Thoughts on parashat Vayigash.

The end of the secular year 2020 is approaching. For many of us it is a time of reflection on our accomplishments and disappointments. We evaluate our lives and make plans for the future. For many 2020 hasn’t been such a good year. The worldwide pandemic affected our lives significantly: some of us lost loved ones, many lost jobs, incomes and savings and we have also lost our freedom. Our hope and faith in a[…]

Thoughts on parashat Miketz

One definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. While there is a lot of truth to this rather amusing statement, I challenge this conclusion. It would be absolutely true if we had full control over the results of our actions and over other factors that influence those results, however, we have no such control. Additionally, we don’t get everything right the first time we try – so repeating it again, might in fact produce a different result. The same is true of risk-taking situations: these situations, by definition, do not guarantee the desired results. Therefore, at the onset, the truth of the statement is limited.[…]

Beit Warszawa – The German Government has just done something really quite remarkable as I write these words – but I am sure anyone interested will find still on the Internet the relevant items under ”www.bundesregierung.besonderehelden” or similar. They have produced three short 90-second videos in which elderly people look back to ”the Corona winter of 2020” and how they were then young students behaving as young students do (this is SO funny and so realistically portrayed) and how they were ”especial heroes” in that[…]