Your blogs

  • A slightly surreal week

    Leon A Smith
    Apr 19, 2013

    Isn’t it strange how sometimes it takes somebody’s death to remind us that we are still alive. The passing of Margaret Thatcher seems to have focussed the attention of the media and the population generally on her life and work. Yet many people have not thought about or referred to Maggie Thatcher for many years. We have seen occasional pictures of her looking frail, arriving or departing from an event at 10 Downing Street or Westminster but beyond that, certainly for the last decade, she has been largely out of our consciousness.

    Most people will be aware that she had been living with the debilitating symptoms of dementia for many years. Dementia is a disease which has heartbreaking symptoms and consequences both for the person afflicted and for family members and friends. Put simply – she has suffered.

    Regardless of our political views of her term in office and what she did or didn’t achieve or do, it seems that we as a society in many cases are incapable of showing compassion. The level and degree of bitterness which has manifested itself through demonstrations and the social media debate evidence this.

  • A big shout out to our Youth Movements

    Rabbi Aaron Gol...
    Apr 18, 2013

    Pablo Casals, one of the world’s greatest cellists of all time was attributed as saying, “Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that never was before and will never be again. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When we will we also teach them what they are?”

    Similarly, if the week’s Torah portion is as uninspiring and largely irrelevant as we are presented with, why not talk about something completely different that is!

    It was with incredible surprise, delight and a hug dose of parental trepidation that my wife and I heard the announcement from our youngest daughter that she wanted to go on LJY-NETZER’s Machaneh Aviv (Spring Camp) – 6 days and 5 nights away from home. Of course we were wonderfully supportive, nurturing and encouraging. I filled in the forms with a mix of pride, elation and a humungous scream brewing inside as I conjured up images of my daughter alone on her dorm bunk, inconsolable as she pleaded time and again, ‘why didn’t they just say I was too young!?’

  • Land of the Queen of Sheba

    jarkush
    Apr 16, 2013

    "When the Queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the L-d, she came to test Solomon with hard questions ...... Solomon answered all her questions - nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. When the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon ..... she was overwhelmed."

    This account in the First Book of Kings chapter 10, verses 1-13 offers a strong clue to the start of Jewish life in Ethiopia. It hints at the Queen of Sheba converting to Judaism and having an affair with King Solomon. Ethiopian legend takes up the story and tells of the Queen of Sheba giving birth to Solomon's son Menelek. At the age of 20 Menelek learned about his father and wished to visit him. He travelled to Jerusalem where his father was delighted with him and he spent three years there. Eventually it was time to return to his country, accompanied by 1,000 men from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The intriguing twist to the legend is that they brought with them the Ark of the Covenant which they spirited out of the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem and which is said to be preserved to this day in a church in Axum, giving rise to the stories of the 'lost Ark' and the 'Holy Grail'.

    Whether or not the legend is true it is clear that there was a strong Jewish influence in Ethiopia from very early times, almost certainly before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. By the time Christianity came to Ethiopia in the 3rd century, Ethiopians kept the Sabbath (on Saturday), observed laws of ritual purity and dietary restrictions similar to Jewish law and circumcision of males at 8 days old. To the present day Ethiopians feel themselves connected to the People of Israel and their last Emperor Haile Selassie, who believed he was descended from King Solomon, was proud to adopt the title of 'Lion of Judah'.

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