A number of years ago the Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation made headlines in the Jewish press because they banned Masorti leader Louis Jacobs from receiving a call up to the Torah on the occasion of his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. To be sure, this wasn’t their own decision. It came straight from the top of the then[…]
Dear Rabbi My wife and I have a terrible relationship. We are fighting and screaming all the time. I think our marriage is doomed but I am concerned about the social stigma. We are a frum family and in our circle it will affect our two children as they grow up and want to marry.[…]
A young man once recalled the following: When I was a teenager I was forced to go on walks around the neighbourhood with my Grandma. The doctor said she needed daily exercise but we lived in a rough neighbourhood. Mom made me go with her to make sure no one gives her problems. At[…]
Dear Rabbi What’s the deal with drinking on Simchat Torah? I know there is a mitzvah on Purim but I have never seen a source to suggest the same for Simchat Torah. Is it really just an excuse for Rabbis to enjoy their tipple? Gerard Dear Gerard First, how dare you call my Knappogue[…]
Dear Rabbi I hurt someone pretty badly earlier last year and to be honest I don’t have the guts to apologise. Why can’t Yom Kippur atone for me the same way it does for everything else I might have done wrong. Surely G-d forgives all sin? Jason Dear Jason If I slapped the Queen[…]
Three boys were walking along in Regents Park when they heard shrieks coming from a nearby pond. They looked and lo and behold it’s Jeremy Corbyn. The boys jumped in and rescued him. Ever the grateful one, he offered them each whatever they want. The first boy says, “I always dreamed of becoming a pilot.[…]
Rosh Hashanah is the day when we gaze upon the sunset of a year gone by; a year filled with so much universal pain and upheaval; a year riddled with so much chaos, turmoil and tribulation; a year in which yet more lives were devastated by the treacherous arm of terror; a year in which[…]