Dear Rabbi, I have an Orthodox friend, a married man who confided that he is attracted to another man. I became upset with him and told him he is deemed a sinner in the eyes of Judaism and he is being unfaithful to his wife and untrue to himself by remaining married to her. He[…]
Dear Rabbi I was always sceptical about ordained Orthodox female rabbis. And now one has now been given a job in an Orthodox synagogue. That should surely suggest it is becoming acceptable. Do you envisage that happening in the UK? Gregory Dear Gregory In a word, no. Don’t get me started on these pseudo-suffragettes, or[…]
Last month I read a comment written by someone on social network on the final day of his saying Kaddish for his parent. He wrote about feeling the effect of the Kaddish during the first month of reciting it, then thereafter, nothing. Several others chimed in posting similar remarks, empathising with his experience. I was[…]
I remember some years ago I would often recommend at Yizkor that people take a moment during my speech to close their eyes and just think about their loved one. There was one member who took exception. He told me then how he had lost his father twenty years prior and how not a day[…]
If there’s one thing I always advocate it is sticking up for one’s principles. I’ve often preached about the importance of respecting oneself and one’s own beliefs, lest others won’t respect you either. People readily identify those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. To be sure, we are all somewhat guilty of[…]
It started out like any other campus visit. Mr Alon Roth-Snir, the Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the Court of St James’s arrived yesterday to speak at Essex University on Israel and the Middle East. What happened next is precisely the sort of thing that has tarnished Britain’s reputation on the global academic map. Within[…]
The hoopla of “Women of the Wall” is getting yet more media attention lately. I was invited to participate in a televised debate for BBC International the other day to discuss the question of whether religion needs to move on with the times. The debate was going to focus particularly on the “Women of the[…]
Sitting with an Imam on one side, a priest on the other and a Jewish anti-Zionist opposite was never going to make the question, “Is criticism of Israel Anti Semitic,” an easy one. That was the big question on yesterday’s BBC1 ‘The Big Questions’ programme. The question emerged on the back of MP David Ward[…]
Call me naive but if there is one thing I don’t get it’s when I hear about brothers and sisters who ignore one another or parents and children who haven’t spoken in years. One of my most tragic recollections as a Rabbi is the time I officiated at a funeral to which only half the[…]
Officer Lawrence DePrimo has become a household name. On a cold November night, just a few weeks ago, the NY City police officer, on counterterrorism duty in Time Square, encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. Taking in the man’s plight, the officer disappeared for a few moments into a nearby Sketchers Store, then returned with[…]