Torah Thoughts
2024
- Ve'zot ha-Torah: A liturgical reassurance - 15 March 2024
- Vayyak’hel: Women's spirituality and initiative – A reminiscence - 06 March 2024
- Ki Tissa: Putting wealth into perspective - 29 February 2024
- Terumah: Glorifying God and the choice of Aaron - 16 February 2024
- Mishpatim: Sins against God, man, and humanity - 08 February 2024
- Yitro: Just how enthusiastically did the Israelites accept the Torah? - 31 January 2024
- Beshalach: Four Jewish attitudes, then and now - 25 January 2024
- "The fertility of the early Israelites" - 10 January 2024
Reproduced with permission from The Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 27:3 (Summer 1999), pp.195-199.
2023
- Joseph and his brothers: sibling rivalry revisited - 22 December 2023
- The problematic sources of Chanukah - 13 December 2023
- Vayyishlach: Jacob and Esau's eternal struggle - 29 November 2023
- Chayyei Sarah, the war in Gaza, and Abraham's message of optimism to our people
10 November 2023 - Complaint to BBC Radio 4 about Jeremy Bowen - 05 November 2023
- Affirming Zion – and Zionism - 19 October 2023
- "Is Tisha B'Av still relevant?"
Delivered at HGS Synagogue, Shabbat Nachamu - 29 July 2023 - "Four Sons, four varieties of Jewish identity"
A thought for your Seder table - 23 March 2023 - Is the recitation of Shehecheyanu appropriate for a second Bar mitzvah? - 16 March 2023
- Insights into Megillat Esther - 07 March 2023
2022
- UNRAVELLING THE ENIGMATIC & DISPARATE SOURCES OF CHANUKAH - 21 December 2022
- The Gymnasia - 15 December 2022
- Chanukah and Hellenism - 14 December 2022
- Nitzavim: Israel's millennial covenant: Then and now - 19 September 2022
- Ki Tavo: Lessons from the Bikkurim ritual - 15 September 2022
- Ki Teitzei: nations to be welcomed and nations to be shunned? - 07 September 2022
- Shoftim and the role of women in Synagogue leadership - 30 August 2022
- Re'ei: Miracles and blessings - 25 August 2022
- Eikev and Weapons of Mass Destruction - 18 August 2022
- Va'etchanan: Taking the Lord’s Name in vain - 11 August 2022
- Devarim: The importance of learning from history - 05 August 2022
- Massei: 42 stopping-places – but not one step back! - 28 July 2022
- Pinchas: precursor of Jewish zealotry - 21 July 2022
- Bilaam's mission: Success or failure? - 14 July 2022
- Chukkat: The striking of the rock reconsidered - 07 July 2022
- Korach, Macbeth, and Freudian displacement - 30 June 2022
- Shelach lecha: Who was responsible for the disastrous mission of the spies – them, Moses, or God? - 23 June 2022
- Beha'alotcha: What Moses had to contend with! - 16 June 2022
- Naso: Was Aaron the natural choice for the Priesthood? - 09 June 2022
- Bechukotai: the folly of justifying tragedies theologically - 26 May 2022
- Behar: A controversial biblical institution - 19 May 2022
- Emor: Ideal and imperfect priests - 12 May 2022
- Kedoshim: Can man really imitate God's holiness? - 04 May 2022
- Acharei Mot: Presuming to approach God - 28 April 2022
- Shir ha-Shirim, Shabbat, and love - 20 April 2022
- Parah adumah, reward for mitzvot, and cruelty to animals and men - 24 March 2022
- Tzav: Masoretes and the enigmatic little mem - 16 March 2022
- Vayyikra: Significance of the little aleph - 11 March 2022
- Pekudei: Acquiring skills we never dreamed we had - 03 March 2022
- Vayyak'hel: The Mishkan, a paradigm for giving - 24 February 2022
- Ki Tissa: The Exodus Census: Evading The Evil Eye or Military Stratagem?
- 17 February 2022 - Tetzaveh: tzitz, tzitzit,and a kingdom of priests - 09 February 2022
- Terumah: Regular mitzvot, non-mitzvot and optional mitzvot - 03 February 2022
- Mishpatim: Slave lives matter! - 27 January 2022
- Moses' relationship with Yitro and the latter's dubious conversion - 20 January 2022
- Miriam the prophetess and women's liberation - 11 January 2022
- Beshalach: The Shirah, kol isha, and women's equality - 11 January 2022
- Bo: The symbolism of the Paschal Lamb - 06 January 2022
2021
- Va'eira: Why we were slaves in Egypt - 30 December 2021
- Shemot: Journeying to Egypt as an act of faith - 24 December 2021
- On deception in the book of Bereshit - Part 2 - 16 December 2021
- On deception in the book of Bereshit - Part 1 - 09 December 2021
- Toldot: Who is the real 'me'? - 03 November 2021
- Chayyei Sarah: The psychology of Patriarchal relationships - 28 October 2021
- Vayyeira: Was the compensation paid to Abraham and Sarah excessive? - 21 October 2021
- Lech lecha: Rehabilitating Terach - 15 October 2021
- Did Rabbi Yochanan do a disservice to Noah? - 07 October 2021
- Bereishit: Lessons of the Garden of Eden - 01 October 2021
- Ha'azinu: Israel's sacred 'Song of the Blues' - 17 September 2021
- Vayyeilech: Was Moses a failed leader? - 10 September 2021
- Ki tavo: Messages from 'the first-fruits declaration' - 26 August 2021
- Ki Tetzei: A comparison of the Torah law of 'the beautiful war-captive' and the Taliban treatment of slave-girls - 17 August 2021
- Shoftim: Warfare and its exemptions: Then and now! - 12 August 2021
- Re'ei: Good and evil, reward and punishment - 05 August 2021
- Eikev: Miracles and Mitzvot - 29 July 2021
- Va-etchanan: The Decalogue: A paradigm for humanity - 21 July 2021
- Mattot: A perspective on Pe'or and the massacre of the Midianites - 08 July 2021
- PINCHAS, ELIJAH & CIRCUMCISION - 02 July 2021
- Balak: The millennial struggle for peace and the undoing of Bilaam - 24 June 2021
- Chukkat: Was the striking of the rock so heinous? - 16 June 2021
- The folly of Korach and the wisdom of On's wife - 14 June 2021
- Shelach lecha: How Moses came to choose such unreliable spies - 02 June 2021
- Beha'alotcha: Why the Israelites didn't kill their animals for food - 28 May 2021
- Naso: The name at the top of the list - 21 May 2021
- Leadership and the Book of Bemidbar - 13 May 2021
- Behar: Shemittah and its philosophy - 05 May 2021
- Emor: Making every day count - 29 April 2021
- Acharei mot-Kedoshim: justifiably linked sidrot - 23 April 2021
- Tazri'a-Metzora: The enigma of biblical leprosy - 14 April 2021
- Shemini: The significance of "the strange fire" - 08 April 2021
- Parah Adumah and the logic of mitzvot - 05 March 2021
- Terumah: An appeal with limited donors - 19 February 2021
- Mishpatim: It all comes from Sinai - 11 Febriuary 2021
- Yitro: Why Moses sought to detain his father-in-law - 04 February 2021
- Bo: Tefillin and our work driven week - 21 January 2021
- Va'eira: the hidden allusions behind the divine names - 14 January 2021
- Shemot: Who was the chief facilitator of the redemption from Egypt? - 07 January 2021
2020
- Vayyigash: Joseph's self-imposed estrangement - 25 December 2020
- Vayyeishev: Joseph the Tzaddik who never prayed - 11 December 2020
- Vayyishlach: How sincere was Esau's embrace? - 03 December 2020
- Vayyeitzei: Struggling with angels and men - 27 November 2020
- Toldot: Who are the real children of Abraham? - 20 November 2020
- Chayyey Sarah: Learning from both Saints and Sinners- 12 November 2020
- Vayyeira: Was Abraham heartless 2020 - 04 November 2020
- Lech lecha: Was Abraham really the first paragon of hospitality? - 29 October 2020
- Noach: why did he not protest? - 22 October 2020
- Bereishit and the cycles of religion and life - 14 October 2020
- Kohelet and Bereishit: Two contrasting perceptions of man - 08 October 2020
- Haazinu: Not every situation is reversible - 22 September 2020
- Nitzavim-Vayeilech: We need a new covenant - 11 September 2020
- Ki Tavo: When did we become a nation? - 04 September 2020
- Ki Teitzei: Ancient and modern delinquency - 27 August 2020
- Shoftim: Valuing every human being - 20 August 2020
- Re'ei How to fulfil mitzvot - 13 August 2020
- Eikev Consideration for the disabled and the mentally ill - 06 August 2020
- Bar Kamtza and the Psychology of Double Displacement 2020 - 29 July 2020
- Mattot-Massei 2020 - 16 July 2020
- Pinchas: Why Moses referred the Tzelafchad case to God - 09 July 2020
- "Im likro lecha": An insight into last week's challenge - 08 July 2020
- Chukkat and Balak: A thematic relationship - 03 July 2020
- Korach’s duplicitous strategy - 26 June 2020
- Bemidbar and leadership - 22 May 2020
- Bechukotai Implications of a Pandemic - 15 May 2020
- Kedoshim an appreciation - 01 May 2020