FOSTERING A VIBRANT RENEWAL OF JUDAISM IN POLAND
FOR BEIT POLSKA. 6th November 2020 – Sometimes life has a habit of kicking you just where it hurts most. Just when you have come through a bad experience, maybe a horrifying one that partially weakened you, maybe even partially strengthened you, the next blow comes. The section at the very end of this week’s […]
There are days when we completely lose our energy to live, when we feel unhappy and a voice inside us tells us that nothing can be done about it so do nothing. Some people simply accept this voice and for others this can be a harbinger of[…]
The fear of the LORD prolongs life, While the years of the wicked will be shortened.
Proverbs 10:27
Immortality is an eternal human longing and its motif is interlaced throughout all religions and cultures of the world, including secular culture. We see this theme everywhere. Literature, art and film[…]
For Beit Warszawa, (October 2020)
”Bereshit bara Elohim et-HaShamayim ve’et HaAretz”; ”In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” One of the most famous sentences of all time. With these words the History of the Universe is defined from a Jewish perspective. Of course we do not necessarily believe now in the literal truth of such a bare statement, of course we are aware that there are other theories of universes and what they are, of course we know that this is only the opening sentence of a poem[…]
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 –[…]
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:[…]
