Proudly Jewish - Proudly Progressive
Proudly Jewish - Proudly Progressive
This week’s Torah portion begins with the phrase, V’eileh toldot Yitzchak ben Avraham, “This is the line of Isaac son of Abraham” (Genesis 25:19), indicating that the text is now going to focus on Isaac, the second of the Patriarchs…
Last Tuesday I was invited to Radio Today to take part in a discussion about “Charter of Compassion” with Gillian Godsell and Archdeacon Michelle Pilet from the Anglican Church in Parkhurst. Conversation that inspired more about this subject, and I discovered…
There so many subjects that I could write about this week: 20 years since Itzhak Rabin was murdered, America’s main modern Orthodox rabbinical association voted last week to ban women clergy, the mitzvah day in the end of the month, the projects…
Have you noticed how “matriarchal” Genesis is? It is true that the “founders” of Judaism are the three patriarchs – three men – but it was their mothers and not their fathers who determined who carried the mantle. Abraham had…
Our parashah for this Shabbat continues with report of Abraham’s and Sarah’s journey. Both welcome the three unknown visitors and learn from them that Sarah will soon bear a son, despite of her old age. As the visitors had predicted,…
A haredi Orthodox lawmaker in Israel compared the Women of the Wall organization to the Muslim Murabitat, a banned group of women who harass Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount. “The Murabitat women receive money from the Islamic Movement to create provocation and…
“Mitzvah”, a wonderfully expressive Hebrew word, has two distinct meanings. The first is a commandment of the Jewish law; the second is a meritorious or charitable act. For the “Mitzvah Day 2015” on 22 November 2015, various religious groups have…
The Torah tells us very little about Abram’s early life. We are only informed that he and Sarai, along with his nephew Lot, were brought by his father, Terach, from Ur to Haran. After Terach’s death, Abram was commanded by…
Have you asked yourself how life would be for you if you were born into a different time? Somewhere in the past or in the future? Would you be a different person? In this week’s Torah portion, as we read…
The ambition in many quarters in Israel is that now when the peace process is going nowhere and the Oslo Accords are falling apart, we should abandon the idea of a two-state solution and work towards one state with a…