Religion

Who is the ultimate winner of coronavirus?

Mar 26, 2020 Go comment!

Coronavirus has three winners: the makers of sanitiser and masks, pharmaceutical companies, and the third isn’t so clear.
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Moving forward when time stands still

Mar 19, 2020 1 Comment

Usually during this time of the year, my wife and I are deeply engaged in getting ready for our annual Pesach retreat. We refer to it as the “PPPPPP” (Post-Purim Pre-Pesach Preparation-Period), but now the last two words seem to have become something like “pandemic plague”.
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Picking up the pieces

Mar 12, 2020 Go comment!

“It’s too late. I’m too far gone.” How many times have we heard those words? Or, worse still, said them?
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How to tackle terror

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

Israel is a world leader in counter terrorism, because, sadly, the country has had so much experience. Jews were the earliest victims of terror, experiencing it as much as 3 300 years ago, not long after we had escaped Egyptian oppression. We’ll read about that incident at shul this week, as we do annually on the Shabbos before Purim. This special Torah portion, Zachor, offers valuable insight into the nature and psychology of terror, and how to fight it.
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Finding safety in others’ lights

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

The Sandton Gautrain station on a Sunday night is a fairly eerie place. There are few commuters, and signs all around to remind patrons to safeguard their valuables.
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Reading the Megillah from beginning to end

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

The Talmud states that “one who reads the Megillah backwards did not fulfil the mitzvah [commandment]”.
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The world’s weird and wacky Purim customs

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

If you thought Purim was just about hamentashen, dress-up, mishloach manot (gifts of food and drink), and noisemakers, you would be wrong. All around the world, Purim customs vary from the interesting to the extraordinary.
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Women’s Megillah reading plants green shoots

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

While we’re all accustomed to hearing our local rabbi recount the story of Esther in lilting Hebrew, did you know it can be read in any language, and women are free to read the Megillah aloud?
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Is it necessary to get drunk on Purim?

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

The Talmud teaches us that we are required to drink on Purim until we don’t not know the difference between “cursed be Haman” and “blessed be Mordechai”.
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Embracing the Jew-fro: lessons on beauty from Esther

Mar 05, 2020 1 Comment

Purim is as much a story about gender persecution as it is about anti-Semitism. Some years ago, a rabbi gave a shiur suggesting that the oppression of women that emerges in chapter one of the Megillah is a foreshadowing of the hatred of Jews which takes up the story from chapter three.
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Purim: hiding behind the mask

Mar 05, 2020 Go comment!

From kings to queens to treacherous villains, when it comes to Purim we can put on whatever mask we want and temporarily become that persona. But when you find yourself “wearing masks” in your daily life, it’s time to dive beneath the surface to discover who you really are.
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What makes you happier?

Feb 27, 2020 Go comment!

Great news! From this week onwards, we’re going to be happier.
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Theatre of miracles

Feb 20, 2020 Go comment!

“We’re going to the theatre,” my parents told me, and an hour later, we entered a giant, dark place, with rows of empty wooden seats, and only a few people in front. I felt that death was tangible, and feared touching anything lest it infect me with a deadly virus.
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Hashem’s ultimate justice

Feb 13, 2020 Go comment!

One of the heroes of the Torah is Moshe’s father-in-law, Yitro (Jethro). Even without the additional biography taught to us by our sages – he was an advisor to Pharaoh, who dared to challenge his wishes to persecute the Jewish people, and a seeker of truth, who tried every religion in the world before finding Hashem in Judaism – Yitro was a man of justice and goodness.
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Life’s most precious jewels

Feb 06, 2020 Go comment!

In this week’s portion, we read, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him.” Before his death, Joseph made his brothers promise to bring back his mortal remains to the land of Israel. Now, at the time of the Exodus, this was uppermost on Moses’ mind.
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Rebbe’s army marches victorious

Jan 30, 2020 Go comment!

Seventy five years ago this week, Elka Ganot, prisoner number 12750, was liberated from Auschwitz. Her grandson, Barak, a major in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), marked the occasion last year as he marched with ten other soldiers from his elite army unit past the very barracks where his bubbeh (grandmother) suffered the tortures of Europe’s hatred for our people.
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The potential for greatness in everyone

Jan 23, 2020 Go comment!

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Apart from reminding me of my high-school education, Malvolio’s lines in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are also appropriate for our weekly Torah portion.
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Who Am I?

Jan 16, 2020 Go comment!

Do you remember your first epiphany in life? Moses had his at the burning bush.
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Forgotten Chanukah heroine comes to light

Dec 26, 2019 Go comment!

(JTA) Chanukah season means latkes, menorahs, and the retelling of the classic story about Judah and the Maccabees. But there’s a woman from a few hundred years before Judah was around who is just as important to this story.
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Festival of light ignites faith

Dec 23, 2019 Go comment!

What I find fascinating about Chanukah is the way its story has been transformed by time.
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