Rabbi Claude's Scribbles

 It’s a memorable but disturbing scene from one of my favourite films. Luke, a decorated war hero, has escaped from the brutal penitentiary where he has been incarcerated for two years.   His original crime? Decapitating parking meters during a drunken spree.   He has tried to escape and has been recaptured.   He is standing on an embankment overlooking his fellow prisoners who are clearing a dust track in the baking sun.   They stop to look at him being fitted with leg irons (to accompany his handcuffed hands).   The sadistic captain who oversees the prison tells Luke that he needs to “get used to wearing them chains after a while, but you never stop listening to them clinking, cos they are going to remind you of what I’ve been saying for your own good.” Luke responds sarcastically saying, “I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Captain!” at which point the captain replies, “Don’t you ever talk that way to me.” and sharply hits Luke across the collarbone with his truncheon causi

I’ve lost count of the times someone has told me that they find it hard to relate to the events that took place in the Torah.   After all, here we are over three thousand years after the fact.   Times have changed.   People have different attitudes and the last time I looked, none of my neighbours spent their time living in tents.   Admittedly, there are some who enjoy camping out, particularly during the summer festival season (and many of them cheat by ‘glamping’), but this is for a very limited time.   Yes, it’s fine if you are an army-type or wish to achieve a DoE award…but living a nomadic life, such as that practised by Avraham, Sarah and their entourage, is strictly off the scale of many people’s idea of habitation. On the surface, as 21 st Century citizens, how can we connect to the many episodes that are vividly described in this week’s Parasha? Avram (later to be renamed Avraham by Gd), a 75-year-old man is told by Hashem to leave his entire life behind, namely his ‘la