On the anniversary of Sept 11 Twenty-five years is a long time. A quarter of a century. And yet, I can still remember that day: 11 September 2001. Those days Internet was not so common. News still reached us mainly through television. So the first indication that something extraordinary had happened appeared on my computer screen, as a breaking news pop up while I was trying to connect to a library catalogue. I remember the University of Milan suddenly emptying. Like many

THE WORD KAPO AND THE LOVE FOR ISRAEL There is a word which, whenever I hear one Jew use it against another Jew, makes me very, very upset. That word is kapo. Go on social media and you see how often it happens. Someone takes a political position that somebody else regards as shameful, and is called a kapo. Someone signs a letter criticising Israel, and in the comments is called a kapo. Someone associates with somebody who happens to be particularly unpopular, and immediate

Shabbat Ki Tavo When I first looked at Deuteronomy 27, 9-26, the part of parashah, ki Tavo that we are reading today, I was shocked and dismayed by the repeated dire curses loudly expressed there, and the lurid offences that would occasion such huge condemnation. Well, I thought, it serves me right for presuming to read the parashah – and apologies for my lack of leyning ability – and then, to multiply the chutzpah, to pronounce words of wisdom from this bimah. It is a grea

Parashat Shoftim In case you are not aware, I want to let you know that I am member of the legal profession, yes, a lawyer, and still working some of the time. Have you heard of Montesquieu – in full, Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu? Possibly some of you have. As you’ve probably guessed, he was French, indeed of French nobility. Born in the Bordeaux area, he lived mainly in the early part of the 18th century. His family was catholic, Huguenots.

Re’eh Ancient Civilisations ‘Take care that your heart is not deceived into straying, obeying other gods and worshipping them.’ Deut 11:16. So we read in the second paragraph of the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 11. It is a familiar theme that seems to dominate the book of Deuteronomy. Our parashah, Re’eh begins only verses later and continues the subject, so that today, we read the words: ‘Take care that after you have destroyed (your enemies on the land) that You do not enquir

Although this week’s parashah is from Devarim, I was urged to aim for a laconic sermon/svar Torah. I’ll also do my best to keep this sweet anyway. Picking up on the passage I struggled through in my atrocious Hebrew, Deuteronomy 10: 1-22, there’s certainly a lot going on in the text. Deuteronomy means second law in Hebrew, and you might say this parashah contains the book’s locus classicus, or core text. YHVH tells Moses, who has destroyed the original stone tablets after the

Shabbat Chazon: One Etrog, One People Today is Shabbat Chazon, the Shabbat immediately preceding Tisha B’Av, and I would like to speak about Sukkot. It may seem slightly premature to speak about etrogim this morning. Nevertheless, one of the Jewish controversies that has occupied me this week concerns precisely the etrog. In certain diasporist circles, a new idea appears to be circulating. Progressive Jewish communities, we are told, should seek alternatives to etrogim import

From Rupture to Repair People do not send telegrams anymore, which is a pity. So perhaps only people of a certain age can fully appreciate the joke about the Jewish telegram. Do you know the joke about the Jewish telegram? The Jewish telegram works like this: “Start worrying. Details to follow.” All right, it is a joke, but it also captures something wonderfully Jewish. Much has been said about Jews and anxiety, not least by Jewish psychoanalysts, who made quite a professio