Simchat Torah is not really important in the Torah itself! There is a sequence of festivals starting with Rosh Hashanah and then Yom Kippur and then Sukkot, and at the end of this latter comes an ”Eighth Day marking the End, the Closure” – ‘Shemini Atzeret’. But the Rabbis of the Mishnaic period introduced – very importantly – a principle of regular readings from the Torah in their meetings – you can find details of some of the discussions in the Mishnah, Tractate Megillah –[…]

Thoughts on Yom Kippur 5781

During the High Holidays we reflect on the moral actions and decisions we have made over the past year. We wonder if we have harmed our loved ones and the people around us. If we find guilt in ourselves, we ask for forgiveness. When it comes to sin, the interpersonal relationship involved is generally trilateral:[…]

Thoughts on Parashat Haazinu

I was born and raised in a secular family where certain wisdom and values ​​were instilled in me from early childhood. Among them were values such as education (which is generally considered a carrier of all values), truthfulness, diligence, ambition, being compassionate, sensitiveness to beauty and many others. Both my childhood and adolescence were a happy time for me.[…]

Thoughts and Insights for Rosh Hashanah

Religion has the beautifully inherent purpose of helping us gain control and guide us in organizing what is irrational within both our spiritual and practical realms. Maimonides’ view on animal sacrifices, which was performed by the ancient Israelites in the Temple, is an illustrative example.[…]

Thoughts on parashat Nitzavim-Vayelech

Human beings are religious beings. This means we have a natural tendency to develop religion or something that metaphysically deals with the problematic mystery of human existence. Every time human beings want to get rid of religion something else fills this gap and becomes a new religion. This new religion is usually a political ideology, an ideologized science or a random stream of philosophy that was[…]

Thoughts on parashat Ki Teitzei

Human beings are more prone to be preoccupied with the negative aspects of our existence and tend to ruminate more about unpleasant events. In general, there is not much we can do about this: that’s how our brains have evolved throughout millions of years of evolution – this mechanism helped us survive in the world that was incredibly[…]