Many gay people, faced by the impenetrable wall of the prohibition against homosexuality, just give up on Judaism. This need not be so. But, even if we should find ourselves subject to every canard in the world, Torah-believing Jews will never change one letter of the Torah. And that Torah says that same-sex sexual relations... Read more »
A recent incident highlighted the nature of who is deciding issues of medical ethics. A study of 1,300 very premature babies[1] whose undeveloped lungs require extra oxygen to be artificially supplied, tried to determine the correct oxygen levels. Too much oxygen can cause severe eye damage and blindness, whereas too little can lead to brain... Read more »
I love the Western Wall. It is a kaleidoscope of the entire Jewish people. One can go there for Mincha and have, as a part of the minyan, an Israeli soldier, a Sephardic Jew from South America, someone from Mea Shearim, a few French or American tourists … a geography that reflects its history. The... Read more »
See how the world turns on two ideas. The first, that there is one God determining the absolute values by which we should live; the other, the seething cauldron of pluralism and multi-culturalism – in its extreme form a flirtation with relativism. Along comes Pesach – philosophically bound by the former approach – and determines... Read more »
Much ink has been spilled on how to be a Jew in the world we live in. In Russia, Jews still have to struggle with how to keep the Sabbath when most jobs and university classes are in full mode. In Argentina Jews question whether their country has a future and in Hungary, anti-Semitism is... Read more »
The Catholic Church is huge. It has 1.2 billion members. There are more than a million people employed in Catholic institutions. The attitude of the Pope to the Jews is of vital importance. One leading candidate for the papacy is anti-Semitic. Not many Jews are aware, but over the last fifty years, there have been... Read more »
Below is my list – just the opinion of one man. (I for example, left out intelligence, because it is a pre-requisite for many of the attributes I did mention.) No one leader has all of these 20 qualities. But he or she would certainly need more than half. However, every leader needs to have... Read more »