively ‘passing the buck’ to someone and then something else. Are you surprised that by the end of the parsha, Gd wants to destroy the world through the flood? It’s not a great way to start is it?

Human nature is complex and for those of use who hold that the Bible is of Divine Origin, we’ve got a long history of getting things wrong (although we sometimes score some hits).  From the outset, we have an inbuilt defence mechanism that tells us when we are on the wrong side of the argument, and we have a choice of how we will choose to react. The moral compass or conscience - the realization that eventually, we will have to own up to our shortcomings guides us to “do the right thing”.  It’s never easy admitting you’re wrong.  It’s even harder if we compound the problem by obfuscating the truth whilst enmeshing ourselves into an larger hole of trouble - to the point when sometimes, we can’t even remember what the truth was. Because, at the end of the day, our mental health dictates the direction we will take in being able to resolve the everyday problems that we face.

Yesterday marked the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week 2020.

I don’t know a single person who has not at some time in their life struggled with mental health issues.  Whether it’s coping with losing a friend, partner or job.  Having to adjust to a situation in their life without knowing what the future will hold or even facing their own demons – each of us copes differently. We manage because there are others around us who hold our hands and tell us that it will be ok, and we thank them and perhaps, whatever belief we hold, for keeping us going. But some people don’t have such luxuries and spend their lives battling mental health issues, sometimes alone and often with partners who, with the best will in the world, find themselves struggling to carry the load.

At this time, when so many people, particularly the elderly are isolated at home, their mental health is being affected in so many different and heart-breaking ways.  We do them and ourselves a disservice if we don’t recognize the enormity of the mountain that they feel they have to climb, just to be able to feel like they used to. 

But we don’t need mental health awareness week to remind us of all the above. It just helps to let us know that, despite what we may feel in our minds, we are just as human and frail, vulnerable and sometimes emotionally naked as anyone else.  A phone call, a smile or a kind word won’t help our vulnerable neighbours conquer their mountain because they can turn to the professionals for their advice. It will however remind us that, we have a responsibility to look out for our families and friends, neighbours and colleagues.  For if we don’t, who else will.

When life was easy, Adam and Eve took this for granted and introduced the ‘blame game’ into our psyche. It wasn’t good enough in the Garden of Eden back then and it sure as heck doesn’t cut the mustard in 2020.

Be safe and have a blessed day.

17th May #55

Simpatico.

Marmite.

Fakeness.

These three words are but a minute example of the hundreds of new words that were included in the October 2019 addition to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

That the terms seem to be so common as part of our everyday lexicon belies the fact that, until eight months ago, the OED didn’t feel that they had been ingrained enough to be included in that august publication.

Had I used the above terms a few years ago, I might have received some very strange looks.

Marmite, for the example, used to refer to the delicious (well, I think so) yeast spread that is as British as the Queen. Yet, according to the OED, as of October 2019, “Marmite, n.2 and adj. sense B: British colloquial. That polarizes opinions by provoking either strongly positive or strongly negative reactions, rather than indifference.”. Some people have become known as “Marmite” (no names mentioned!).

Languages, like cultural ‘norms’ ebb and flow.

What was considered ‘normal’, ten, twenty, fifty or two hundred years ago, very well may seem downright odd or even offensive in our current age.

Looking at this year of 2020, which, for all kinds of reasons, will leave an indelible mark in our minds most probably for the rest of our lives, makes me wonder which words or phrases will be introduced into the 2020 list.

Covid-19?

Social Distancing?

The new ‘normal’?

Our language reflects the way we feel. We need it to express our ideas to others, represent information and share important messages. It defines us and moulds the societies that we inhabit.

No-one alive who understands the gravity, strangeness, bleakness or confusion that has been foisted upon us for the last two months, can imagine that the world we will eventually return to, could resemble in any way the world we are now sheltering from. We are all living in the “new normal”. And many of us don’t like it and wish it would go away.

We need to feel that we have a grasp on the situation, so that the shadows we live in turn out to be precursors to the sunlight that will shine from behind the clouds. We don’t want those shadows to prepare us for emotional rain-storms and impending darkness, do we?

Which is why I was so glad to hear two pieces of news, one this morning and another before Shabbat.

Firstly, this morning.

Very close friends of ours who mean the world to us, called to share the wonderful news that, as of yesterday morning, they had become grandparents.

Their eldest daughter gave birth to a lovely bouncing baby boy. A Shabbat gift to all concerned and the creation of a brand-new family.

Rays of sunshine beamed into my heart when I heard this joyous announcement.

The earlier news brought more joy in the knowledge that a young cousin has just become engaged. I remember the lad as baby. He is a year older than my eldest daughter and it’s simply wonderful to know that he has found his zivug, his partner to share their lives together (Gd Willing).

These two announcements served to remind me that in this year of 2020, when the ‘new normal’ seems to be installing itself into our lives whether-or-not we want it, there are welcoming elements of the ‘old normal’ that are still very much alive.

King Solomon famously wrote in Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 1.9:

“What has been will be again,

what has been done will be done again;

there is nothing new under the sun.”

In these days of Covid, Social Distancing and the new ‘normal’,

I couldn’t wish for anything more to remind me that whichever words we remember 2020 by, let them not diminish the power of the wonderful experiences that came and will return before, during and after this dreaded disease is conquered and sent packing.

That’s not to say the old ‘normal’ didn’t need fixing because large swathes of what it represented were deeply flawed - but surely, there must be less brutal ways to introduce a new paradigm into our lives.

Whatever ‘normal’ is, or we think it is, everyone agrees that the world can change for the better.

Let’s value and celebrate those special moments whilst we do our own little bit to make it happen.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

15th May #53 and #54

I don’t know how we’ve managed to reach this point in the Torah.

Rosh Hashanah seems like it took place a few weeks ago.

I suppose it’s all part of this strange situation where you don’t quite know what day of the week it is, let alone, the time of year.

The Parshiot/Torah Portions of Behar and Bechukotai mark the ending of Sefer Vayikra/Leviticus.

We are about to roll into Bamidbar/Numbers where the minutiae of Torat Cohanim, the laws surrounding the work of the Priests, returns us to the narrative that we last read about in the Sefer Shemot/Exodus. But not before we are taught the chilling lessons that our nation will (and ultimately, did) suffer if they don’t listen to Gd.

Bechukotai, which means “My statutes” starts off pleasantly, detailing the blessings that will be bestowed upon us “if you walk in my Statutes and keep My commandments” (26.3).

So far so good.

Until 26.14 and “if you will not listen to Me and will not do all these commandments; and if you shall reject My statutes and your soul will abhor My ordinances, so that you will not do all My commandments, but break My covenant; I will do this to you….”

The following verses (from 16 through to 43) describe in graduating levels of horror the punishment that will be inflicted upon the Nation of Israel. It makes for sobering and nightmare-inducing reading. All the more so, because this is exactly what happened to our people, more than once.

We have an ancient custom of reading the tochacha, the warning in a low, almost haunting tone. Quickly but efficiently, not missing out a single letter and reminding ourselves that with all the brachot we can receive, there is always another side to what we will get if we don’t play by the rules. If we forget who we are and what our responsibilities are to each other and to the societies in which we live. I can’t read the text whether feeling a deep of dread every single time, because the description is unrelenting, brutal, savage and very dark.

It speaks to our inner fears. Not in verse, not in allegory, but in the truth that only Gd can know, and we can be subject to.

This is Gd telling us exactly what will happen, without any safety net to cushion the blow.

Rabbi Sacks writes something fascinating in this week’s “Covenant and Conversation”:

He says “Judaism is a religion of love and forgiveness. But it is also a religion of justice. The punishments in the Torah are there not because Gd loves to punish, but because he wants us to act well.

Imagine a country that had no laws but no punishments. Would people keep the law? No, Many people would choose to be a free-rider, taking advantage of the efforts of others without contributing oneself. Without punishment, there is no effective law, and without law, there is no society.

The more powerfully one can present the bad, the more likely people are to choose the good. That is why the tochacha is so powerful, dramatic and fear-inducing. The fear of bad is the most powerful motivator of good. I believe that being warned of the bad helps us to choose the good. Too often, we make the wrong choices because we don’t think of the consequences.”

The tochacha presents us with a very powerful message and at the same time, allows us to saves ourselves from ourselves.

It is paramount that we read the tochacha before two important Chagim.

The first is Shavuot, when we remind ourselves of Matan Torah/the giving of the Torah. We need to be aware of what will happen if we don’t keep the laws of the Torah, particularly those dealing with relationships between human beings.

The second is Rosh Hashanah (in Parshat Ki Tavo), where we have a stark warning of what could Gd Forbid await us if we don’t repent (Teshuvah).

We are living through a particularly challenging time and it seems as if our world is crumbling about us. Reading through the tochacha should perhaps remind us, that despite our current predicament, things could be (and have been) much worse for our nation and it is better to read about the warning than experience it.

Then after we have finished, we take aboard its lessons and look forward to entering into the book of Bamidbar with renewed vigour and optimism.

After all, Shavuot is around the corner and so is summer and so our glass cannot be anything but half full.

Shabbat Shalom, keep safe and have a blessed few days.

14th May #52

It was a sunny day.

I was trying to imagine what it must have been like to be there, at the exact moment when Ben Gurion read and then signed the Declaration of Independence to the assembled dignitaries.

On this date in the Gregorian Calendar, seventy-two years ago.

“In the main hall of the building, at 4 PM on May 14, 1948, in the presence of the members of the Vaad Leumi (Jewish National Council) and the leaders of the Yishuv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, eight hours before the British Mandate of Palestine was due to end. After Ben-Gurion read the Declaration of Independence, Rabbi Fischman (Maimon) recited the Shehecheyanu blessing, and the Declaration was signed. The ceremony concluded with the singing of Hatikvah, now Israel's national anthem.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Hall_(Israel))

And that was it.

Within a day, Israel would be under attack from the armies of five countries.

That she is here today is nothing short of miraculous.

I don’t know what Richard Penniman was doing at exactly the same time on that very same day, thousands of miles away. At fifteen years old, he was already proficient on the piano and although he hadn’t hit “the big time” yet, he wasn’t that far away from becoming world-famous.

Two years later, in 1950, he would join his first band, “Buster Brown’s Orchestra”, where Buster would rechristen him “Little Richard”.

And the rest, as they say…

On the face of it, the creation of the State of Israel and the career of said performer don’t seem to have much in common.

Yet, if we look carefully at the way Little Richard and other African-American singers were treated, Little Israel and Little Richard have quite a bit in common.

Bullied, attacked, pilloried, marginalized, segregated, disrespected and mocked.

All of these adjectives could describe the way either victim was treated.

Yet, despite it all, both Little Richard and Little Israel stood up against their tormentors and refused to be silenced.

Over the years, I’ve seen countless films and documentaries about the disgusting and shameful way in which African-Americans were treated in the US throughout most of the Twentieth Century. Of late, I’ve seen some excellent movies including “Green Book” and as I related a few days’ ago “Hidden Figures”. I don’t profess to understand or rather, I refuse to believe, that there weren’t people who didn’t balk at the way these poor individuals were treated and shamed – and said nothing.

On the other side of the coin, when the Beatles toured the US in 1965, they categorically refused to play concerts in front of segregated audiences. As a result, some lucky African American kids and adults had the chance to attend their only concert during that time. It’s yet another reason to laud ‘my boys’ (as if I needed an excuse).

And as for Little Richard, he too spent time in their welcoming company, touring the UK in the early 1960s at a time when he thought his career was all but spent.

Because music united everyone, irrespective of the colour of their skin. The music world, like Israel, is a melting pot of artists, sprawled out around the world. Speaking different languages but singing in so many beautiful ways.

Doesn’t that sound like the Jewish people?

To his dying day, Little Richard, who grew up in a religious Christian family and grew attending African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and Pentecostal churches, claimed that he had converted to Judaism. He said that he refused to work over Shabbat and apparently attended Shul/Synagogue regularly.

I don’t know how much of this is true but I do remember him giving an interview years ago claiming that he was Jewish and listened to the “Gd of Abraham”.

Whether or not he was Jewish, Little Richard’s extraordinary talent, resolve and sheer chutzpah is not dissimilar to the country whose independence we mark (less formally than a week ago) today.

Both the ‘Littles’ turned out to be anything but and Gd bless you both, in heaven and here on earth.

“A wop bop a loo bop a wop bam shalom!”

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

13th May #51

Many people have their ‘special’ annual events.

For some of my friends, it might the start of the new football/cricket/Formula 1 season (please delete as appropriate), whilst others eagerly anticipate the January Sales and/or Black Friday, Ascot, the Chelsea Flower Show or even religious festivals.

These occasions add some sparkle to our lives.

A little more to increase our ‘joie de vivre’.

I am no exception and enjoy a spot of Wimbledon, especially the Men’s Final.

But the appearance of a certain annual publication fills me with a little frisson of excitement (and the hope that I won’t forget to purchase it when it hits the shelves).

You might be surprised to read that this is not a religious publication, not in the slightest, although of course, I will append a spiritual note to its existence and importance.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this particular Rabbi was delighted to read the news this morning that the “Sunday Times Rich List” will be available in four days’ time.

So what is it about the ‘STRL’ – I can state with a great degree of certainty that I have the right to refer to my little friend in an acronymic manner – that interests me so?

For one, I am not someone who has ever sought to be listed in its lofty ranks although I respect those who have worked hard to achieve this honour.

Teachers and Rabbis, as far as I’m aware do not take the kind of risks or decisions that made someone like Warren Buffett a billionaire ($67.5 billion in case you wondered, courtesy of Forbes, March 2020) or propelled Sir Paul McCartney to the top of the pop-music tree, in joint first place with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber at a cool £800 million (sorry for the spoiler).

We have loftier aims which doesn’t mean we don’t need money – everyone does, but I don’t think I’ll see too many teachers included (unless they have a nice side-line in property).

So why buy the magazine?

Firstly, I’ve always had an interest in economics and studied it as part of my undergraduate degree. I like understanding how economies function (or recently, don’t).

Secondly, it’s not necessarily the amount of money each person on the list has gained or lost over the last year, it’s about the human face behind the individual rank.

1. Who they are.
2. What they have achieved.
3. What they do for society.

Take the example of Bill Gates who is worth $105.2 billion which makes him the second wealthiest person in the world.

The same gentleman has also donated $35.8 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - a charity that is currently firing on all cylinders to assist in the development a vaccine for Covid 19.

Had the world listening to Bill Gates back in 2015, we may have found ourselves in a very different situation.

And he is only one example of a person who is worth so much more than the figure on his tax bill.

Last Shabbat afternoon, I read Chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot, The Ethics of the Fathers which, as I’ve stated before, I find illuminating.

The first Mishna sates:

“Ben Zoma said: Who is wise? One who learns from everyone, as it is said, “From all my teachers I gained wisdom”.

Who is strong? One who masters his evil impulse, as it is said, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules over his spirit is better than he who conquers a city.”

Who is rich? One who rejoices in what he has, as it is said, “When you eat from the labour of your hands, you will be happy and all will be well with you,”

“You will be happy” – in this world, “and all will be well with you “ – the World to Come….”

One of my treasured memories from reading the STRL was a thought-provoking article by the editor. He discussed the lives of those on the list and noted that they are just like the rest of us.

They have their own problems and challenges which they too need to overcome and these are not necessarily linked to the fortunes they hold onto so carefully.

Tevye famously prefaced his timeless song with :

"Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.
But it's no great honour either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"

It may not be an honour to be poor and it would be nice to have a ‘small fortune’ but once I’ve finished working my way through the magazine (which rarely happens as I lose interest about a third of the way in!), I remove the previous year’s edition and replace it with the new list.

The STRL 2019 then ends up being recycled with can, bottles and cardboard.

As Dolly Levi famously put it – “money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing  unless it’s spread around, encouraging young things to grow’.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

12th May #50

The Torah’s Isolation-Busters: Day #50

There are certain days in the Hebrew calendar that never fail to bring a smile to my face and Lag Ba’Omer is one of them.

When I was a kid in both primary school, Lag Ba’Omer was the day when we had our annual school trip.

Most years, this involved climbing onto a coach, braving whatever road existed before the M25 and waiting impatiently to reach our destination.

The same destination.

Every single year.

Chessington Zoo.

Before it became a “World of Adventures”, Chessington was simply a zoo with a little train (which we went on every year), with animals and the school picnic.

When you’re 4,5,6,7,8,9….Chessington is fun.

When you’re 10 and 11, less so, but we geared ourselves up to the exciting prospect that Lag Ba’Omer in our secondary school would be different.

So when the parent forms came around the classroom in the First Year (that’s ‘Year 7’ to anyone born in the 1990s), we held our breaths (well I did) wondering where we would be heading.

And the magical destination was……Chessington Zoo.

We came to the conclusion that it must the case of either:

1. both schools had shares in the place or

2. previous experience meant that planning was kept to a minimum by the poor teacher tasked with the job

‘Chessington Zoo’ it ended up being.

No matter. This was the only time in the year when we could witness our teachers letting their hair down a little (i.e. the ones they hadn’t pulled out when instructing us).

It was a day out and the weather was usually OK, although I do recall some rainy encounters.

This was a day out of school, and we always came back exhausted.

Lag Ba’Omer, Chessington Zoo notwithstanding, was always a treat.

Another lovely memory of the day also remains in my mind.

I think I must have either been in late primary school or early secondary but one year, Lag Ba’Omer took place outside of the school week. Maybe it was on a Sunday.

My parents paid for me to go to Stamford Hill and spend it with Chabad and I think that this might have been one of my first memories of the movement.

I remember clearly joining up with another bunch of kids and sitting in the back of a truck - perhaps we were part of a parade.

We were given our lunches which consisted of the strangest sandwich fillings I’d ever tasted – peanut butter and jam!

I’ve never forgotten that.

I should obviously mention that Lag Ba’Omer is a very spiritual day and that it’s Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s Yartzheit, kids play with bows and arrows, we have bonfires and Rabbi Akiva’s students stopped dying.

So that’s the Rabbinic part.

But to me, as well as the important significance of the day, Lag Ba’Omer will always be about one single thing - that zoo!

Be safe and have a blessed day.

11th May #49

Apropos today’s I.B. number, I thought it would be interested to look at this coming’s week’s Parsha/Torah Portion:

“And Gd spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai:

Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:

When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the LORD.

Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield.

But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the LORD: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard…

….You shall count off seven weeks of years—seven times seven years—so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years….”

‘49’ is an auspicious number in Judaism as it represents completeness and closure - the end of a set period of time.

In the same way that we are currently counting the Omer which will culminate in reaching the very same number (of days) concluding the same seven-week period, so today, I’ve made it through to a milestone in these daily musings.

It may not seem significant but tomorrow, the semi-festival of Lag Ba’Omer introduces a welcome change to my life.

I’m delighted to report that I will be able to come out of the semi-period of mourning that I have been observing for the last thirty-two days.

Frankly, I look a mess! My unkept beard could place me in contention for the lead part in any new Western being shot (not that we shoot too many Westerns in Bushey) and “you need a haircut” is being screamed at me from pretty much any member of my family who feels embarrassed to be seen around me!

But on a serious note, I am very much aware of the mystery that lies behind numbers and the fascinating role they play in our religion.

It is not a coincidence (which I don’t believe in either) that they keep on appearing throughout these Isolation-Busting thoughts.

Our lives are dominated by numbers, from the measurements we need to abide by to prepare food/measure out medicine/calculate our income and expenditure to the key role that digits play in our everyday existence.

As someone who was never too hot in the numerical states, I’ve learned the hard way that without maths, we can really struggle through life. To my surprise, I’ve realized as I’ve got older that I’m not as poor in maths as I thought I was.

That said, my children learned that, if they wanted help in the subject, I wasn’t the best person to approach!

Last night, we watched a fascinating film on TV called “Hidden Figures”.

It told the story of three African-American women (although a number of others were also included) who played crucial roles in NASA during the 1960s Space Race. It also detailed the disgraceful manner in which they were treated during America’s shameful period of segregation.

These women and in particular, Katherine Johnson were mathematical prodigies who far outshone the men they worked with (in every way) by finding mathematical solutions that literally ended up saving the lives of people like the astronaut John Glenn. He would have certainly died in space had he not been able to benefit from her maths prowess.

It brought home (no pun intended) the vital role that maths plays in our lives.

So, on this 49th day, I breathe a sigh of relief and gratitude that I’ve made it thus far and as I enter my eighth week in isolation, I pray that the Jubilee of freedom that we are all waiting for, comes to us in good time.

May the next 49 days (and perhaps fewer) bring us the good health, safety and security that we all yearn.

Keep safe and have a bessed day.

10th May #48

Picture the scene.

A middle-aged and smartly dressed Jewish gentleman is walking down a busy thoroughfare in Berlin. It is the spring of 1937. A high-ranking Nazi officer is walking towards him.

When they reach other, the office looks at the man, sneers at him and says: “Schweinhund (pig-dog)”

The Jewish man, without missing a beat, elegantly doffs his hat and replies “Cohen”.

Don’t you love Jewish humour?

Even when we are at our lowest ebb, we can still find something to laugh at.

Like many people, I’m a great fan of American Jewish humour.

From the Marx Bros, Jack Benny and Danny Kaye in past to contemporary comedians like Billy Crystal, Hank Azaria and Jerry Seinfeld, I am forever breaking into a broad smile when I spend some wonderful time in their company.

Sometimes, I even find myself convulsed in laughter (I probably need to see a doctor about that).

The Americans don’t have a monopoly on our funny side either.

Home-grown talent like Maureen Lipman, Ashley Blaker, Sacha Baron Cohen and Matt Lucas can sometimes reduce me to a quivering bowl of kosher jelly with their hilarious one-liners and observations.

From the age that I was knee-high, I enjoyed either telling jokes or hearing them.

My paternal grandparents (of blessed memory) lived in New York and I didn’t get to see them that often.

In the days before instant communication, we did the next best thing. I would record audio cassettes showing off my latest Hebrew knowledge and skills, such as reciting a Mishna I had learned that week in school. To finish off, I would then read a list of Waiter and Doctor jokes from a long red joke book I had been given.

In turn, my grandparents, well, mainly my grandfather would send back a cassette with his contribution and comments. I still have these cassettes, and they are amongst my most precious possessions.

I have therefore always been interested in trying to work out the origins of our humour.

I don’t need to look far when opening the Torah, after all, my father’s namesake “Yitzchak”, the second Patriarch, literally means ‘he will laugh’.

And there’s the old Yiddish adage of ‘Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht/Man plans and Gd laughs’.

Now, admittedly, this is a more whimsical type of humour, bordering on the sarcastic, but hey, humour is humour.

Personally, I find a great deal of humour in the Torah, albeit of a more ironic nature (which is really odd, because Jeremy Corbyn said that we Zionists don’t understand British irony. Oh yes, the Torah isn’t British….)

I find the scene where Aaron’s staff not only turns into a snake but then gobbles up the Egyptian Magicians’ staffs/snakes, to be pretty funny.

The Jewish people whining non-stop whilst traipsing through the desert may not at first appear to be funny, but consider it in the light of this joke:

Two Jewish women are sitting having a meal in a Kosher restaurant:

The first one says: “you know the food here is absolutely dreadful”.

The second then adds: “yes and such small portions”.

And suddenly, I can see a funny side.

When it comes to humour in the Torah, I can’t think of anything else that I find funnier than the punchline to this narrative:

Balak, the king of Moab has summoned the evil soothsayer Bilaam to curse the Israelites. Yet, every time he opens his mouth to do so, Gd takes over and the most beautiful and poetic blessings emerge.

They move from location to location, building altar after altar to the ‘gods’ and each time, Bilaam tries to utter a curse, it gets transformed into a blessing. Balak is getting more and more frustrated and finally, at the end of his tether, says to Bilaam:

“Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!” (Bamindbar/Numbers: 23.25).

You can just picture the scene can’t you? Yet, he tries again and Bilaam provides a repeat performance with the sublime and beautiful phrase that we say when we enter our Shuls:

“Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov, Mishkenotecha Yisrael – How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings O Israel” (24.5)

During these difficult times, when there is so much tragedy in the air, maybe we can allow ourselves to take a moment, smile about something that tickles our fancy and look forward to the time when we will be united again in prayer, conversation and laughter….but preferably not when we are sitting in shul during a Service!

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

8th May #46 & #47

In Devarim/Deuteronomy 31.6, Moses instructs Joshua who is soon to take over the leadership of the Israelites.

“Be strong and of good courage, don’t be afraid, nor be scared of them (i.e. the nations that you will shortly conquer), for the Lord your Gd, He that goes with you and will not fail you nor forsake you”

He continues in Verse 7:

“And Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all of Israel: ‘be strong and of good courage for you will go with this people to the land which the Lord Gd has sworn to their forefathers to give to them and you shall cause them to inherit it.”

The same expression is used a few verses later (31.23) and then later in the first few verses of the Book of Joshua (1.7)

As we can see, the expression he uses is Chazak Ve-ematz - חזק ואמץ – ‘be strong and courageous’

Rashi adds that when Joshua relates Moses’ words in his book, the expression “be strong and courageous” can only work, if this in tandem with his approach as to how he carries out the moral lessons he has learned in the Torah.

‘Yes’, said Moses, ‘be strong and courageous in war, but at the same time, be just as exacting in the way you treat other people and effort that you put into your prayers and employment….after all, sooner or later, war will end but this doesn’t mean that you don’t have apply your inner strength and courage to other situations. If you want to be a true leader, you will need to have these traits to inspire and guide your flock when the battles are fading into the collective memory.’

Today, on the 75th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe, we not only remember those men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice to rid the continents of the Nazi menace.

We also recall how the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ who survived and played - and crucially, continue to play their role in improving the lives of others around them.

The invaluable contribution of strong and courageous men and women like Colonel Tom Moore and Dame Vera Lynn perfectly embodies this idea.

In loving memory of those who fell - and in boundless appreciation of those who are with us today.

Be safe and have a blessed and peaceful Shabbat.

7th May #45

Anyone who knows me will be aware of how important music is to my life.  

Along with my love of learning, I eat, drink and breathe music, which makes the Omer period quite a challenge and I literally can’t wait until Lag Ba’Omer - not only because I desperately need a haircut and shave!

With the world around me in lock-down at this moment, people have a great deal of time on their hands.

This is demonstrated in vivid detail on social networking sites such as Facebook where many people seem to be compiling daily lists of their favourites pastimes.

These include “My Top 10 essential books”, “My favourite movies” and one that took my interest – my ‘favourite 10 records’.

Some people don’t have the patience to list them over a period of time and go for an all-in-one swoop, which is fine but I chose to spend my time savouring my choices and writing extensively about each one over a period of about two weeks or so.

On each of the days, I displayed a picture of an album and explained why I had chosen it.

My list included a wide variety of genres which took in

musicals (represented by my all-time favourite – ‘West Side Story’); pop – The

“Beach Boys’ Party!” and the Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night;  jazz – a wonderful compilation of Ella Fitzgerald singing standards; folk – Carole King’s beautiful ‘Tapestry’ album and a fabulous compilation of Rock and Roll Love Songs.

I found the whole experience somewhat cathartic as well as being quite masochistic in that I couldn’t listen to the albums over which I was verbally drooling.

 

Talk about chalishing something!  Roll on Tuesday (Lag Ba’Omer!!!)

 

I’m referring to all of this today because of a tangential link to the number 45 and the rpm’s it conveys which will mean very little to anyone reading this below the age of 30!

 

I’m not unique in my love of music. Part of the fun in doing this exercise, was also having a peek at the choices put forward by my Facebook friends.

Indeed, the way it works is that you can only undertake the challenge if you are nominated by someone and then suggest another friend do the same.

It’s all a game because, really, I don’t need to be asked.

I just like playing by the so-called ‘rules’!

 

Judaism and music is not an unusual combination. In fact, the ‘music’ appeared pretty early on in the Torah.

 

The first reference can be found in Chapter 4 verse 21 (i.e the very first parsha of Bereshit/Genesis):

“And his brother’s name was Jubal. He was the father of all who handle the harp and flute”

 

Musical instruments abound throughout the Bible, from the tambourines that Miriam and the ladies played after the Israelites emerged from the Sea of Reeds to the ultimate musician, King David, who not only played the lyre exquisitely but also wrote the majority of the Psalms, which were designed to be sung.

In the Temple, if you were a Levite or an exceptionally gifted musician, you would spend five years training to join the choir and play one or many of a host of instruments that accompanied the daily ritual.

 

Which brings us to the Omer and the restrictions it places on the listening to and playing of music (and there is a whole host of discussions regarding what is and isn’t considered  as being music!).

 

An interesting feature of the Omer is that when it comes to music, its limitations on hearing or playing music shouldn’t be different to any other time of the year.

 

And I’ll explain why.

 

In the Talmud, Messechet Gittin 7a it states:

 

“The Gemara further relates: They sent the following question to Mar Ukva: From where do we derive that song is forbidden in the present, following the destruction of the Temple?

He scored parchment and wrote to them: “Rejoice not, O Israel, to exultation, like the peoples” (Hosea 9:1).

The Gemara asks: And let him send them a response from here: “They do not drink wine with a song; strong drink is bitter to them who drink it” (Isaiah 24:9), indicating that song is no longer allowed.

The Gemara answers: If he had answered by citing that verse, I would say that this matter applies only to instrumental music, in accordance with the previous verse: “The mirth of tabrets ceases, the noise of them who rejoice ends, the joy of the harp ceases” (Isaiah 24:8); however, vocal song is permitted.

Therefore, Mar Ukva teaches us that all types of song are forbidden”

 

The usual to-ing and fro-ing of Talmudic led to a straightforward understanding that, with the destruction of the Temple and its catastrophic effect on the Jewish world, particularly with the brutal suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE,  singing and playing musical was  henceforth categorically forbidden.

 

The Mishna in Sotah (48a) underscores this by stating:

“From the time when the Sanhedrin ceased song was also nullified from the places of feasts, i.e., it was no longer permitted to sing at a feast where wine was served, as it is stated: “With song they shall not drink wine” (Isaiah 24:9)”.

 

The debates over whether or not one should listen to music along with the various types and different locations that doing so may be allowed, continued through the centuries.

Rashi understood Mar Ukva’s prohibition as only applying to the playing of music at feasts or parties (as per the Mishna above), whilst the Rambam’s view was that the playing of musical instruments was completely forbidden in all locations and in all situations. He did however along singing to take place at a feast where wine wasn’t being served. These were but a few of many different opinions expressed by their contemporaries and successors.

 

Later Rabbis (known as the Acharonim) including contemporary orthodox authorities such as Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Soloveitchik permitted classical music and others (e.g. the  Chelkat Yaakov) even stated that music played from instruments that weren’t around at the time of the ban, would not be covered by it, so the Beatles’ and their electric guitars are fine!

It’s a discussion that still rages to this very day and it depends whom you follow as to how you proceed.

 

In any case, where the Rabbis were pretty much unanimous was when it came to periods of public mourning, such as Sefirat (the counting of the) Omer and the Three Weeks between the Fast of Tammuz and Tisha B’Av, when both Temples were destroyed. An idea emanating from this was that, although they may be more lenient (and I’m not going to explain every situation because this goes outside the scope of my discussion today) during the rest of the year, these periods of mourning dictated the rule that  when we already feel low, not listening to music would remind us of a prohibition that we should be observing throughout the year.

The same strictures regarding music would obviously apply to a person who has lost a close relative and has chosen to observe the laws of mourning strictly.

 

I can tell you that right now, having tried to avoid listening to music for the last month or so, I can appreciate what it’s like to miss something that is such an important part of my life.

If that emotion brings me any closer to the feelings of desolation that my ancestors felt after the destruction of the Temple, then it’s not a bad experience to go through. If anything, it reminds me how blessed I am to be alive at a time when we have Jerusalem in our hands once more as the capital of the Jewish State of Israel and you appreciate this so much more during difficult times.

 

We should always remember that we have come a long way from the devastation that rocked our people, whilst, at the same time, it behoves us to forget that, in order to appreciate and understand the present, we have to first remember the past.

And that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

 

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

 

6th May #44

There is only one name on my mind this afternoon and that is Rabbi Dr Nachum Eliezer Rabinovitch who very sadly passed away early this morning in Maale Adumim, near Jerusalem.

There is nothing that I could write that would do justice to this extraordinary man because He is one of THE giants of world Jewry and his loss will be felt by many, many people.

Some of you might recall that he was the Dean of Jews’ College in the 1970s and early 80s and he was a personal teacher to Rabbi Sacks, who refers to him as “a giant” and succeeded him as head of the institution.

Rabbi Rabinovitch moved to Israel and became the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, a gleaming gem in the Hesder movement where boys split their time between learning and carrying out their army service, usually in the top divisions.

Hesder boys are recognised as being amongst the best of the best.

A forthright and brilliant thinker and Halachist who wasn’t afraid to challenge the Religious Authorities when he felt it was necessary to do so.

He was a rare breed amongst Rabbis and a world authority on the Rambam.

I am particularly indebted to him, even though I didn’t have the chance to meet with him, because he was on the staff of Eretz Hemdah, an institution that partnered with Montefiore College – the logos of which are proudly and beautifully displayed on my Semicha Certificate.

In other words, he was one of the few Rabbis who believed in people like me joining (albeit on a much lower level) his profession and for this reason and many others, I too am greatly mourning his passing.

May his memory be a blessing to his family, students and everyone in the world whom he touched with his brilliance.

Be safe and have a blessed day.

5th May #43

I’m happy to report that I truly busted my isolation by going in to school today to supervise the very few students who are attending as children of keyworkers.

Having broken my forty-day record, should I reset the count to #1 tomorrow?

I’m joking of course, but entering my seventh week of spending the vast majority of my time at home (today notwithstanding) has made me realise how much my life (and that of everyone else) has changed.

Will things ever be the same again and how can I teach a classroom of children who will presumably need to observe social distancing? Fortunately, someone else will make that decision and I will happily go along with it.

In case I haven’t made it obvious, I absolutely love the Torah and always have.

It has fascinated me since I started reading through it as a young child.

At one level, albeit superficially, you can view it through the eyes of a fly-on-a-very very very ancient-tent-wall.

We are reading through the lives of individuals who did not have the Torah to learn lessons from!

Who taught Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov what to do correctly?

Yes, we understand that they had Ruach Hakodesh/The Holy Spirit to be able to see far into the future, but that still didn’t stop them making mistakes.

They did what they thought to be the right thing and somehow, in the end, they succeeded.

 

The Torah poses some difficult questions that are designed to make us think.

 

How could Avraham get to the point where he was about to sacrifice his own son?

How could Yitzchak not see how he’d picked the wrong son to dote over, in Esav?

How could Yaakov in turn fool his own father, despite being told to do so by his mother?

 

On a superficial level, these questions cannot be answered readily.

 

So we then scoop away the top layer and dig deeper.

 

We look at the answers provided by men and women who are more knowledgeable than us.

Who strained their eyes to answer those questions.

Whose raison-d’etre in life was to find the answer.

Whose answers encourage us to dig to the next layer of understanding.

Whose answers make us realise that we need to trust them to find the solutions that we are searching for.

Whose answers we can use to respond to our own searching questions.

 

I don’t know how and when this pandemic will end and what will happen.

No-one does, not even the smartest scientists in the world.

But I do know that my faith and my deep, deep love of the Torah will provide a semblance of sense in this senseless situation that we find ourselves in.

 

And that’s one of the reasons I love the Torah.

 

Because even in the darkest of nights, when the moon is playing hide and seek and the world is enveloped in the fog of war, the Torah is shining brightly, illuminating the dark and providing us with a spiritual navigation system.

 

Just like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, who were human beings too, I’ll have to trust on the Higher Being who helped them to work it out, to do the same for us, their descendants and those of the other nations along whom we reside on this little blue planet.

 

I’ll wait for as long as it takes.

 

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

4th May #42

“O Deep Thought computer," he said, "the task we have designed you to perform is this. We want you to tell us...." he paused, "The Answer."

"The Answer?" said Deep Thought. "The Answer to what?"

"Life!" urged Fook.

"The Universe!" said Lunkwill.

"Everything!" they said in chorus.

Deep Thought paused for a moment's reflection.

"Tricky," he said finally.

"But can you do it?"

Again, a significant pause.

"Yes," said Deep Thought, "I can do it."

"There is an answer?" said Fook with breathless excitement.

"Yes," said Deep Thought. "Life, the Universe, and Everything. There is an answer. But, I'll have to think about it…

…You're really not going to like it," observed Deep Thought.

"Tell us!"

"All right," said Deep Thought. "The Answer to the Great Question..."

"Yes..!"

"Of Life, the Universe and Everything..." said Deep Thought.

"Yes...!"

"Is..." said Deep Thought, and paused.

"Yes...!"

"Is..."

"Yes...!!!...?"

"Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.”

I’m a not a fan of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

I haven’t heard the radio broadcasts but have seen both the TV series and film. They were pleasant but didn’t make any difference to my life.

It’s passable entertainment as far as I’m concerned, although “Don’t Panic” does make me smile.

Monty Python tried to fathom the same conundrum in 1982’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ film with mixed results.

To be frank, if its meaning has anything to do with Mr Creosote (yes, we miss you very much Terry Jones), then I’ll be staying away from the “wafer-thin mints” for a long, long time.

If you haven’t seen the film, this last reference will have you scratching your head.

I’m more of a Star Wars person (did you see how I craftily brought in a reference on May 4th?!) and even Doctor Who but do they answer the perennial question of “what is the meaning of life”?

With everything that we’ve been though as Jews, this possibly could be our ultimate dilemma.

What is the meaning of life?

Three contemporary Rabbis offer suggestions to this question.

Chief Rabbi of South Africa, Warren Goldstein writes:

“When confronting unspeakable tragedy we humbly acknowledge that we do not comprehend the ways of G-d. But we do know that our purpose in this world is to live life on a mission to do the work and will of G-d in every endeavour.

The late, great Rabbi Noach Weinberg (zl), founder of Aish wrote:

“A fundamental of Judaism is that there is nothing a human being can do for G-d.

G-d has no needs. Yet at the same time He gives us everything – air, water, food, sun. And He gave us the Torah as instructions for deriving maximum pleasure from this world…

…Material pleasures are necessary and nice, though they do not compare to the higher pleasures of love and meaning….

….If you want to live, be real.

Know what you are willing to die for. Then you are genuinely alive, and able to truly achieve the highest form of pleasure from living.”

Rabbi Dr. Tal Sessler, Senior Rabbi of the Sephardic Temple Tiffereth Yisrael in Los Angeles writes (quoting the first verse of the Book of Vayikra that we are currently reading):

“And God spoke to him [Moses] … saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: Adam ki yakriv …” (Leviticus 1:1). The Hebrew phrase “adam ki yakriv” contextually means “when a person brings forth an offering.” The word “ki” in biblical Hebrew can mean “should” or “when,” but it also can mean (as it does in modern Hebrew) “because.”

In other words, the verse can also be read as: “A human being — because he offers, because he brings forth, because he renders [others] closer [to their inner core, to Torah, to God Almighty].” Essentially, the book of Leviticus is offering here an audacious perspective as to what constitutes the good life, the elevated life, the rewarding life. According to Leviticus, to be fully human, to be a truly evolved and fulfilled person, is to be a giver. That’s why the people whom we admire the most are people who give so much of themselves for the advancement of Jewish and human welfare. “

These three great thinkers each in their own way end up saying the same thing and that is the concept that if we want to understand the meaning of life (beyond the throwaway line about ‘42’), we need to place G-d at the centre of our thoughts and actions. When we deal with our fellow humans, we need to act in a G-dly manner and do everything we can to help them, even if this means the ultimate sacrifice.

If you want to know the meaning of life, speak to any person working in the NHS right now.

Every porter, nurse, doctor, surgeon and anyone else has the gift of the Divine inside them because they’ve understood that their job in life is to save the lives of others.

When you dedicate yourself to this, then life’s very existence is at the core of what they spend their time doing. It’s not about the material pleasures (quoting Rabbi Weinberg zl) and although they don’t comprehend the way of G-d, they still do everything they can to do the will of G-d and save his creations.

Each care worker and every person tasked with looking after a patient, particularly in these dark Covid days is offering themselves as a potential sacrifice to save others and in the process, hopefully saving lives and perhaps bringing people closer to Gd as a result.

As Rabbi Sessler then writes: “that’s why the people whom we admire the most are people who give so much of themselves for the advancement of Jewish and human welfare.”

That is the meaning of life.

Be safe and have a blessed day.

3rd May #41

Yesterday’s Torah reading was the fascinating Parashot (weekly portions) of Acharei-Mot and Kedoshim, the latter of which contained a multitude of laws (13% of the entire quotient of 613 mitzvot/commandments).

One of the most famous can be found in Kedoshim (Leviticus 19:18) “Ve’ahavta lereacha kamocha, ani Hashem” which is roughly translated as “but you shall love your fellow as yourself, I am Gd”.

As I have mentioned previously , the Talmud in Shabbat (31a) tells the story of the the great Sage Hillel, who when asked by a Gentile who wished to learn the Torah [in order to convert] whilst standing on one foot, expounded on this verse saying:

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation of this – go and study it!”

So how do you show real love to your neighbour?

When I was a child, both of my parents were working, so it was constantly a struggle to find places for me to go.

Over many summers, I would attend a wonderful summer scheme run by Hendon United Shul in Raleigh Close but as I got older, I outgrew the programme.

My mother used to work as a Social Worker for Norwood and one of her colleagues had a relative, a German lady who I believe was a refugee from the War (possibly on a kindertransport) .

This special lady and her husband turned their house in a Foster home, opening their doors to children in care whose lives could have taken a very different turn.

She very kindly allowed me to visit the house and meet the children, play games with them and help out.

It was the first time I had come into contact with kids who weren’t as fortunate as me.

These were children who didn’t have the luxury of being brought up by two loving parents in a warm, welcoming community, where the outside world was very much kept at bay.

My Golders Green bubble didn’t afford me the chance to view the lives of those children who hadn’t been as fortunate as I. It was truly eye-opening.

I was too young to understand what this lady had been through. She was very Germanic and strict, yet at the same time, extraordinarily kind and thoughtful.

In hindsight, she completely embodied the mitzvah that I quoted above.

Her utter dedication to opening her family home to these children was the ultimate way in which she could show love for these deprived children and the lessons she taught me, which took a while to sink it, are still part of my most valued childhood experiences.

I am happy to report that she is still alive and wish her many, many further years of good health.

It is people like this wonderful woman who represent the very best of humankind.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

1st May #39 and #40

I am sure that you will be relieved to see that I have taken pity on you after yesterday’s megillah and will keep this short!

Both thirty-nine and forty are significant numbers in the Torah.

The first is the number of Melachot – categories of activity that are not permitted over Shabbat, commonly known as the ‘Thirty-Nine Melachot’.

There was a considerable amount of debate regarding the reasons why these activities in particular were forbidden.

The Gamara (Shabbat 49a) tells us that Rabbi Hanina held the opinion that these were the activities involved in the building and functioning of the Mishkan/Tabernacle (which he describes as forty less one). Others held different opinions as to the use of the ‘Thirty-Nine Melachot’ but in the end, the general consensus went along with Rabbi Hanina.

Often mistranslated, the word ‘Melacha’ does not mean ‘work’, even though people think it does! It means ‘activity’.

This makes more sense when we understand why these activities are forbidden because ‘carrying’ is not work – it is however an activity that was part and parcel of both the creation and daily usage of the Mishkan

So that’s thirty-nine.

If I mention ‘forty’ to you and its connection with the Torah, we could be here all day!

Just a start….the rains fell on Noah’s Ark for forty days and forty nights….Moses spent numerous periods of forty days in length on Mount Sinai….

And that’s just two!

And tomorrow, I will enter my fortieth day of self-isolation!

Have a wonderful Shabbat and we’ll meet again (in the words some very famous people) on Sunday.

Keep safe and have a blessed couple of days.

30th April #38

I would like to start today by wishing hearty congratulations to two gentlemen, whose ages differ by a mere ninety years and three hundred and sixty days (remember, it’s a leap year!)

Firstly, to you, Colonel Tom Moore, mazeltov on both achieving your hundredth birthday and being honoured with your promotion.

Secondly, a very special welcome to baby Johnson and his ecstatic parents, Carrie and Boris.

Without wishing, in any way to minimise the challenge that mummy faced during her pregnancy with you, daddy hasn’t exactly had an easy month either.

Who can forget that just over three weeks ago, your daddy was taken into intensive care and for a while, we didn’t know if he would ever have the chance to see you?

We wondered if he would be there to watch you find your place in the world, from the moment you breathed in your very first lung-full of oxygen, through to witnessing your first smile, learning to walk, talk, play…..we held our breaths and hopes that he would make it there for you. He managed to survive and a few weeks later demonstrated his dazzling smile to the world, announcing your precious arrival.

In less than a month.

This morning I received a great video from a cousin. It showed a group of soldiers walking, with a proud distinct voice narrating the following:

“We are the Israel Defence Forces.

For 72 years, you’ve heard our story.

Tiny county, surrounded by enemies.

Surviving against all odds.

You know the names of our wars.

Our battles.

Our planes, our tanks, our tech.

You think you understand our success?”

(new voice)

You know nothing

Let me tell you a secret.

The key to our existence, is not our weapons.

It’s our soldiers.

Our spirit.

Our passion.

Our love.” (spoken by a female soldier).

(Deep voice returns)

We are an army of the people.

Jews

Druze.

Muslims.

Christians.

We are defending our homes.

We are protecting our mothers

Our fathers

Our sisters

Our brothers

Our neighbours

Our friends.

Where’s there no road, we pave one.

No bridge, we build one.

No answer, we find one.

For us, no distance is too far

No ocean too vast

No mission too complicated.

We get the job done… all of us….we’ re ready to take any risk to ensure the survival of Israel…

We’re proud to have given new life to the Jewish people

Security to all of Israel’s citizens

And confidence that our best days are ahead of us….

We are the Israel Defence Forces.

Now you know our secret – Happy Independence Day.”

It’s very stirring stuff and the collage of video and images accompanying the dramatic music is very impressive.

Except for one thing, that I found jarring.

Where was there a mention of Gd?

Where was there the slightest admission that despite the jaw-dropping and frankly unbelievable work carried out by men and women who have risked and many times sacrificed their lives to protect our country – they may have had more than a little help from the ultimate Commander in Chief? If the military successes of 1948, 1956, 1967 (like, wow!), 1973 and since have not been a scream-out-loud demonstration of Gd’s protection.

Israel came under attack from 39 scuds during the first Gulf War in 1991 where 1,302 houses, 6,142 apartments, 23 public buildings, 200 shops and 50 cars were hit.

Casualties – two direct deaths another four from heart attacks and seven as a result of the incorrect use of the biological/chemical warfare kits (source: https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/history/pages/the%20gulf%20war%20-%201991.aspx)

Every death is a tragedy but can you imagine how many could have occurred in the war that the Israeli Army was unable to fight?

Soon after the Israelites left Egypt, they were attacked by the vicious Amalekites.

Exodus 17.8:

“Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

And Moses said to Joshua: Choose for us men and go and fight against Amalek.

Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill and the staff of Gd in my hand.

So Joshua did as Moses had said to him and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, then Israel prevailed and when he let down his hand, then Amalek prevailed.

But Moses’ hands were heavy and they took a stone and they it under him and there sat upon it and Aaron and Hur supported his hands….until the going down of the sun.

And Joshua weakened Amalek and his people with the sword’s blade”

This is a strange story!

What did Moses’ hands have to do with the victory over Amalek?

Our sages tell us that when the Israelites saw Moses’ hands pointing upwards, they looked to Heaven and remembered who was really fighting the battle for them and so they prevailed.

When his hands became weary, they stopped looking and started to lose the battle, because they didn’t acknowledge who was leading the charge.

It was easier in those days to see miracles.

And that’s what bothered me about the video.

The secret of Israel’s success is not down to the amazing work of the IDF but to the ultimate Rav Aluf – Chief of General Staff, the Lord Himself.

Without His interceding, there would be no logical way to explain how Israel has managed to survive since its bloodied creation.

Three weeks ago, how many of us thought that Boris wouldn’t make it through?

How many could even conceive that he would be welcoming little Johnson into the world as he entered into the ITU?

From ITU to the maternity ward, from battlefields to independence days, we are blessed with miraculous events.

We just need to give Gd the credit due and recognise His hand in what He has achieved.

If we can see the miracles in our daily lives, we will realise that sometimes the throne, from which the power is forthcoming is based not on earth, but in Heaven.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

29th April #37

Chag Atzmaut Sameach – Happy Independence Day!

Our beloved Israel is seventy-two years young today.

Have you thought of how many people are older than Israel?

There are even tortoises that are more ancient!

Apparently Jonathan the Tortoise was born in 1832, at least according to the Guinness World Records 2020 edition.

He has been living on the island of St Helena since the relatively recent year of 1882, after leaving his home turf of the Seychelles.

This chelonian (my word of the day) predates Queen Victoria’s reign, the release of the Penny Black, two World Wars, the Russian Revolution and every other event monumental event since.

Jonathan is simply a phenomenon and we should raise our hats (or in his case, shells) in his honour.

But, without being too disrespectful to our amazing chelonian, what has he really had to conquer, apart from the ageing process?

Was 1832 a bad year for the tortoise population? Was 1895 particularly hazardous?

Did Jonathan face extinction from other tortoises who decided that didn’t deserve to survive.

I am aware that there is a huge market in tortoise smuggling, but has Jonathan ever been targeted?

Did he spend the next seven decades trying to justify his right to exist as a tortoise?

In short, Jonathan, whose lengthy lifespan (I’d wish him 120 years of life, but he passed that milestone nearly 70 years ago) should continue for many, many years - probably didn’t have to deal with any of the above.

But Israel has.

In 72 years of existence, from her first day on earth (as a modern Jewish State) to the present, she has been attacked by the armies of five different countries, whom to this day, aside from Egypt and Jordan, don’t recognise her legitimacy.

She is consistently and unfairly criticised, day in and day out by people who should know better (as Ben Gurion famously called the UN - ‘oom shoom’)

In a lifetime that has been eclipsed by the likes of our friend, Jonathan, not only has Israel survived, she has thrived.

She has successfully absorbed more immigrants that possibly any other country (percentage-wise), become a refuge for the globe’s Jewish refugees; a world leader in Tech, resulting in her other name – ‘The Start Up Nation’; been bullied, terrorised, rocketed and burned and yet, here she is, 72 years young.

Israel is not like any other country on earth.

She is different and she operates by her own rules which displease a proportion of people.

But she and many of us realised long ago, that they’ll be unhappy whatever she does.

This morning, as I read the Haftarah for Yom Haatzmaut, I was struck by the beautiful words of the prophet Isaiah:

“a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse; from his roots, a branch will bear fruit….the wolf will lie with lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox….”

Admittedly, we haven’t reached those Messianic times yet, but the shoot that sprouted on 5th Iyar 5708/ 14th May 1948 has not been cut down or eaten, even by Jonathan’s cousins.

It has instead bloomed, turning the desert green and filling the air with the sound of children playing in the gardens and the courtyards, the streets and the alleyways.

Israel is a miracle.

She is also our miracle.

May the next year bring good health, peace and success to everything our Medinah sets it’s hand to and Please Gd, may will all celebrate her 73rd year together, Covid-free in Jerusalem.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

28th April #36

Today is the beginning of my sixth week in isolation.

From the outset, the objective of these missives has been to add some relief to our very troubled times and primarily, to bring some of the Torah’s insights into our lives.

The Talmud in Messechet Baba Kama 52a states:

“The Gemara discusses the second of Ezra’s (the Scribe’s) ordinances: And that they should read the Torah on every Monday and Thursday. The Gemara asks: Did Ezra institute this practice? But it was instituted from the beginning, i.e., long before his time.

As it is taught in a baraita with regard to (above) verse: “And Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water” (Exodus 15:22). Those who interpret verses metaphorically said that water here is referring to nothing other than Torah, as it is stated metaphorically, concerning those who desire wisdom: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come for water” (Isaiah 55:1).”

My goal therefore, is to provide a spiritual well to you, the people who are so precious to me.

Today has been a difficult one.

Firstly, it is Yom Hazikaron, when we remember our brothers and sisters who fell protecting our Holy, holy land, whether through active army service or by simply fulfilling the Zionist dream of settling the land. We remember the soldiers and those who were murdered by terrorists.

And today, I am crying for someone else.

Israeli singer, Aviv Geffen wrote a beautiful, haunting song for a friend who had been killed in a car crash.

Nir Shpiener was only 18 at the time of his death.

The song gain prominence when Aviv sang it after the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin.

It’s called Livkot Lecha:

“I will cry for you

Be strong up there.

My memories

Are like doors that open in the night

Forever my friend,

I’ll always remember you,

And we’ll meet at the end

You know….”

Today, I heard that someone whom I went to school with, passed away suddenly in Israel (I was in the same year as his older brother).

We hadn’t seen in each other in years but occasionally communicated online in a school group we belonged to.

‘Max’ was a larger than life character.

Smart and witty. One of a kind.

Someone whom you could never forget, even if you hadn’t seen him for years.

And now, he’s gone.

And I want him too, to be strong up there because he’s a bright light that has been extinguished down here.

And I am looking into my spiritual well, trying to fathom why sometimes, the water seems so deep, as to be impenetrable.

Why so many people are suffering right now.

Why people like ‘Max’ are leaving us.

And the only response I can hope for, is the realisation that sometimes, there is no answer.

Tonight, we will seamlessly segue from the bleakness of Yom Hazikaron into the tumultuous fanfare of Yom Haatzmaut.

From the darkest recesses of our history, to the modern miracle that is Medinat Yisrael - a country where more Torah is being studied than at any time in our history, by our people, for our people.

And for ‘Max’.

On this dark, difficult day, my prayer is that his memory should be a blessing for all of us and may his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.

Keep safe my friends and may Gd protect you.

27th April #35

“And you shall count seven complete weeks from the day following the Passover rest day, when you brought the Omer as a wave-offering. To the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days” (Vayikra/Leviticus 23.15)

Rabbi Sacks in his green siddur writes:

“When the Temple stood, on the day after the first day of Pesach, an offering was made of an Omer (approx. four kilograms) of new barley grain. Then there began a count of forty-nine days – seven complete weeks – and on the fiftieth day, the festival of Shavuot was celebrated. When the Temple was destroyed, the Sages ordered that we should continue to count the days as a memory of practice.

The forty-nine days, connecting the Exodus from Egypt with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, are a time of preparation and growth – of leaving a world of slavery and getting ready to enter a world of personal, social and spiritual responsibility. The Jewish mystics attached special significance to this period of the year as one in which the various facets of the soul were cleansed, one by one.”

I’ve been quite punctilious over the years in counting the Omer, trying my very best not to forget a single night.

The Halacha says that if you do forget and don’t remember until the full passage of a day (from nightfall to nightfall), you lose the opportunity to say the bracha/blessing for the rest of that year’s count.

In these days of smartphones, it’s nigh impossible to forget as I have a zillion apps popping up as soon as the sun pops down, reminding me to count. That said, the only time I have forgotten, ironically, is over Shabbat as my phone is switched off.

I’m glad to say that notwithstanding this seven-fold trap, I’ve always remembered in time to be able to resume the count with a bracha when Shabbat goes out.

Judaism is a funny sort of religion.

Throughout the year, we ride a rollercoaster of historical dates.

At some points of the year, we might be suffering as slaves in Egypt, raring to leave with our matzot at the ready.

Other occasions find us wailing in the streets of a broken Jerusalem, freezing in our non-desert-like sukkah or celebrating Purim in a relieved Shushan.

At Chanukah, we even see ourselves in a pre-destroyed Temple willing the Maccabees on in their quest to reclaim its place as our very own prime meridian - Jerusalem IS the Jewish Greenwich.

And now, here we are, wandering and wondering through the desert, winding our way towards Sinai. Eventually.

Eighteen days into the count and we are still holding the fort, doggedly recording each day as if our very existence as a people would be dissolved in one fell swoop if we were we to forget the journey we started less than three weeks ago.

It’s a fact that Jews like numbers.

I’m not necessarily talking about those of us who choose to become accountants (a noble profession if ever there was one – but never for me) but referring to the way numbers seem to be embedded inside our DNA.

The world in general seems to have decided a long time ago that letters are letters and numbers are numbers and never the twain should either meet.

Jews like to do things differently. After all, why should people use two different systems when one will suffice?

And so we come to our alphabet – the alef bet where letters and numbers constitute one and the same.

Aleph = 1, Bet = 2, Gimmel = 3, Dalet =4 and so on.

At first glance, the whole caboodle seems as though it is destined to failure, but then, but then, suddenly, it makes sense to the point that you wonder why no-one else thought of it.

Three millennia in, and Judaism has developed an ingenious way of not only utilising a single system but formulating a system in which the words and their numerical equivalents become so intertwined that numbers mean words and words mean numbers.

Take today’s Omer count of 18, which is a famous example of how numbers can mean so much more.

We have 8 which is chet ((ח and 10 which is yud (י )

Placed next each other, we get 18 which is written as חי , ‘life’.

Suddenly, today has been elevated from the day between 17 and 19, to something much more meaningful.

I’ve spoken before about the idea in Judaism that we are created for a purpose. That we each have our own ‘tafkid’, our very own ‘mission in life’ – our set of personal instructions from up on High.

And today, of all days, on the 18th day of the Omer, the one that, when written as a number, equates to life itself, we need to ask about what we can do to make the remaining hours count.

Again, I do not profess to know the answer but here in Isolation-Busting country (which can be a lonely place), perhaps it is a questions worth considering.

The day is long enough for us to pray that a fellow human being who is literally fighting for their חיים is able to win their battle and live long enough to complete their tafkid - which may entail saving someone else’s life.

By the ancient rules of this counting game, I am not allowed to declare tonight’s number, for fear of losing the right to say the bracha. However, no-one can stop me praying for our fighter to overcome the challenges of the 18th, perhaps 19th and even 20th day of the Omer, to live long enough to see the 21st and beyond.

Because, in Judaism, although we may be down, we are never truly out for the count.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

26th April #34

The weather outside is simply beautiful.

The sky is a beautiful hue of blue, whilst the flowers and trees around me are blooming as though they were entering a contest, proudly displaying all their technicolour offerings for all to see.

I have always loved nature.

From the year dot, my parents inculcated in me the wonder of, and curiosity about the world into which I was born. They would take me to the parks in our neighbourhood of Golders Green and point out the flora and fauna that I could see pram-high.

I have never known an existence without the luxury of having a park within walking distance.

From Princes Park through to Golders Hill, the Heath and its extension, along with our Sunday trips into the countryside, I grew up surrounded by nature.

We used to sit in fields having picnics (which, when I think about it now, probably constitutes trespassing!), visit farms both nearby and a few hours’ drive away, look at luscious vegetation and scenery when enjoying our summer holidays abroad and walk hand-in-hand on long Shabbat afternoons through the exciting ‘woods’ in the suburb (both ‘Big’ and ‘Little’). I was thoroughly spoiled and I know it.

That love of nature has not left me to this day.

One of the highlights of my visit to Staines (along of course, with meeting my new communal ‘family’) is the fabulous walk to and from shul along The Thames.

I am really missing spending those precious moments marvelling at the beautiful vista which no-doubt will look stunning in these spring months.

If you look at the Torah, you don’t have to read too far in, until you come across the first mention of nature.

It’s there in the first verse:

“Bereshit, bara Elokim et Hashamayim ve-et Haaretz – In the beginning, Gd created heaven and earth” – the fifth word is ‘heaven’ and the seventh, ‘earth’.

Gd created nature first and we appear almost as an afterthought!

Gd had created everything else….and then he got around to us.

We were given the job of appreciating and caring for the bountiful supply that preceded us.

“And the Lord Gd took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to guard it” (Bereshit 2:15)

Rashi adds “And He (Gd) ‘took’ the man by speaking to him pleasantly and persuaded him to enter the garden (from the Midrash Bereshit Rabba)”

From the outset, Gd’s gentle work and guidance was designed to teach man a lesson. ‘Be kind to nature. Yes, you may work the land for food, but crucially, you must guard it – take care of My handiwork.’

At the same time, I am fully aware that nature’s annual gift to the northern hemisphere seems to be at odds with the cruel, unremitting pandemic that has felled and impacted the lives of so many of our fellow homo-sapiens.

It is a truly startling and disturbing dichotomy, not least because of the way our world has started to repair itself whilst we self-isolate as a result of what is taking place.

Gd works in mysterious, unfathomable ways, which I could not even start to comprehend.

Perhaps, all we can hope for, is that the pleasant weather, renewal of life and promise of many days like these ahead, will somehow bring some comfort and relief to all who have been affected - and that the nature we so admire will still be there for us to appreciate when this nightmare finally ends.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

24th April #32 and #33

It is fortuitous that Rosh Chodesh, the new moon falls on both today and tomorrow.

As we leave one month, we take a deep breath and enter another.

The last thirty days, during which the moon has waxed and waned, have witnessed the loss of many dear family and friends in our Jewish (and non-Jewish) communities.

Usually, Nisan, one of the happiest months of our year, brings us the festival of Pesach enveloped in a twine of joy and renewal - but this year has been different.

The perennial seder question of ‘Mah Nishtanah halaila hazeh’ – why is this night different from all others….has been less obvious, granted that the many days ensconced at home, quarantined and isolated have brought us to wonder how the days and nights were not different. If anything, without thinking too much, we had been led to believe that today could be like any other. Maybe the question should be rephrased as “how is today not different to any other?”

The Torah, in Bereshit/Genesis 1.16-17 tells us that:

“Gd made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; and the stars. And Gd set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide between the light and between the darkness and Gd saw that it was good – and there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day”

An intriguing element of this verse is the fact that neither the sun nor the moon are named. They are simply called the ‘greater’ and ‘lesser’ lights. It is as though their names are not important because we all know what to call them.

Rashi tells us something fascinating (basing himself on the famous Midrash) – when Gd created these two ‘lights’, they were the same size, but the moon complained, ‘saying’ that it was impossible for two kings to share the same crown.

Gd punished the moon but to mitigate the decree, He created the attendant stars, that can only be seen at night. The moon became secondary as a reflection of the sun.

However, if you think about it, in the end, the moon really did have the last laugh.

Whereas no-one can look at the sun when it shines in its full resplendent glory, the moon is always visible to the naked eye (notwithstanding a stubborn cloud in its way).

How many of us marvel at the detail we can see on the moon, especially when it reaches its full visibility in the middle of the lunar cycle?

Waxing and waning, the moon never quite disappears and even when it is ‘new’, we can still perceive its glow, even though it may be nearly 239,000 miles away.

As I’ve mentioned in previous discussions, we, the Jewish Nation are compared to the moon.

Great empires have risen like the sun, shining brightly and obliterating all who came in their way. Their power burned as fiercely as the sun, but that heat worked against them and they eventually burned out.

The little Jewish Nation, though subservient to the empires like the moon is to the sun, sometimes suffered the heat generated but it was never enough to truly incinerate us.

Like the moon, we have survived, sometimes waxing and many times waning, but never disappearing. It might have been difficult to see us during the overpowering daylight generated by the ferocious Babylonian, Greek, Roman and latterly Nazi Empires, but whilst they rose, they shone extremely brightly and now, are no more.

We, the little moon of a people, are still visible, even during a cloudy ‘night’ as we have outlasted their suns.

As I wrote, we lost some truly bright stars from amongst our nation within the last month, from the time the moon last began its journey around the earth.

At times, it seemed as though the moon would never return - but here we are, at Rosh Chodesh, a time of renewal, when a whole new lunar circuit is ready to launch into its trajectory.

It really is OK to be the moon.

May the coming days and weeks bring the world and the Jewish Nation an oasis of safety and good health and may the month that lies ahead enable us to understand how this it really is different from the last.

Keep safe, have a blessed day, Shabbat Shalom and most importantly, Chodesh Tov – have a wonderful new month.

23rd April #31

I couldn’t accurately point out the date, but what happened during those twenty-four hours would have a significant impact on my life.

OK, maybe not significant, but definitely, impactful.

Then again, ‘impact’ would be too grand a term for this development.

The decision most definitely sweetened my life.

Quite literally too.

And it’s to do with the number 31.

Over twenty years ago, the London Beth Din ruled that Baskin Robbins Ice Creams were kosher (unless you are particular about not imbibing or ingesting non-supervised milk products).

This led to a flurry (pun intended) of us walking into the parlours that we had usually walked past glumly (well, I did at least) looking at the ‘Golden Ticket’, also known as ‘The List’ of flavours that were permitted under the KLBD’s strict guidelines.

To our (ice-creamified) delight, most passed the muster and although it would have been nice if ‘Nutty Cream Cheese Brownie’, ‘Rum and Raisin’ and Strawberry Cheesecake (my favourite Haagen Dasz flavour) had been included, this was indeed the Jewish Holy Grail as far as many of us were concerned.

Yes, yes, I’m a Rabbi and I shouldn’t let these mere trifles (there you go, I threw another pun in) occupy my troubled spiritual mess-of-a-mind but – hey – we’re talking ice cream here. ICE CREAM!!!

So we had our choices that we could salivate over (but not literally because the server with the wonky hat would have thrown me out of the store) and notwithstanding the additional punitive knowledge that none of the toppings or cones were included, a cup and a little pink spoon it was.

I remember my first encounter at the parlour in Golders Green Road (so it must have been nearer to thirty years ago).

Looking, not sure which way to go, I followed the pageant of bright colours and rich flavours across the landscaped display and took my time, which probably annoyed the others behind me, but I didn’t care. This was my choice.

No longer a fleeting mirage on my walk down Golders Green Road, ‘Baskin Robbins 31 Flavours’ was my new stop-off and go-to point.

Further on in my youthful history and moving up the Northern Line to our new home in Edgware and now married with young children, we soon became regulars at the branch on Station Road. So much so that the man behind the counter (wearing another delightfully wonky hat) almost knew me by my name.

When he threatened to close the joint, I almost cried until I found out that this was only for refurbishment.

What was amusing in both parlours was the encyclopaedic knowledge that each wonky-hat man possessed about which of the flavours had been Rabbinically Sanctioned, as well as the untouchable treife flavours that wouldn’t pass our lips for love or money. If we asked whether we could have it, he gave us a knowingly disapproving look and back to the list it was (we could have scanned it, but asking was more fun).

To this day, I wonder at how something as delicious and completely un-nutritious as Ice Cream can be allowed to enter my kosher body I try, however not to query the decision of those whose expertise in kashrut dictates what I can and can’t eat because when it comes to ice cream, I think it’s a sound policy.

So, on this 31st day of my isolation, I don’t present much Torah (if any) but the idea that the sun is out and one day soon, I’ll be able to pop down to one of my favourite haunts again brightens my insides and If that’s not isolation-busting, I don’t know what is.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

22ndApril #30

Sorry

Is all that you can't say

Years gone by and still

Words don't come easily

Like sorry, like sorry.

Forgive me

Is all that you can't say

Years gone by and still

Words don't come easily

Like forgive me, forgive me.

But you can say baby

Baby can I hold you tonight?

Maybe if I told you the right words

At the right time you'd be mine…’

© Tracy Chapman

Tracy Chapman’s eponymous debut album was released back in 1988 when I was entering my twenties.

Each song was delicately crafted, a winning melange of haunting music and sensitive, thought-provoking lyrics.

It’s still one of my favourite albums as it reminds me of what matters most in life.

She covers a range of subjects in her songs, from domestic violence and racial segregation to sometimes wanting to run away from our problems (‘Fast Car’) but realising that just because you can run, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

This is not an album to listen to when you feel like winding down after a tiring day. Frank Sinatra it certainly isn’t!

My favourite song is the one I referenced at the top of this piece.

It arrives midway through proceedings and its gentle nature is greatly appreciated, coming after a number of beautiful but challenging tracks.

Its message is simple and one that we can all relate to – it’s very difficult to apologise, yet, never too late to do so.

As Elton John famously wrote “sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

Our Torah and Tanach are replete with tales of folk who went wrong.

Some apologised and others didn’t.

One of the notable people who did, was King David.

David sinned with Bathsheba and realised his mistake.

When the Prophet Nathan approached him, David said (as described in Psalm 51)

“…cleanse me from my iniquity and purify me from my sin. For I recognize my transgressions and my sin is always before me….”

Or as Alexander Pope in his ‘Essay on Criticism’ (1711) famously wrote: “To err, is human; to forgive, divine” and “For fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.

I had this in mind when I read today, that the actor Josh Brolin apologised publicly after he had visited his father, James and stepmother Barbra Streisand whilst in lockdown.

He had shared the visit (alongside his wife and their daughter) on his Instagram account and it has since been deleted.

Mr Brolin then shared another video, publicly apologising for his actions and accepting that they were ‘irresponsible’.

Despite the fact that all concerned were wearing masks, he realised that he had committed a faux pas.

In the overall scheme of things, pandemic-related, visiting his family, wasn’t the smartest move.

His apology however, to me at least, was not something that we should negate to the dustbin of celebrity gossip.

It demonstrated a man, who having made a mistake, did the right thing by apologising.

And in these strange, uncertain days, I think that this is something that should be noted and praised.

In the words of Tracy Chapman, “Words don’t come easily, like sorry, like sorry.”

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

21st April #29

29.

27.

12.

75.

The above numbers, on the face of it have no relevance of meaning.

At first glance, they could be random digits plucked out of the ether.

If I add another number to the list, they will probably start to make sense.

6,000,000.

It doesn’t take much for us to associate the number ‘six million’ to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Belsen and the other concentration camps. That’s the 75.

Today is Yom Hashoah, the Jewish “Holocaust Memorial Day” when we remember our own losses.

This doesn’t mean that we trivialise or minimise the death of murdered at the same time, but today is the anniversary in the Hebrew calendar when we remember our own, the Jewish people who died in the Holocaust simply because they were born Jewish.

Yom Hashoah, Martyr’s and Heroes Remembrance Day takes place annually on 27th Nisan as established by the State of Israel in 1951. The date was chosen because it comes a week after Passover and is as close as possible to the 14th Nisan (the day before the festival) which marked the start of the Warsaw uprising (19th April 1943) – when Jews had the ability to finally fight back against the Nazis. So that’s 27.

The 27th Nissan corresponds with the 12th day of the Omer. During this period, we are mourning the deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s students and many many others over this period of time (particularly those massacred during the Crusades).

Today is also the 29th consecutive day that I find myself isolated.

Numbers, when quoted seemingly randomly can mean so little. Our Government ministers provide us with a daily count of those of our countrymen and women who have died recently from Covid19.

The sums are so astronomical that it is easy to forget how much each person means. Numbers can be brutal, impersonal and static. We have a duty to remember that, behind every number, there lies a person, a name, someone who matters – who will always matter – to their loved one.

It's ironic that our enemies often associate us with numbers, particularly when it comes to our financial state.

The Torah instructs us to value people by never counting them, instead, counting the half-shekels that were donated in the desert (and later on), specifically because we were never allowed to reduce a person to a number.

King David sinned grievously when he took a census of the tribes of Israel and was punished by Gd as a result. He erred because he should have known that people are not numbers and numbers can never replace people.

The Nazis, (may their names be wiped out from the earth) knew what they were doing when they tattooed our people, reducing them to numbers, because when a person becomes a number, a statistic, a digit – this is the ultimate way to dehumanise them.

The team at Sky News have created something beautiful today. They have made a list of 100 people who have tragically passed away from the disease and instead of simply listing their names, have provided photographs and brief descriptions of who these individuals were.

Amongst them are men and women of different faiths, ethnic backgrounds and ages. It doesn’t matter who they were, what age they lived to or what they did for a living, all one hundred are treated equally, respectfully. They are given the dignity they deserve.

They are honoured as people, not numbers.

You can view the list at https://news.sky.com/story/pictured-some-of-those-who-have-died-in-uk-after-contracting-coronavirus-11963683

Today, on Yom Hashoah, we remember the members of our faith who perished because they were members of our faith. It was irrelevant how observant they were or whether they had a substantial amount of money in their bank account.

Or whether they had very little.

They were killed because they were Jewish.

The virus doesn’t care who it attacks and it will strike someone down because they are human and in doing so, reminds us that we too are as vulnerable as anyone else.

It is for this reason that, even if we don’t know a single person amongst those being included in the daily statistics, let us take a moment to pause and reflect on how one person – one single individual – can change the world and that we owe it them, to do something to make up for their loss to our world.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

20th April #28

If you are trying to find some good news in and amongst the grim daily tidings, it sometimes feels akin to searching for a very small needle in an oversized haystack.

It was therefore especially touching to read about Ben McCafferty, a 32 year old man who, though he had been given a day to live, having been diagnosed with Covid19, defied medical expectations and managed to recover from the deadly disease.

Ben McCafferty cheated death and after a fortnight, was released from Bradford Royal Infirmary in West Yorkshire.

What makes Ben’s case even more remarkable is that he has Down’s Syndrome.

If you view the video on https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8234729/Man-given-just-24-hours-live-contracting-coronavirus-reunited-mother.html , one is immediately struck by Ben’s wonderful demeanour and good cheer. When he meets up with his mother, you can feel the tears welling up, but Ben will have nothing of this. He sees his ‘mumsy’, they hug and off they go, back into their lives. Survivors.

It’s a wonderful story because it could have been so different and one more person, who meant so much to everybody, would have left those who knew him utterly bereft.

The Torah tells us many times how we must do everything we can to protect the three most vulnerable groups of people – the widows, orphans and strangers who live amongst us.

Ben does not readily fit into the first two categories but if we consider what is meant by the term “Ger” or “Stranger”, I would have no hesitation including him in this worthy group.

The Torah reminds us how our ancestors were ‘strangers’ in the land of Egypt.

They were different.

They didn’t worship the idols that were so embedded within the local culture and they even lived in their own suburbs, outside of the cosmopolitan metropolis inhabited by their inhospitable neighbours.

The Midrash (Minor Pesikta, Devarim (Ki Tavo 41a) relates that, throughout the hundreds of years of sojourning in the country, they didn’t change three things:

Their language, the style of clothes they wore and their dedication to giving their children Hebrew names.

In other words, to avoid being subsumed into the native land, they deliberately made a choice to be different.

So, it’s OK to be a stranger!

Gd wants us to know that sometimes, strangers can be treated differently.

“Don’t persecute the stranger, because he/she is vulnerable, remember that you too were strangers once.”

The Torah is Gd’s gift to the world, as disseminated through the people he gave it to – the Jewish Nation.

It is both our privilege and our duty to share its messages and lessons with others and when we are told to treat those in our society who are more vulnerable than ourselves, we have to do everything in our power to ensure that this takes place. Look how Israel acts when international disasters take place – they are usually amongst the first counties to organise and send aid.

Coming back to Ben.

He is different to others, but in a way that we can only marvel at.

He has an innate goodness that shines from within and he has the power to make us feel good about ourselves because he is such a pure human being.

Our Rabbis tell us that people like Ben are blessings to the world.

They make our world a better place.

Ben, the ‘stranger’ is therefore one of the greatest people to have been born in the last thirty-two years.

To know that he was saved from death and that his goodness can continue to brighten up the lives of those he comes into contact with makes him the golden needle we all need to cherish in these dark, dismal times. May Gd continue to grant him good health.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

19th April #27

One of the promises I made myself during my Semicha studies was to eventually read the ever-growing pile of books that had amassed over the five-and-a-half-years of the programme.

After I graduated, I endeavoured to keep to this and over a year later, I’m still reading!

It’s not that I’m complaining but my propensity to buy books, which I inherited from my dear father, shows no sign of abating. This has meant that the pile has grown exponentially in a year, making my task even more challenging!

I’m not complaining though, as a former employee in a bookstore who ploughed most of his wages back into the shop (strangely enough, the management didn’t seem to mind), I’ve been creating my library for many, many years.

I’m very proud of my achievements too.

I digress (Stephnie refers to me as Ronnie Corbett for a reason….)

Some newer additions to my collection took up the valuable reading time afforded to me over the generous days of Yom Tov interspersed with Shabbatot.

First on my list was the latest book written by Rabbi Sacks, an absolute gem called “Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times” which I will refer to soon and then another fascinating book, the modestly sized but beautifully researched and written tome: “The Song of Songs – A Biography” written by Ilana Pardes. I thought it was appropriate to read it during the festival of Passover, due the book being recited on Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed. I managed to get through it in 24 hours which was a feat, even by my voracious reading pace.

I loved it too.

The third book, which I’ve nearly finished (but started a while back) is “The Jewish Community of Golders Green – A Social History” by Pam Fox. More on that soon.

Yesterday afternoon, relaxing into the new, elongated Shabbat period, I dutifully prayed the Mincha Service and rekindled my love affair with Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of the Fathers.

Throughout the spring and summer months, from the Shabbat after Pesach to the one before Rosh Hashanah, I absolutely love reading a chapter of this wonderful and wise collections of sayings, which, though they date back two millennia or so, have lost none of their freshness and insight.

Yesterday was Chapter One contains my own motto I verse 14:

“(Hillel) used to say: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

However, it is a verse in next Shabbat’s chapter that I would like to focus on today:

Another of Hillel’s priceless advice can be found in verse 5:

“Hillel,omer: Al tifrosh min hazibbur - Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community”

Now you might think that this is a strange verse to quote in these separationist days!

Aren’t we all separated from our communities and many loved ones?

How can Hillel’s words reverberate in our current lock-down situation?

How can they be our “isolation-busters”? (I had to get the phrase in there somehow!)

Rabbi Sacks in his marvellous tome tries to untangle the mess our world has found itself in. Where morality as we understand it, seems to have entered into the unattainable atmosphere above our heads.

He traces our current societal woes back to the individualistic notions created in the 1960s, which transformed the “we” model into the current “I” paradigm. If that weren’t depressing enough, he takes us further back, to Rembrandt who seemed to obsess with creating self-portraits “over forty paintings, thirty-one etchings and seven drawings of himself”, through the philosophies of the like of Adam Smith, Luther, Descartes (“I think therefore I am”), Hobbes and Kant, De Tocqueville and Kierkegaard and ultimately the pre-Nazi musings of Nietzsche. It’s quite a journey but ultimately, at the heart of his argument is the rock-solid belief that morality and society, communities are wedded together.

For morality to thrive, the ‘I’ must be encompassed by the ‘we’.

I have overly simplified his sophisticated argument and would highly recommend this important literary contribution. You will thank me!

Pam Fox, in her eminently readable book, takes the reader through the up and downs of how Golders Green evolved from a country village into the bustling Jewish world-renowned hub that it’s become over the last hundred years.

I have a vested interest in learning about this history as it’s my stomping ground, the place where I was reared and lived in for nearly thirty years and where my parents still reside. It is true that you can take the Jew out of Golders Green but until the day I breathe my last, I will always be a Golders Green Jew, irrespective of where my current home tends to be.

And again, at the very centre of the legend that is Golders Green, there lies the beating heart of a community.

Through the waves of time and despite the numerous comings and goings of folk, shuls opening and closing, successes and scandals, Golders Green works when the ‘I’ has become the ‘we’.

Hillel told us not to separate from the community and this message, this vital message at a time when we feel so apart, is the motto that is keeping us together.

From Staines to Stamford Hill, from Golders Green to Greenford, from Bushey to Birmingham, we are a community, united online, united in thought, united in spirit.

If we were to find the common denominator that meshes together Pirkei Avot, Rabbi Sacks and Pam Fox, it has to be the vitality of the kehilla, the community.

Despite all this is happening to us, ‘We’ are thriving, both within the Jewish world and in our wider society.

We just need to ensure that we can keep this going once the books are returned our shelves and the isolation-buster results in the isolation-boosters we so need, to face our changed world.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

17th April #25 - #26

I have a friend whom I shall call ‘Stephen’.

Recently, he tragically lost both his parents within a spate of forty eight hours to Covid19.

If that weren’t shattering enough, his only brother, ‘Michael’ passed away from the same disease, two days ago, leaving a young wife and two daughters.

Michael had not yet reached his 50th birthday.

With everything that has been going on, these deaths have shaken me to the core.

I ‘attended’ his parents levayot/funerals on Zoom and later that evening, the Shivah.

The day, book-ended by both events, broke my heart and to hear that his brother has passed away is almost too much to bear.

I’ll add finally, that I did not know any of the three deceased individuals.

I’m friends with Stephen and this relationship, like every friendship means that you care for someone else, so that when he cries, I weep alongside him.

Because that’s what friends do.

In Parshat Shemini, that is read tomorrow, we reach the apex of events surrounding the use of the Mishkan/Tabernacle, with the vivid description of how Aharon/Aaron and his four sons start to perform the Avodah – the holy Service before the entire congregation of the Children of Israel.

Over the last few months, we have read about, firstly the intricate preparations for the construction of the Mishkan and its artefacts and then the activities involved in their creation. The detail provided at the end of the Book of Shemot/Exodus has been breath-taking in its focus on the minutiae involved, from the smallest element to the majesty that would encompass the Ark of the Covenant, the Menorah and the Mizbeach/Altar.

We then found out how Moshe assembled and reassembled the mobile Temple for seven days and prepared Aharon and his sons for the inauguration – the ‘Grand Opening ceremony'.

And finally, here we are, ‘Bayom Hashemini – on the Eighth Day’.

We’ve arrived.

Moses provides the instruction and Aharon and sons dutifully follow, ensuring that they fulfil each request to the letter.

This is perfection. The start of a new spiritual high in the history of the Israelites Nation.

We reach Chapter 10 of Leviticus and suddenly, something goes terribly wrong.

For reasons that are not really understood, Aharon’s two eldest sons decide to deviate from the plan and bring a “strange fire in their incense censors’ that they had not been commanded to do.

The result is that Gd strikes them down and they lie dead, at the feet of their father.

On the eighth day. At the very moment when the entire congregation should have been rejoicing.

The festivities have been turned in an instant from the height of spiritual joy, to the decimation of half of the only Priestly family.

Moshe turns to his brother, who is dumbfounded by what has happened and says the following:

“Gd said – ‘I will be sanctified through those who are nearest to Me, thus I will be honoured before the entire people”

And Aharon’s response:

“Vayidom Aharon – and Aharon was silent.”

Rashi explains that Gd would sanctify his ‘House’ (i.e. the Mishkan) by those whom He loved and that Moshe thought this would be himself and his brother, but in fact, Aharon’s sons were greater than both of them and they paid the ultimate price.

I can’t explain why Michael and his parents have left us and in so cruel a manner because it is beyond the mind of any human to do so.

I do however understand the response of being silent like Aharon because words cannot fill the vacuum created by the departure of loved ones.

For Stephen and his sister-in-law and for the distraught children, silence might be the space to try to comprehend the incomprehensible.

For others, the silence is too difficult to cope with and they do everything they can to avoid its unwanted presence.

We watch in awe as ninety-nine year old Captain Tom Moore walks his laps armed with only a walker and as I write, manages to raise £18,477,698.48 for the NHS.

A man who through being hard of hearing is used to a degree of silence but who refuses to let this stop him completing his mission.

This Tzaddik, this righteous man, wants to do everything in his power to ensure that other Stephens don’t suffer the loss of close family members.

From the tragedy of Stephen’s loss to the redemptive walks undertaken by Captain Moore, we are all clinging onto the hope that we will all get through this very soon.

May Gd comfort all of the mourners and bring us to the day when our families and loved ones, friends and acquaintances meet again, hug, kiss and witness a bright and healthy new dawn.

Shabbat Shalom.

Keep Safe and have a blessed day

14th April #22 - #24

It was about three years ago in the spring.

I was in our bathroom situated in the loft conversion, looking out over the street, brushing my teeth. On the edge of the guttering stood a little bird, possibly a sparrow, but not being an ornithologist, I couldn't be sure.

This poor little bird which I can't be sure of its gender, was evidently lonely.

Every morning, when we spent some precious moments together, I would watch it, through the open window calling out in a lonely sparrow (?) voice, seeking a mate to help make its nest and presumably start a family, at the edge of the drainpipe.

Day after day it stood there, cheeping hopefully, waiting patiently for a winged response. My heart went out to the little tyke. Poor little, lonely bird, throatily

rendering its mournful lament.

I hoped that by the time I'd finished my morning routine, perhaps another little bird would transform its tune from mono into glorious stereo. But the call sadly went

unanswered for the entirety of that spring.

Other birds flew in and out of the tree opposite our house, but none responded to the tuneful invitation.

A few months later, my feathered friend disappeared, presumably relocating to a more successful location.

Spring bloomed nto summer and then autumn. The cold winter meant that the window stayed shut as I brushed my teeth, wondering if I'd see 'birdie' again.

A year later, the tree started blossoming and the weather warmed up. I opened the window one beautiful morning and there was 'birdie', perched on the guttering, singing its heart out. To my delight, he had been joined by a partner and they were cheeping merrily, hopping in and out of the pipe. Birdie's prayer had been

answered.

In the sunlight of a beautiful spring day, I watched the birds re-enacting their musical romance this morning. Partners for life, happy in their own company.

Over the last few weeks,the lock-down has tightened and memories of the multitude of victims being swept away by this cruel plague have filled my mind.

I have looked up to the skies for some Divine assistance to help me understand what is happening.

For some comprehension as to why incredible people like Rabbi Pinter, or Rabbi Bakshi-Doron or the numerous other righteous individuals who served their communities both near and far, have been struck down in the most barbaric and merciless manner, though contracting the virus.

Why mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, whose names have continuously and relentlessly filled both local and international airwaves, have been lost to their families and loved ones.

I have looked to the sky for some answers and the first thing that I see are the birds, floating majestically above. Free to go as high as they like. To roam above us, looking down across our neighbours' houses. Not encumbered by adhering to their own lock-down.

Free to be independent.

I can't understand what is happening to us. I won't even try to hazard a guess but what I do know, is that one little bird, in one minute part of the universe, prayed

for a mate.

Its prayer eventually led to a response and in doing so, transformed its life from one of solitude to that of partnership because to that bird, finding a mate was the

only thing that mattered in its world.

To us, a little bird's search for a mate may seem highly insignificant but if a little bird can have its prayer answered, why can't we be afforded the same luxury?

I may not understand the way in which Gd rules the world and far be it for me to try, but if He can answer 'birdie's' prayer, maybe, if we tweet sincerely enough, if we sing our tunes to a melody that pleases the Divine Being, maybe we too will be able to roam freely soon.

Keep safe, have a blessed day and Chag Sameach.

13th April #21

"When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, let it be."

I would wager a bet that if you asked most people who Sir Paul McCartney was referring to in his serene song, they would immediately answer: "The Virgin Mary".

In fact, Paul has explained that he was talking about a dream he

had experienced during the stressful period (in early 1969) leading to the Beatles' breakup, where his late mother, Mary appeared to him and told him that his problems would be resolved. In other words, those words of wisdom told him to 'let it be'.

There is an old adage that 'there are no atheists in a foxhole'.

I can't verify whether or not this is true and it could be seen

as a generalisation. That said, whether or not we are atheists, I don't think it's a stretch to view ourselves as clinging to the walls of foxhole, dodging the corona-infused bullets whizzing about us.

Where do we find our 'words of wisdom' to allay our fears and convince us to 'let it be'? Assuming that we are people of faith, who believe in the power of prayer, the Torah is a good place to start.

Picture the scene.

Moshe's sister, Miriam, who made sure that he was safe as a three month old baby skirting the Nile's bulrushes in his little basket, in is a bad way, health-wise.

The Torah (Bemidbar/Numbers Chapter 12), tells us that she gossiped about her brother Moshe to their brother Aharon. Her slanderous sin (known in Hebrew as Lashon Harah - 'evil words') led to her being afflicted with Tzara'at, specific Divinely imposed skin condition (mistranslated as leprosy).

Moshe had to do something and he knew that the only way for him to act, was to pray.

The Torah tells us that "Moshe cried out to Gd, saying 'Please, Gd, heal her now' (12.13)

Gd's response was to heal her immediately, but she was still
quarantined outside the camp of the Israelites for seven days because He said: "Were her father to spit in her face, would she not be humiliated for seven days?" She had been shamed publicly for her sin and needed to follow the protocol of being excluded from the society in which she was so venerated.

For me, the key element in the story (putting aside Miriam's misdemeanour), is the brevity of Moshe's prayer.

"Please Gd, heal her now". It is as subtle, as powerful, as simple as let it be.

I am not, in any way, comparing Paul McCartney, as fine a musician as he happens to be with Moshe Rabeinu, Moses our Rabbi, our teacher, the greatest leader the Jewish world has ever had!

It's just that, sometimes, one can verbalise the most powerful of prayers with the greatest economy of words.

When we speak words of wisdom, when we look into our hearts to find the appropriate terminology, the one that expresses our deepest thoughts, we don't need to enunciate a prayer that could give "War and Peace" a run for its money.

"Please Gd, heal her now" and "Whisper words of wisdom" can amply convey the way we feel and the inner voice we want to vocalise, in order to communicate the depths of our emotions.

Let us pray that all of those who are quarantined, alone and excluded from their families are immediately healed.

"Please Gd, heal them now."

And when they are healed, whisper words of wisdom into their souls, informing them that they'll be OK.

Please Gd, Let it be.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

12th April #20

Moadim Lesimcha everyone. I hope that you’re keeping safe and

have had a good Yom Tov so far, granted the challenging times that we inhabit.

I don’t know about you, but I’m finding it hard to reconcile the beautiful weather we’ve been experiencing with the horrific death toll that is rising (and slightly falling) on a daily basis.

On the face of it, it feels strange to bask in the golden rays of sunshine whilst hundreds if not thousands of our fellow citizens are fighting to stay alive and tragically, many are not winning the battle.

Yet, here am in, twenty days into isolation looking for answers, gripping tenaciously onto my faith and hoping that it will provide me with a way of moving forward, through the fog of this war that we are currently battling.

Sometimes the oracles that we seek, for want of a better word, lie closer than we think.

One of the most stirring paragraphs in the Haggadah can be found early on in the seder, as we start to explain how our ancestors ended up in Egypt.

Gd promised Avraham that although his descendants would be “strangers in a land that is not theirs and that they will be turned into slaves, suffering cruelty for four hundred years, they would eventually be able to leave (with great wealth, noch!)”

The Haggadah continues:

“It is this promise that has stood by our fathers and by us! For it was not one man alone who stood up against us, but in every generation, they stand up against us to destroy us – and the Holy Blessed One saves us from their hand!”

Many of us sing “Vehi She’amda” and move on to the next part of the Seder, not internalising the significance of the paragraph.

A year ago, when we sang this famous refrain, for many of us, there was only one person who fit that particular description, namely Jeremy Corbyn (or the ‘Corbyn Pesach’ – Paschal Lamb/Corbyn as I liked to refer to him).

A year on, he’s toast (pun intended) and we/the world have a very different bogeyman, except for the fact that this one is literally killing anyone it can.

How a year can make such a difference?

We hope that, within the next twelve months (and Please Gd, much, much sooner), this evil menace will also pass.

The second thought that entered my mind came about as I read the Haftarah yesterday morning, which describes the famous, vivid vision that the Prophet Yechezkel/Ezekiel had about the dry bones (37:1-14).

To remind you, he describes how the Spirit of Gd lifted him up and placed him in a valley where he found himself surrounded by hundreds of thousands of human bones.

“He (Gd) said to me ‘Prophesy over these bones and say to them: “oh dry bones, hear the words of Gd. Thus says my Lord, Gd to these bones: Behold! I bring spirit into you and you shall live. I shall put sinews upon you and bring flesh upon you and draw skin over you. Then I shall put spirit into you and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Gd”.

The verse then describes in a startling fashion how the bones came to life after he prophesied: ‘…a rattling and the bones drew near, bone to matching bone. Then I looked and behold! – sinews were upon them and flesh had come up and skin had been drawn over them; but the spirit was not in them.’

Yechezkel is instructed to prophesy to the spirit: “…from the four directions, come, O spirit and blow into these slain ones that they may live….the spirit entered them and they lived and they stood upon their feet – a very, very vast multitude”

Gd then told Yechezkel: “Son of Man these bones, they are the whole family of Israel; behold! – they say “Our bones have dried and our hope is lost. We are doomed!” Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says my Lord, Gd, Behold! – I will open your graves and I raise you from your graves, O My people and I shall bring you to the land of Israel, then you shall know that I am Gd….’

As I’ve mentioned before, Pesach is the festival of the redemption, both from Egypt and in the future.

With the rising loss of life, can there be any more a comforting thought that one day, our loved ones will return to life, just like the dry bones described above?

Maybe the hope of the ‘Promise’ and the description of the valley, can lift our spirits and give us the strength to make it through to a truly brighter day, when both the sun shining in the sky and the inner warmth that powers us join together to bring the world a glorious future.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

7th April #15-#19

It's a day closer to Pesach and thankfully, I'm still relatively

sane.

I'm not going to get the chance to update you until Chol Hamo'ed on Sunday, granted tomorrow's activities. Who has time to do anything but prepare on Erev the eve of) Pesach?

So, I've reached the fifteenth step in the process and quite literally, the number fifteen can be related to steps.

In the Temple, there were steps leading from the Women's Courtyard (Ezrat Nashim) up to the huge, beautiful Nicanor Gates, which opened onto the Courtyard of the Priests (the Azarah).

During Sukkot, as part of the Nisuch Hamayim (water pouring) ceremony, a number of Levites would ascend each step, with their respective instruments and sing one of the 15th Shir Lama'alot - literally 'song of the ascents' Psalms (120-134) - singing the final psalm when they stood in front of the gates.

Over the last few weeks, I feel like I've been ascending steps, but without singing. There doesn't seem to be much to rejoice, as I hear of one person after another falling pray to the disease.

Yet, like all of us, I still continue climbing up to the next step, the 24 hour period we call a day. I climb because I have to keep on moving up, the way down is blocked.

I am now standing in front of those gates, waiting for them to open. I pray that Pesach/Passover opens the door for all of us and lets us breathe safely and securely.

Keep safe and have a blessed yomtov.

Chag Sameach.

 6th April #14

I've just come back from my first non-walking trip in nearly two

weeks.

I needed to go to some local Kosher stores to pick up Pesach

supplies (and some food for tonight's supper).

The roads were nearly empty, as were the shops, although it's

nigh impossible to find a kosher store without at least a few Jews offering their custom.

I have developed new, inventive ways of keeping my space, not

least staring, probably too closely at a row of different brands of gefilte fish, thus allowing someone to walk behind me.

Yes, that's what I become. A gefilte fish scanner.

No matter.

Today, as the title reminds me, is the fourteenth day of my

isolation, give or take a car drive down the road.

The number fourteen in the Alephbet is represented by the letters 'yud' and 'dalet'.

Joined together, they form the word 'yad" or 'hand'.

Yud as a letter is equivalent to the number 10 and dalet is 4, hence 14.

'Ten li yad - תן לי יד ' - ‘give me your hand' is commonly heard throughout the streets and supermarkets of Israel by mothers exasperated with their little ones (in this case, boys), who are thoroughly enjoying themselves making mischief in the sweetie aisles.

Sometimes, the command is less than gentle (in Israel, shouting is the usual volume of speech) and you don't realise what quiet means until you come off the ELAL/EasyJet/Virgin flight at Heathrow/Luton/Standsted.

Never mind.

So yad means hand and if you double up the word (yud+dalet+yud+dalet), you get 'Yedid - ידיד which means "a friend'. We put our hands out to a fellow human being to connect with them and in doing so, offer our friendship (or used to before the pandemic).

In Hebrew, words are not accidental and the connections between the use of the shoresh (usually, the three letter root of the word) and its myriad cofiguarations, is anything but random.

The word 'Yedid' has the gematria (the ancient method of working out the numerical sum of a word and extracting a hermaneutic meaning) of 28 - which is also the same as the word Koach - כח (Kaf=20, Chet=8) .

Therefore, according to gematria at least, the Hebrew for friendship and strength are identical and it's not a long stretch to realise that a friend is someone who gives you strength.

You might even suggest (if you were so inclined) that this is linked to the idea of "strength in numbers - yes, I know it's a joke, but this is supposed to be an Isolation-Buster and if you can’t laugh every now and again….

All of the above can be termed as 'pilpul', a well-known way in which Rabbis link seemingly random ideas in a cogent argument.

You might well accuse me of doing the same and I'd probably agree, but is there any harm in wondering if yad, a hand, joining with another hand forms a friendship and that friendship can provide strength to both individuals? That is the beauty of the Hebrew language.

We may not be able to shake hands but let's not forget those friends we have formed strong bonds with over the years.

Perhaps, now is the time that you could use your yad to call your yedid and give him or her the koach to carry on.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

5th April #13

It’s past 10.00 pm and unless I watch out, this Isolation-Buster might seep in Day #14.

Why the tardy hour? Probably, like many of you, today was the feared but essential annual ‘Changeover Day', when the realisation that Pesach is but a few days’ away and it’s time to re-organise the kitchen and utility room and living room and shed and…. I would be foolhardy to try to attempt

anything else before the night has made its majestic entrance, shoving the sun

into a memory of the part of the sky where it previously ruled.

Isolation-Busting, as lifesaving as it is, cannot stand in the way of the imminent arrival of our Festival of Independence.

We may be celebrating a different Passover this year, but whatever we might feel, however grim the news that fills our ears, however soothing and reassuring the voice and words of our Queen (wasn’t she marvellous?), nothing can get in the way of ‘Changeover Day’!

Whatever our challenges, our pain, our distress, we still find ourselves inexplicably preparing to remember a time when Gd delivered us from our enemies and set us on the road to our independence as a Nation – Me’avdut Le’cherut – from slavery to freedom.

What is it about our psyche that is able to overcome the dark shadows that surround our walls? How, in the hell that was the Shoah, the Holocaust, did our people manage to hold a Seder in Auschwitz?

(https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/promotions/1717336/print-this-for-the-seder-the-unforgettable-passover-of-1943-in-auschwitz-birkenau-2.html)

How, in the time of global terror, can we mute the pain in our darkest hour and focus our minds on Pesach? How can we changeover our mindset from Covid-19 to Nissan-15? Maybe the answer lies in the number thirteen. Imagine the scene, Gd has decided that he wants to destroy the Israelites over the sin of the Golden Calf. Moses is pleading for our lives, trying to change His mind. At this darkest hour, Gd teaches Moses a text that he and the Jewish people would be able to use in perpetuity in order to avert a catastrophe.

A text that would invoke Gd’s mercy on the days when He would be most accessible, such as the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah, the Ten days of Penitence between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur or on the other five public fasts throughout the year.

It consists of just thirteen words, which, when spoken from the heart, through the channel of lips, can impact the Lord Gd, Master of the Universe (the following explanations are taken from the ArtScroll Stone Chumash (Bible)

1. Gd

2. Gd

3. Kel/El

4. Rachum

5. Vechanun

6. Erech Apayim

7. Verav Chesed

8. Ve’Emet

9. Notzer Chesed La’alaphim

10. Noseh Avon

11. VaPeshah

12. VeChataah

13. Venakeh

Which can be explained as…. 1 and 2 – using Gd’s name to ask for mercy, before and after a person has sinned.

3. Using the name of “El/Kel’ – a different name for Gd that recognises His power and in so-being, grants mercy on an even greater scale.

4. Asking for Gd to be compassionate, even if a person has sinned.

5. Requesting Gd’s grace, irrespective of whether a person is deserving of it or not.

6. Declaring that unlike people, Gd is slow in His anger. He is patient and gives people time to reflect and repent before punishing them.

7. We beseech Gd to be abundant in the kindness He shows to those who may not necessarily be worthy to benefit from this.

8. If Gd is going to reward you, He will stay true to His word. Gd is truth.

9. He will grant kindness to thousands of generations. We may not deserve His kindness but our ancestors’ actions mean that, in their merit, we will receive this reward from Him.

10. We ask Gd to forgive our intentional sins (known as iniquities)…. 11….The sins that we have intentionally carried out to anger Him. We ask if He can forgive us for these.

12 And the errors in judgement that led us to sin. Our carelessness in the way we speak to others, even though we didn’t intend to offend them.

13. And with all of the above, we ask Gd to cleanse us, to accept us for who we are and place us a position where, with proper repentance, the sin is washed away and we can start anew.

These Thirteen Attributes of Gd are His gift to us, to enable us to changeover ourselves, so as to become, hopefully better people in the process. I don’t know if uttering the words above (you can find them on Page 509 of the Stone Chumash, Exodus 34:6-7) will have any impact on removing the plague that has struck the human race the world over.

What I do believe is that, if you are someone of faith and you are looking for a way to address Gd, maybe now is the time to reflect on how we can change ourselves to do everything in our power to ask for Divine mercy in this hour of need.

How many of Gd’s attributes could we find in ourselves?

Are we compassionate enough towards our friends and family?

Could we hold back our temper, when provoked by those around us who are not taking too well to the rigorous demands of isolation?

Maybe we need to show some kindness to our friends by giving them a call to find out how they are?

We don’t need to fulfil every attribute but I think that Gd’s message might have been along the lines of – “yes, you can ask all of these from me, but if you work on your own traits, you too can be like Me.

You too can live up the expectations I have of you. After all, didn’t I create you in My image?” Pesach is a time for remembering our Exodus from Egypt. From transitioning ourselves to a different mindset. We were slaves and had no freedom and now, we are free but with freedom comes responsibility.

What can we do to shed the chains of our captivity, both physically and metaphorically?

If we can answer these questions, perhaps we can start becoming the bricks that will rebuild our societies once the plague has passed (Please Gd may it happen very very soon).

Keep safe, have a blessed day and night.

3rd April #11 and #12

And The Lord said to Moses: “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day……And Moses went down from the mount to the people and he sanctified the people and they washed their garments.

And he said to the people: “be ready for the third day; don’t have relations with a woman (i.e. your wife!)” (Shemot/Exodus 19:10,14)

In the Gemara, Messechet Shabbat (which is currently being studied as part of the new Daf Yomi Cycle) 86b, we learn something fascinating:

“Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya holds in accordance with the opinion of the Rabbis, who say with regard to the revelation at Sinai that Moses instituted separation between husbands and wives on the fifth day of the week (i.e Thursday).

Since everyone agrees that the Torah was given on Shabbat, husbands and wives were separated for two days.

And Rabbi Yishmael holds in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yosei, who said that Moses instituted separation on the fourth day of the week, meaning that husbands and wives were separated for three days.”

Putting aside the argument about whether the separation began on Wednesday or Thursday, the crucial point for the sake of this discussion is the universal agreement (highly unusual for Jews!) that the Torah (i.e. the Ten Commandments) was given on a Shabbat.

Since we know that this was on the 50th day after the Exodus, following the seven whole weeks of the Omer, we can see that that the Israelites left Egypt on a Thursday.

We can calculate this by counting backwards from the 49th day (Friday).

The first day was exactly seven weeks before, which means that the counting started on Thursday night, following their leaving Egypt earlier that day.

The very first Seder was therefore held on the previous night (Wednesday) night, whilst the final deadly plague was being carried out against the Egyptian first born males and animals.

Why is this important to us?

Thursday 15th Nissan 2448 or 3,332 years ago was the first day of the newly created festival of Passover, which means that Shabbat 10th Nissan (five days earlier) was the day on which the following happened:

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron….speak the Congregation of Israel saying “In the tenth (day) of this month, they shall take to them (every) man, a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household….and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this same month; and there you shall slaughter it. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel at dusk. And the shall take of the blood and they shall put it on the two side poses (Mezuzot) and on the lintel on their houses wherein they shall eat it” (Exodus 12: 3.6-7)”

That day, the 10th of Nissan became known as Shabbat Hagadol, the great Shabbat – the last Shabbat of slavery – the last Shabbat in Egypt.

To this day, we call the Shabbat before Pesach, Shabbat Hagadol.

This is for a number of reasons, the most famous being a verse in the Haftarah, the penultimate verse in the Book of Malachi, the last of the Prophets:

הִנֵּ֤ה אָֽנֹכִי֙ שֹׁלֵ֣חַ לָכֶ֔ם אֵ֖ת אֵלִיָּ֣ה הַנָּבִ֑יא לִפְנֵ֗י בּ֚וֹא י֣וֹם יְהוָ֔ה הַגָּד֖וֹל וְהַנּוֹרָֽא׃

Behold, I will send the prophet Elijah to you, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

As I have mentioned previously, Pesach is a festival that represents the Exodus, not only from Egypt but in the future – from the current situation we find ourselves in, to Yemot Hamoshiach, the Messianic Age.

Returning to my previous point, this Shabbat, for at least two of the examples I have described, is called “Shabbat HaGadol” – “The Great Shabbat”.

What is particularly relevant about all of the above is that this year (as you will no doubt have noted), we are in exactly the same position. Tonight and tomorrow will be Shabbat, 10th Nissan and the anniversary of our transformation from slaves to a free nation will commence on Wednesday night, with the ushering in of the 15th of Nissan – the identical day of the week that we left Egypt.

I don’t know what the significance of this is, with relation to what is going on, but I can say that celebrating Pesach and Shavuot on the very same days that the events occurred is pretty meaningful.

Over the next day, let us savour this Shabbat and take a moment or two to remember what happened all those years ago exactly at this time.

May we merit the greatness vividly described in the verse and Please Gd, we will all witness the arrival of Elijah and the Moshiach speedily in our days.

Keep safe, have a blessed day and Shabbat Shalom.

2nd April #10

“Oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet but this once, Perhaps there shall be found there ten. And He said: I will not destroy (it) for the sake of the ten.”

We have just dropped in on the extraordinary conversation between Abraham and Gd in the Book of Bereishit (Genesis) 18.32

Gd is about to destroy the city of Sodom, a city that will forever be associated with immorality and baseness.

A city that on the face of it, was beyond redemption.

Abraham has asked Gd for a stay of Divine execution if a maximum of fifty righteous citizens could be found within the city walls.

Gd has agreed.

Abraham knows this is an impossibility, granted the licentious nature of its inhabitants.

He continues his haggling….down to forty five…..and then forty….followed by thirty, twenty and now, going for broke….the final ten.

Ten people - in a city where there might be hundreds if not thousands of folk.

Surely, there must be ten good individuals.

Gd agrees to save the city for the ten.

The ten who ultimately cannot be counted, because they don’t exist.

“Then the Lord caused the rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord, out of the heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the growth of the ground.” (19.24-25).

Because of the ten who could not be found. The ten who could have made the difference.

A bleak examination of the story could bring us to the conclusion that Gd’s actions were heartless and calculated. After all, He knew
that the Sodomites (quite literally in this case) didn’t stand a chance and that Abraham’s desperate negotiations were “an exercise in futility”, yet, he let Abraham, an elderly man at that time, think that he stood a chance of rescuing those, who, in the end, didn’t deserve this plea-bargain.

However, if we view the story from another angle, we have Gd who, though He is fully aware that the cards are ultimately stacked against the obvious conclusion, is still willing to listen to a righteous man’s efforts to save his fellow human beings - good or evil.

I can’t give you a reason for what is happening in the world today.

I can’t explain the unbearable loss of life and suffering endured in the process.

I can’t rationalise why incredible people are being ripped apart from their families and communities, sometimes returning after facing death in the face… and sometimes, not coming back.

But I can tell you that if you are someone of faith, a person who believes in a Higher Entity, right now, you need to do everything in your power to use it to pray for an end to this tragedy. By all means, join those who are volunteering and helping their neighbours and complete strangers, but don’t forget to take a moment or two in the day and offer up your own prayer for someone’s safe recovery.

Because, if Gd was willing to desist from eliminating individuals who were inherently evil, how much more so might He be entreated to save our wonderful loved ones and fellow citizens from the internal fire and brimstone that is ranging internally inside their bodies.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

1st April Day #9

Number nine……number nine……number nine…..

I was recently teaching my Year 8s (that’s the ‘second year’ or 12-13 year olds in old money) recently and we were looking at computer coding, with the focus of the lesson on understanding how computers convert ASCII – I won’t get too technical, but it means the characters on a keyboard, such as letters, numbers and symbols – into Binary, the language that computers understand.

As an aside, there’s a lovely old joke about binary, which states that there are only 10 types of people, those who understand binary and those who don’t!

That aside, we were learning about binary coding and I digressed (me? Digress? Perish the thought!) into telling them about creating codes and in particular the incredible work carried out at Bletchley Park during WWII. I even suggested that they visited the site, which now seems like such a foreign thought, but never mind.

Number nine……number nine……number nine…..

I’m fascinated by the use of secret codes and you might be
wondering how this relates to the Torah.

Many of you might be aware that of the idea flouted a few years ago that the Torah contains all kinds of hidden codes if you know how to find them, but that’s not where I’m heading to right now (I’ll keep that for another day). No, I’m referring to the ancient cipher known as “Atbash”.

Atbash is a mono-alphabetic biblical code (which is also used in later Rabbinic literature) whereby the aleph bet is utilised to create a secret code.

The way it operates is by matching up the letters in both forward and reverse order so that two letter words are created by joining the first and last part of the aleph bet together.

An example: At/Ta = aleph+tav or tav+aleph, B/SH = Bet+Shin or Sh/B = shin+bet, G/R = Gimmel+Resh or R/G (Resh+Gimmel) and so on.

You can find examples of this in the Bible, for example, in Jeremiah, where the prophet urges the Jewish exiles in Babylon to take up Cyrus’ offer to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. He rejoices over the demise of Babylon and says (51.41) “How has Sheshach has been captured and the glory of the whole world seized? How was Babylon become a desolation amongst the nations?”, with Sheshach ששך referring to Bavel (Babylon) בבל.

Our people have a long history of spying (some occasions more successful than others) and the idea that the Bible itself provides us with a code is truly fascinating.

If you’d like to find out more about the Atbash code, you can head over to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atbash, which is where I found the Jeremiah reference.

Number nine……number nine……number nine…..

And as for the recurring interruption above, some of you might have spotted my little Beatles’ reference from the controversial penultimate track on the White Album – “Revolution 9”.

John Lennon had a very interesting relationship with this particular digit. He was born on 9th October (as was his son, Sean), he wrote a number of songs with the number 9 in them, including the aforementioned track and ‘#9 Dream’ and chillingly, although he was murdered on 8th December, the news broke in the UK in the early hours of the 9th…

On a happier note, I’ve made it through to my 9th day of Isolation and am Thank Gd fine.

I hope you are too.

As ever…

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

31st March Day #8

As I enter my second week of Isolation, I realise that I’ve reached an important milestone – the eighth day.

It’s no secret that Jewish people have an affinity with numbers and I’m not necessarily referring to those of us who are accountants or running a business! Our nation has a history of relating to numbers from the day go.

We know that Gd created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th. We have 3 patriarchs and 4 matriarchs. Then there are the 12 tribes and the 70 people who went to down to Egypt including Jacob.

Let’s not forget the 10 Plagues and the 10 Commandments or the very sought after Minyan man to bring our worshipper count to 10….

However, there are certain numbers that are very special in our faith, such as 3 and 7 (and 13, which may be unlucky for our Christian neighbours but fortunate for our Barmitzvah boys – and twelve if you are female!)

The number 3 is once such ‘magic number’.

• We need at least 3 males over 13 to make up a Mezuman (minimum quorum) for benching.

• We are not allowed to eat from a fruit bearing tree until after its 3rd year of growth.

• The concept of a Chazaka or presumption that where an action has been performed three times, this becomes its default status. An example of this is where Person A, whom we shall call Reuven, accuses Person B, aka Shimon, of occupying his house or field.

According to Halacha, if Shimon can prove that he has been living or squatting there on a continual basis for three years, it is as though he has purchased the property without his having to provide documentary proof (obviously, this case is greatly simplified, but that’s the general theory).

• Some people have the tradition to wait until their son has reached his 3rd birthday to have his first haircut, known as an Upsherin.

Another number with a very special significance is 7.

• The process of creation and rest amounted to 7 days.

• The land of Israel has to be laid fallow every 7 years (Shmittah).

• After 7 full cycles of Shmittah, we used to celebrate the Yovel at the start of the 50th year (from whence the word “Jubilee” is derived).

• There are 7 weeks of the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot.

• Pesach and Shavuot last for 7 days (outside Israel)

• There are 7 special Haftarot between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah.

• A bride encircles her husband to be 7 times.

• There are 7 blessings under the chuppah (Sheva Brachot).

• We have 7 days of the subsequent Sheva Brachot celebrations.

• We do 7 Hakafot/circuits around the Bimah on Simchat Torah.

• The Cohanim encircled Jericho 7 times before the famous walls crumbled etc.

And so we reach the number 8.

The Zohar, a key work of Kabbalah, refers to the number 8 as being symbolic of something other-worldliness, - it is, as it were, a number above nature.

Gd created the universe that we inhabit in 7 days, so the number 8 is a digit or realm above human perception.

The number 8 correlates with the idea of miracles and completion and It is the only number that balances on itself (two perfect circles on top of each other)

Just as we can see and experience everything within a sphere of 7 days, the 8th dimension is Gd’s interaction with our world, out of sight but absolutely crucial to keep the blue planet and its neighbours in existence.

• It took 8 days for the oil to burn in the Menorah until enough fuel had been pressed to resume the daily lightings in the Beit Hamikdash (Temple). -hence the festival of Chanukah

• A baby boy is born naturally uncircumcised. He can only become part of the Jewish nation when he has had his brit milah, on the 8th day after his birth.

• The 7 days of Sukkot are completed by the 8th day of the festival, which is a totally new Chag in itself – Shimini Atzeret (which is taken to mean “the closing festival” ) – it is on this 8th day that we pray for Gd to send rain, a miracle in itself, to our precious land of Israel.

• Our Rabbis tell us that Moshiach will bring the final redemption on the 8th day of Pesach. His arrival will be nothing short of a miracle.

Today, on the 8th day of isolation, I pray that Gd, in His infinite wisdom provides us with miracles.

We all need that other-worldliness element to inculcate in us the fortitude to face the oncoming days with renewed vigour and optimism.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

30th March Day #7

This morning, my Facebook feed reminded me that exactly two years ago, we were about to enter Chag HaPesach, the Festival of Passover.

Soon, we would be joining our fellow Jews around the world, sitting at our beautifully decorated tables and anticipating the magical evening that lay ahead.

This Seder would surely be one of the highlights of the year as we reconnected with our loved ones and invited those in our community who might have been on their own, had they not been able to spend the evening within the warm glow of our caring communities.

"And it shall be, when your son will ask you at some future time, 'What is this? you shall say to him, 'with a strong arm, Hashem removed us from Egypt. from the house of bondage' [Exodus 13.14]

At the heart of the Seder is "Magid", the retelling of Yetziat Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Egypt.

It follows the the ‘Mah Nishtanah’ section, where the youngest child (or alternatively those assembled collectively if there are no children) asks the four questions about why 'this night is so different from all other nights'.

The person leading the seder then proceeds to give the answer and refers to the commandment relating to re-telling the story of how the Exodus came about.

Our Sages note that the commandment to relate the story was given by Gd before the Israelites left Egypt. They were still slaves, still wondering until the very last minute whether they would actually be freed. The Exodus had not yet happened but they had faith in Gd and Moses their leader that it was imminent.

If they had been so sure of leaving, surely, they would have baked some provisions for the journey!

Yet, they left in haste, to the point that there wasn't even enough time for the dough to rise , as the Torah tells us:
"They baked the dough that they took out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for they could not be leavened, for they were driven from Egypt for they could not delay, nor had they made provisions for themselves.

The habitation of the Children of Israel during which they dwelled in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years" [Exodus 12 39-40]

Which Jewish person doesn't make enough provisions for a trip?! They had 430 years!

This year, we know that our sedarim will be different and that many of our loved ones will not be present. We also may not be able to create the provisions that we are used to having to help us fully enjoy Pesach as we have done in the past.

However, despite all of the challenges, we still have a duty to recount the story of the Exodus, whether or not out 'son' will be present.

This is because, just like our ancestors, we are showing our faith that Gd will use His strong arm, to remove us from the plague that is affecting not only the Egyptians, but everyone else, the world over.

It is that faith, the same one which bolstered our ancestors through the generations, all the way up the chain back to Egypt - which will keep us going, protecting us, fortifying us until next year when we will Please Gd celebrate Pesach in a safe and beautifully rebuilt Jerusalem.

May He send Moshiach speedily in our days, Amen.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

29th March #6

‘And it was on the day that Moses finished erecting the Tabernacle that he anointed it, sanctified it and all its utensils, and the Altar and all its utensils and he anointed and sanctified them.

The leaders of Israel, the heads of their father's household, brought offerings; they were the leaders of the tribes...’

(Bamidbar/Numbers 7.1-2

Rashi writes that, since it states "Moses FINISHED erecting the Mishkan, instead of 'the day that Moses erected the Mishkan, we can learn that for the seven previous days (from 23rd Adar), Moses “set it up and took it apart, but on that day, he did not take it apart....and this was the first day of Nisan".

On each day, one tribe bought its tribute until (and including) the 12th of Nisan. Our Rabbis tell us that each of these days was considered as a Yom Tov/Festival in its own right, which is a reason why don't recite the Tachanun/supplication prayer on these days, in keeping with the tradition of not saying Tachanun on a Yom Tov. In fact, since we don't say it over Passover (which begins as we enter the 15th) either, the Rabbis declared Nisan as being a Tachanun free month!

It may not feel like Yom Tov yet, but if we can close our eyes and try to imagine the extraordinary pageant that took place, maybe we too can enter in some Yom Tov spirit of our own.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

27th-28th March #4 & #5

Last night, we stood in our doorway, along with our neighbours (who were at a safe distance) and vigorously clapped, cheered and whooped the incredible work being carried out by our own superheroes at the NHS.

These men and women, young and so not so young are quite literally putting their lives on the line 24 hours a day - day after day after day - to save the lives of our loved ones and others who we don't necessarily know, but who have now become honorary members of our extended families.

Two of my own daughters, Hadassah and Talia  make up part of that workforce, the former as a Radiographer in full time employment and the latter, in the final year of her studies to qualify as a Paediatric Nurse. Both are currently based in their respective hospitals.

I do not have the words to describe my pride at their respective achievements and dedication.

Their tireless efforts, along with colleagues, both near and far are keeping people alive, holding families together and bringing hope to everyone else.

In doing so, we must not forget that they are quite simply endangering their own health and Gd forbid a million times, risking losing their lives.

Although some of us may be physically isolated, the knowledge that people like my daughters are working tirelessly and selflessly to protect us, reminds us that we are never far away from someone who cares about our well-being.

May Gd in Heaven continue to give our superheroes at the NHS the strength, resolve and ability to save those who mean so much in our lives. May he bless the work of the hands and grant them success in everything they do.

Wishing you all a Shabbat Shalom.

Have a safe and blessed day.

26th March #3

“And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron in the Land of Egypt saying: “This month shall be to you the beginning of the months. It shall be to you the first of the months of the year.(Exodus 12.1-2)”

The very first mitzvah that was given by Gd to the Israelites was to establish a calendar and the date on which this commandment was given….was on this very day – Rosh Chodesh Nisan!

So, today is not just Rosh Chodesh but THE Rosh Chodesh that starts a whole new year and the one on which our entire calendar is based.

In the Mishna,  in Messechet Rosh Hashanah, we are told that there are four New Years: “The first of Nisan is the new year for kings [the date from which their reign is calculated] and [the designation of when] the festivals [will occur. The mishnah proceeds by mentioning the others, including Tu Bishvat and of course ‘Rosh Hashanah’.

In the rest of the Torah, the months in the year are enumerated  from Nisan, so that the Chagim in Tishri, for example are referred to as taking place the ‘seventh month’, even though we consider this month to be the start of our new year, with Rosh Chodesh receiving its yearly change by Heavenly Deed-Poll to the more familiar Rosh Hashanah!

So on this auspicious day, let’s look outside and wonder at the renewal of our world with the arrival of spring. One of Nisan’s other names is ‘Chodesh Ha’aviv – the month of spring and in two weeks, Please Gd, we will start celebrating Chag Ha’aviv!

Nisan is called the ‘Month of Blessings’ as it is in this month that we will have the opportunity to say the annual blessing over the blossoming fruit trees and if we were in the 28^th year of the Solar cycle, we could also bless the sun which returns to the exact spot it inhabited on the day of its creation (I’m sorry but you’ll have to be quite patient for that, as the last time we recited it was in 2009!).

May Gd bless us this month in particular with keeping us out of harm and granting us good health and may He bring the Redeemer to Zion…because Jewish tradition tells us that the Moshiach will arrive at Pesach.

Keep safe and have a blessed day.

25th March #2

Today is the last day of the month of Adar and as tomorrow is Rosh Chodesh Nisan, it is also ‘Yom Kippur Katan – mini Yom Kippur’.

If we think about its older brother which we greeted last year, perhaps we can remember the trepidation we felt as we entered into the ‘zone’ that constituted the holiest day of the year.

Many of us forget that although Yom Kippur is a very serious day, it is also a Yom

Tov!

On that day, we remind ourselves of our misdemeanours through the numerous

occasions when we chant the ‘Al Cheits’  and pray that the fresh, new year will bring us only good health, peace and prosperity.

It may seem a long time ago in these challenging times, but for a moment today,

close your eyes and try to remember what it was like to enter the year 5780.

Think about the goodwill you felt towards your family and friends as you wished them

‘well over the fast’ and shared in their news that they had reached the ‘finish line’ successfully.

On every weekday, we read Psalm 100 ‘Mizmor LeTodah : A Psalm of Thanksgiving -

Serve Hashem with gladness (Simcha) and come before him with joyous song”.

Yom Kippur as a ‘yom tov’ literally a ‘good day’ demands that we do just this and

although Yom Kippur Katan is a serious day when many people fast and recite Selichot, especially at the end of this month, we need to steel ourselves in a positive manner, ready for the month of Nissan when, despite everything that is going on around us, we will celebrate the wonderful festival of Pesach and only a free man can serve Hashem with true simcha, true joy.

Dr Victor Frankl who lived through Auschwitz never gave up hope that he would one

day be a free man.

Today, on this Yom Kippur Katan, let’s pray that by the time we reach the next one (24^th April) we too will be free and able to bring Simcha truly back into our lives as a

result.

Have a safe and blessed day.

24th March #1

"And Gd said: Let the waters be gathered together under the heaven into one place, and let the dry land appear and it was so. And Gd called the dry land 'earth' and the gathering of the waters, he called 'seas' and Gd saw THAT IT WAS GOOD and Gd said, let the earth put forth grass, herb, yielding seed (and) fruit tree(s) bearing fruit after its kind where its seed will be upon the earth. And it was so and the earth brought forth grass after its kind and tree-beating fruit where its seed was after its kind; and Gd saw THAT IT WAS GOOD. And there was evening and there was morning - a third day"  - which we call 'Tuesday'.

Our Rabbis tell us that Tuesday is regarded as being particularly blessed as it is the only one which ‘Gd saw that it was good', not once, but twice. It is also the day that food was created for the creatures who had not yet populated the planet.

Today, in particular, think about how blessed you are to be alive and able to partake

of Gd's bountiful gifts, both in terms of the material and spiritual dimensions of our existence.

Have a safe and blessed day