The Gerer Rebbe, Isaac Meir of Bunam (d.1866), said: When Ruth came to Judea she was told that she would not be admitted as a convert because she was a Moabite (Deut 23:4) but she persisted even though the Jewish community did not accept her. Eventually the leaders of that time reinterpreted the Torah’s prohibition […]
Shabbat at Beit Warszawa, August 2014
Being busy on Shabbat: “Six days thou shalt work, and on the Seventh day…” you shall be busy! Busy indeed are the people who attend Shabbat program at ‘Beit Warszawa’ in Warsaw. They begin 9:30-10:30 with a study session of Talmud, led by Rabbi Nativ using Hebrew, Aramaic, English, and Polish alternatively. The morning service, […]
Beit Warszawa and its Jews
In an American or Canadian Reform Synagogue today, about 10-15% of the younger generation of members were not born or raised as Jews. Almost half of this small minority were formally converted to Judaism by a Reform or Conservative Rabbi (Geray Tsedek). Another third of these people have informally become Jewish by living Jewishly, and […]
Ki Tetze – The Body and the Soul
5th September 2014/10 elul 5774 The mutual influence of the soul on the body and the physical condition of a man on his soul is not a ‘discovery’ of modern medicine. In many issues the Torah expresses this mutual influence. One of them is the Torah’s attitude to skin diseases, which are called by the […]