Parashat Sh’lach L’Cha Today’s Parasha, Shelach Lecha, covers a very well-known episode of the Israelites’ journey from Eretz Mitzraim to Eretz Y’Israel – sending the so-called spies out to do a recce of the land and people. So, these emissaries were sent, one macher (or chieftain representative) from each of the tribes to scout the land. They return to report back. 12 Jews. Two opinions. Who’d have guessed… The majority, whilst reporting positively that Canaan was indeed flo

Parashat B'ha'alot'cha This week’s parsha seems to be all about complaining. Firstly, let me explain and translate the verb to complain in cases anyone here doesn’t understand that. It simply means to kvetch. Our portion starts in Bemidbar chapter 11, verse 1 with the people looking to complain – it doesn’t actually say about what – just that they want to complain. Later in the chapter – verse 11 – Moses complains to G-d. Maybe part of our heritage is the propensity to co

Count me in - but not without Israel At the Pesach Seder I always try to have representatives of other religions with us, such as my friend Archdeacon Martin Lloyd Williams, who also did us the honour of visiting us at Chanukah. I am proud, too, to have welcomed young people from a mosque during the week of Sukkot in I believe deeply in the importance of interfaith dialogue. I was one of the founders of Faith in Action: a network bringing together people of different faiths,

The Myth That Israel Is Unsafe With your permission, today I would like to try to dismantle one of the most irritating — and in some cases worst-faith — clichés currently circulating. It goes something like this: “Israel is the most dangerous place on earth to be Jewish.” Or, in a slightly more sophisticated version: “If British Jews are afraid here, where exactly do they think they are going to go? Israel? Surely Israel is even less safe.” Now, of course, there are real dang

WHEN WORDS BECOME WEAPONS In March, the ambulances were set on fire — but let us not make a fuss: the arsonists were caught. Two weeks ago, there was the attempted arson of a synagogue. But again, let us not make a fuss: in the end, the Molotov cocktail did not work. Two Jews were stabbed in Golders Green, a place where Jews are supposed to feel safe. Well, you know: a mentally unstable person, somehow inflamed by news from the Middle East — which is a polite way of blaming I