Friday, Jan. 24th, 2020 | 28th Teveth, 5780 – My mother’s grandfather, Avram Hirsch Tchervinsky was a blacksmith for horses here in Warsaw, when it was ruled by the Czars of Russia. One of my father’s grandfathers, Gedalyah Moshe Wisnia owned a leather tanning factory in Otvotsk; and the other grandfather, Yosef Haberman owned a furniture factory in Sochaczew. Poland runs deep in my family.

For Beit Warszawa, 10th. January 2020 – This week’s sidra forms the end of the Book of Bereshit, Genesis, and winds up the period of the Patriarchs which commenced with Abraham’s ”call” at the beginning of Chapter 12. In Chapter 49 Jacob dies and in chapter 50 is buried with great honours at the cave of Machpela in Hebron which Abraham had bought as a family tomb when Sarah died, in the land of Canaan (although for some reason they are also somewhere ”across the Jordan” for a while…

Thoughts of parashat Vayigash We live in an age of many different and often conflicting narratives. All the different worldviews can be easily pitted against each other, with a promotion of “the only right one”, in order to wage yet another ideological war. One can also go in a different direction: from the fact that […]

Thoughts on Parashat Miketz In last week’s Torah portion we read about the dramatic events of Joseph’s life. After he was sold by his brothers to Egypt as a slave he became a servant of Pharaoh’s official – Potiphar. He made Joseph the administrator of his home, entrusting him with all his property. Soon after, […]

Beit Warszawa, 20th. Dec. 2019 – ”And Jacob lived where his father had only been passing through, in the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 37:1). Many commentators have tried to explain this sentence which is so heavily laden with meaning, for it raises some fundamental questions by positing a contrast between two terms – to ”live” […]