Beit Warszawa, Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkot, 18th. October 2019. For the Shabbat in Sukkot the rabbis chose as a Torah reading Devarim (Deuteronomy) Chapter 8, which stresses the way in which the Israelites had to spend (and suffer) a lengthy period, forty years, in the wilderness. This seems appropriate to our own congregation which is […]

Beit Warszawa, 11th. October 2019. ‘Haazinu’ – Deuternomy Chapter 32 – is almost the end of the Torah, the five books, and represents what one might call Moses’ ‘Swansong’ – this term is based on the legend that, shortly before it dies, the swan bursts into beautiful song – and then expires. The song that […]

It is not always easy when God speaks to you. I think we need to be very honest about this. It is also very, very hard to describe, or at least to describe convincingly. Somehow, some times, out of nowhere, you hear or you feel a decision being made for you and your challenge is […]

I have in the past emphasized that the most important parts of any Biblical text are those which are not written or not printed, not read but which must have happened if a narrative is to make any sort of sense. Narrative sense, or theological sense – the two are not always the same. The […]

Life is a journey, not a destination – these words of Ralph Waldo Emerson resonate with the narrative of the Torah, which devotes 4 books to the description of the journey through the wilderness and concludes on the cusp of the Israelites entering the Promised Land. The fact that we start reading Torah from the […]

Beit Warszawa, 30 August 2019 – The portion ‘Re’eh’ is one of those composite ones towards the end of the Torah where Moses is trying to cram in several themes at the same time. Some are, from our point of view, pleasant and uplifting, some are violent and threatening. When he starts by saying ”Look, […]