A few days ago I received a really interesting question. I have been asked which blessing a Jew has to say when seeing a garbage truck.
The question may sound theoretical. But only if you have been away over the last two weeks, yet probably the smell of it has…
I have a soft spot for Baruch Spinoza, the XVIIth century Dutch philosopher.
As we all know, Spinoza was Jewish. …
Adon Olam, Lord of the universe, here we are: Your people, the Jews.
Like every year, we congregate, some of us virtually, some other in synagogues, real places. Like every year, we grab a prayer book; we try to remember the prayer. Like every year, we recognise the melodies; and…
Young David had just turned 18 when he had a big fight with his father, one of these fights following which the son leaves home for good. David jumped on a train and went away. He did not have a destination in mind. He wandered around the United States, moving…
September 11, 2001, was a beautiful sunny day in Milan. Like every morning, I was in the library of my university, busy with my PhD dissertation.
I’m not sure how I realised that people were leaving the reading room.
Internet wasn’t a big thing in Italy back then. Still, there…
This year’s Rosh ha Shanah is different. Some of us today are at home in front of the computer. Others are here in shul. That is quite a strange arrangement; we never had anything similar before. To be honest, we are experimenting.
Each of us knows someone who is or…
In 2001, in a moment of its history that hardly can be considered inspiring, Leo Baeck College hosted an interfaith talk with Dr Faisal Bodi. Dr Bodi is a Muslim journalist. Also, he believes that Israel has no right to exist. …
This week’s Torah reading [Numers 18:20–32] looks out of place in a Reform Synagogue.
It is about the obligation of the community to maintain the Levites, who worked in the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. …
You should learn Hebrew. For a number of reasons. For example, to talk about love; or to say it in a better way: to talk about the difference between love and hate.
This week’s Torah portion includes the very famous commandment, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself”. Despite what…
Ladies and gentlemen: Leviticus. Or, in Hebrew, Vayikra. Perhaps the most boring, or anyway the less exciting, of the five books of the Pentateuch.
There is nothing in Leviticus that compares with the fascinating family dynamics of which Genesis is about. There is nothing, in Leviticus, majestic and inspiring like…
