Thoughts on Parashat Vayera

A lot of our political and cultural debate today pertains to societal norms. However, I believe that, in our times, there is a common confusion about the nature and purpose of societal norms. Therefore, I need to make some statements that sound quite obvious for many of us: the societal norms have not been created to indulge the individuals; they have been always to serve the society, as a whole, to facilitate its survival, reproduction, demographic and cultural growth as[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Lech Lecha

This week’s Torah begins with God’s act of choosing Abram as the Divine servant:

יהוה said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Noach

The story contained in our Torah portion for this week can be seen as a metaphor of a great catastrophe in which species were decimated or doomed to total extinction… Only a few of them were to survive, a few individuals of each gender, in order to reproduce and prevent the animal life cycle on the earth from a complete extinction. Does it sound completely unreal today?[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Bereshit

God’s unity and oneness is a fundamental theological principle in Judaism. Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad! – these are the words we recite twice a day, everyday. There are, however, passages in the Torah that seem, at first glance, to question this Divine unity:[…]

[maxbutton id=”6″ url=”https://polishjewsreviving.org/kogo-zaprosisz-do-swojego-szalasu/” ] One of my favourite Sukkot traditions is Ushpizin, a Kabbalistic custom of ‘inviting’ spiritual ancestors of the Jewish people to the Sukkah on every day of the festival. In Orthodox Judaism, the guest list was limited to males: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David. Each of these guests was […]

[maxbutton id=”6″ url=”https://polishjewsreviving.org/dwar-tora-nicawim-2022/” ] As you cannot help but know, Queen Elizabeth II died earlier this month. I’m not a monarchist – I was raised in that most republican of all countries, the USA, and when I became a Brit and was offered the choice of an oath or affirmation of allegiance, I choose the […]