Shabbat BaMidbar
Bamidbar Chapter 1- 4:20 - What is a Tachash? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The Bible is the most amazing of documents on so...
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Jerusalem Day
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen This morning, I overheard a conversation in the gym in which someone was declaring, in reference to the murders...
Shabbat Behar & Bechukotai
Vayikra (Leviticus) Chapters 25-27 - Rebuke by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen A major part of the double portion we read this...
Woke Aida
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Image Credit: The Met: Live in HD – Verdi’s Aida (Encore Screening - 2018) The opera Aida was composed by...
A Just War
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen A two-volume work has just been published. Milhemet Mitzvah : Editors Aviad Hacohen, Yitzchak...
Schlissel Challahs
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Happy Chag Ha’Atsmaut even if for some it is already over. There was much to celebrate. And now...
Shabbat Tazria & Metzorah
Vayikra Chapters 12-17 - Health by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen This week two Sedrot combined, are Tazriah and Metzorah....
Who’s Side?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There’s no question that the challenges we Jews are facing at this moment , internally and...
Shabbat Shmini
Vayikra Chapters 9-11 - Two Brothers Go Wrong by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen “When Moshe and Aaron came out, they blessed the...
Chaim Shine's Pesach
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen I don’t usually send out the ideas of others. But this is an exception. The modest man who wrote...
Shabbat Tsav & Gadol
Vayikra Chapter 6:1-8:36 - Sweet Smell by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The term sweet smelling is used in many places in the...
Fanatics
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen I have the pleasure of lecturing weekly on the Bible. We are now in the first Book of Shmuel...
Yaakov Herzog (1921-1972)
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Yaakov Herzog As we approach Pesach/Passover, I like to reminisce about past experiences. One I particularly...
Shabbat Vayikra
Sacrifices or deeds? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Every book of the Torah contains a range of different subjects, ideas and...
Fanaticism & King Saul
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen I have the pleasure of lecturing weekly on the Bible. We are now in the first Book of Shmuel...
Shabbat Pekuday
Shemot 38:21-40:38 - Recognizing Talent by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen We come this week to the end of the second book of the...
The Spectator
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen I have always tried to hear different points of view and take other opinions seriously and...
Shabbat Vayakhel (Parah)
Exodus 35-3:20 - Community by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen “Moshe then gathered the whole Israelite community and said to...
Purim 2025
Is Purim Violent? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen For hundreds of years the very idea of Jews rejoicing publicly was deemed offensive to...
Shabbat Ki Tisah
Shemot 30:11-35 - The Golden Calf by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen While Moshe was absent up on Mount Sinai, the people feared he was dead and...
Remember
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The Shabbat before Purim is always called Shabbat Zachor . The Shabbat to remember. Its origin...
Shabbat Tetzaveh & Shabbat Zachor
Shemot 27:20-30:10 - Clothes by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Polonius tells his son Laertes to dress...
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola I first heard of the Christian polymath Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola (1463-1494)...
Shabbat Terumah
Exodus Chapter 25-27:20 - The Urim and Tumim by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Those who care about American Ivy League...
Sons of Noa(c)h
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Anyone studying the Talmud in depth knows that one enters a very special but complicated world...
Shabbat Mishpatim
Shemot Chapters 21:1-24:18 - A Constitution by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The sequence of laws as given in the recent...
Rabbi Aviezer Wolfson ז״ל
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen A Personal Tribute Rabbi Aviezer Wolfson ז״ל I have recently pointed out some of the negative aspects of the...
Shabbat Yitro
Shemot Chapter 18:1-20:23 - Father-in-Law by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Although the focal point of this week's Torah reading...
HKOPS & Trump
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen President Donald Trump has raised universal hackles by his Gaza proposal. First he dared to...
Shabbat Beshalach
Exodus 13:17-17:14 - What is a Miracle? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The miracle of the Reed Sea which we read this week is...
Samson Is Israel
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Shimshon ( Samson ) is the great Jewish hero. The symbol of Jewish defiance and overcoming...
Shabbat Bo
Shemot Chapter 10-13:16 - Negotiations by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The exchanges between Moshe and Aaron on the one hand,...
Who is to Blame?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The ignorant (or brainwashed) , useful idiots who call for the destruction of a Jewish...
Shabbat Vaeyra
Exodus Chapter 6:2-10 - Why Wait? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen When Moshe and Aaron approached Pharaoh, they faced an...
British Mandate a Mistake?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The ignorant (or brainwashed) , useful idiots who call for the destruction of a Jewish...
Shabbat Shemot
Exodus Chapter 1-6:1 - Moshe as Innovator by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The book of Bereishit develops the story of...
Yeshivas: A Place Where You Sit!
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen What is a Yeshivah? A place where you sit, literally. Of course, you can do many things when...
Shabbat Vayechi
Bereishit Chapter47:28 -50:26 - Yosef and the Evil Eye Rabbi Jeremy Rosen by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen At the end of the book of Bereishit...
Migration and Assimilation
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There are very different reasons why Jews have always migrated, and many have assimilated. When...
Shabbat Vayigash
Bereishit Chapters 44-47:27 - Politics by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Yosef comes across as a consummate politician. It starts...
Orgies
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Since we are in the midst of party season, I am reminded of the strange history of Jewish...
Shabbat Mikeytz
Bereishit Chapters 41-44:17 - Dreams by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Dreams play a very important part in the biblical...
A History of Chanukah
Been There by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen A History of Chanukah We like to think that Chanukah was the great victory of Judah the son of...
Shabbat Vayeyshev
Tamar the Righteous Woman - Bereishit Chapters 37 -40:23 by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The story of Yehudah and Tamar is a...
The Wind and the Sun
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen A few weeks ago, The Economist ran an article referring to Sir Isaiah Berlin. He was an...
Shabbat Vayishlach
Bereishit Chapter 32:4-36:43 - Women in the Torah by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rabbi Jeremy Rosen When we read the Torah, we tend to focus on...
The International Criminal Courts of Injustice
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen It came as no surprise to me at all, that the so called International Criminal Court (AKA Idiotic Corrupt Crazies)...
Shabbat Vayeytzey
Bereishit Chapters 28:10-31:54 - Do As You Would Be Done By by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There is a tradition amongst some Talmudic...
The Savanarola Moment
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen People are asking why now are we experiencing such a tsunami of hatred? A kind of MaNishtanah moment. There are...
Shabbat Toldot
Bereishit 27-28:8 - Rosh Chodesh Kislev Sunday The Role of a Woman by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen It is often said that women in the Bible play a...
Israel's Chief Rabbinate
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen While the world’s attention has been focused on the American election, there has been a far less publicized, but...
Shabbat Chayey Sarah
Bereishit Chapters 23-25:18 - Pay Attention to the Words! by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Narratives are subjective. We say things that often don’t...
David Alroy
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Alroy is the title of novel about a Jewish false Messiah (of which there have been many), written by a young...
Shabbat Vayeyra
Bereishit Chapters 18-23 - Avraham Challenges God by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Vayera is a fascinating combination of episodes. It's not just...
Trump
וללב מלכים אין חקר “There is no way to plumb the depths of the hearts of kings.” Proverbs 25:3 by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The Biblical books...
Shabbat Leych Lecha
Bereishit/Genesis Chapters 12-17 - Challenges by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen After the chapters that describe stages of early humanity, we come...
The Press: Black or White?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen We now live in a world of black and white. Either you are for something or you're against. There are no nuances, no...
Shabbat Noach
Genesis (Bereishit) Chapter 6:9 EVOLUTION by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen In some religious fundamentalist circles, the word evolution is a...
Assassinations
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Yes, of course, I was delighted to hear that Sinwar met the violent end that he deserved. As the prophetess Deborah...
The Festival of Sucot
From Serious to Joy by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There is a line in the Book of Psalms that reads “Rejoice in trembling” (Psalms 2:11) that...
Yom Kipur Eve
Hope or Trust? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen We approach Yom Kipur with both negative and positive emotions. Never more so than this year. For...
Should God Atone Too?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen We are approaching a period of atonement. And sometimes I wonder who should be atoning. I hope you don’t mind my...
Shabbat Nitzavim & Vayeylech
Deuteronomy Chapters 29:9-32 - SECRETS by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen הנסתרת ליהוה אלהינו והנגלת לנו ולבנינו עד עולם לעשות את כל דברי התורה...
Daniel Deronda: George Eliot and the Jews
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen In 1290 Jews were expelled from England. In 1656 Cromwell failed to persuade parliament to welcome Jews back...
Shabbat Ki Tavo
Deuteronomy Chapters 26-29;6 - Two Mountains by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen After two weeks of the most important laws of the Torah, Moses now...
Certainties
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen We humans love certainties. We think we know, but more often than not, we stumble on. Our history is replete with...
Shabbat Ki Teytzey
Deuteronomy 21;10-26;1 - Who Deserves Respect? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen These past three weeks have been an impressive and sometimes...
Dangerous Apostates
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Jews hating Jews has a long history. Going as far back as the Bible. But medieval religions made a real art of it....
Shabbat Shoftim
Deuteronomy 16-21;9 - Humans and Trees by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There is a lot to read about this week. Kings, prophets, warfare, civil...
Douglas Murray
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen I do not think that Israel has a better more articulate or fearless non -Jewish supporter of Israel than the...
Shabbat Re'eh
Deuteronomy Chapters 12;26-15;23 - Servitude & Dependency by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen This week, we read “If a fellow Hebrew male or female is...
Robert Wistrich and Jew Hatred
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Many, many books have been written about the Holocaust and antisemitism. Amongst my favorites is Anthony Julius’s...
Shabbat Eykev
Deuteronomy Chapter 7;12-11;25 - Do as you would be done by by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The weekly reading of Eykev follows the pattern of...
Comfort Ye! Comfort Ye!
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The Shabbat after the fast of the Ninth of Av, is called Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort. Its name...
The Shema
Shabbat Vaetchanan - Deuteronomy 3:23-6:11 Apart from the opening statements of the so-called Ten Commandments , there is very little...
The Ninth of Av: Fasting and Self-Flagellation
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Both Christianity and Islam have long and controversial traditions of penance that involve flogging oneself with...
Shabbat Devarim
Deuteronomy 1-3:23 - What’s in a Name? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Why do we call this, the fifth book of the Torah, that we start this...
Who Was Peter Bergson
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The anniversary of Hillel Kook’s death was this week. A Jewish Walter Mitty and a colorful, complex, dual...
Shabbat MattotMassei
Rosh Chodesh Av Tuesday - Numbers Chapters 30-36 Conquering the Land by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen This week two sections of the Torah are read...
Why Did We Go Wrong?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Why are we having difficulty coming to terms with this reality, the realization of how much we are hated ? As a...
Shabbat Pinchas
Numbers 25:10-30 - Zealots by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The story of Pinchas, the grandson of High Priest Aaron is about zealotry, normally a...
Alexander
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE) holds a very special place in Jewish historiography and mythology. It is true...
Shabbat Balak
Numbers Chapters 22-24 - Listening to Magicians by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen It seems strange that the whole part of the Torah we read this...
A Murder During the British Mandate
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Alexander Rubowitz, a sixteen-year-old Jerusalemite left his home on May 6, 1947, and never returned. He came from...
Shabbat Chukat
Numbers Chapter 19-22:1 - The Unknowable by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen There are various words for law in the Bible. Torah is a very general...
Eric Hoffer 1902-1983
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Following my piece about Franz Fanon, here is one about another very unusual but influential and almost forgotten...
Shabbat Korach RoshChodesh
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz - Numbers Chapter 16:1-18:31 Miracles by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen One of the amazing features of the Torah over and above...
Shlomo Ben Yosef (1928-1937)
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Once again, we find ourselves torn between negotiation or warfare. Over 80 years ago under the British mandate Jews...
ShabbatShelachLecha
Numbers 13-16 - Mental Fortitude by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The reading this week is mainly concerned with the 12 men sent by Moses to tour...
Frantz Fanon
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen As a student I was a fan of Frantz Fanon, a black Frenchman born in Martinique. He was a psychiatrist, philosopher,...
Shabbat Beha'alotecha
Numbers 7:8-12:16 - A Just War by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Amongst the many topics in this week’s Torah reading is the seemingly incidental one...
The Evolution of Shavuot
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Shavuot more than any other festival illustrates the ongoing way in which a Biblical festival and indeed many...
Shabbat Bamidbar
Numbers 1-4:20 - Who Counts? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar, literally means “desert.” It covers the main...
Chief Rabbi Louis Rabinowitz
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen As South Africa goes to the polls to re-elect a corrupt, evil, disaster of a regime, one feels so sorry for those...
Shabbat Behukotai
Leviticus26:3 -27:34 - What am I worth? by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen As we reach the end of the book of Leviticus, we've run through a series of...
R. Akiva Winner or Loser?
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Rebbi Akiva, born in 50 CE, was one of the greatest rabbis of the Talmud. He was also one of the most...
Shabbat Behar
Leviticus Chapter 25:1-26:2 - Why Homeland Matters by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen “God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and told him to tell the...
Josephus Hero or Traitor
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The man we know as Josephus (the Romans called him Flavius Josephus ), was an aristocratic Judean, born in...
Differences that Bind
by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen The Book of Leviticus * is concerned with difference. Different people, and different roles. Different standards of...
Kedoshim
Leviticus 19-21 - Morality by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen Chapter 19 of Leviticus, known as Kedoshim, Be Holy, includes a range of laws that...