FOSTERING A VIBRANT RENEWAL OF JUDAISM IN POLAND
A new ‘secular’ year, 2024, is approaching. The end of the ‘secular’ year is a reckoning and evaluation time for many people in the world. For many of us, Jews, too. Although we count years in our own way we are still part of the general human population and we follow many of their patterns.
Having said that, I must acknowledge one basic fact: We live in a different world than we lived a year ago. Davar acher – as the rabbis of Talmud often say,[…]
The story of Joseph is, to some extent, a story of meritocracy. We cannot deny that he was accompanied by Divine providence (or luck, as some would prefer to say), nevertheless the text of the Torah provides us with clear evidence that Joseph earned his position in Egypt:[…]
The Torah is not a collection of ethical role models given us to simply follow. While the stories of the entire Hebrew Bible contain a lot of role models very few qualify as ethical ones. What we find there are often political and leadership role models – like Moses, Joshua, Kings – David, Hezekiah or Josiah etc. Thus, Jewish ethics is not the ethics of role models, like it is the case of Christianity. Jewish ethics is[…]
Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me. (Psalms 23:4)
This verse is one of the oldest expressions of the idea that the absence of fear is a fundamental source of spiritual and psychological strength. This strength is particularly important in all turbulent times, including the times we live today. We have more expressions of the same concept of strength in our[…]
The Torah portion this week describes the death of the mother and the father of our nation(s) – Sarah and Abraham. According to Midrash (Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer Chapter 31) Sarah died of despair after learning that Abraham had murdered their only son Isaac by sacrificing him on Mount Moriah:[…]
I had a dream two days ago. I was in my old neighborhood, in Przemyśl, Poland, with two other men approximately my age. We had machine guns and wore bullet proof vests. We were chased by a group of militants who wanted to kill us. At some point the three of us split and entered different apartments in the same building, the building I used to live in, each one of us on a different side of it. I entered my old apartment, where I used to live with my parents. The apartment was[…]
