24th September 2021 Shabbat Shalom, Hag Succot Sameach and a Blessed Tabernacles Here in Israel, or the Jerusalem region anyway, we are beginning to feel that Autumn is on its way. The sun is gentler, the evenings cooler and the leaves beginning to fall. It isn’t like Mapledurham where I used to live, we don’t…

17th September 2021, 11th Tishrei, 5782 So Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are over and I can’t believe it’s Shabbat already! I get very confused as to the day of the Gregorian calendar during this period of “non-stop” festivals. Yom Kippur in Israel is different to anywhere else in the world.  I will explain. There…

10th September 2021` Shabbat Shalom! How are you? How was Rosh Hashana? Were you in closure or did you manage to be with at least some of your family and friends? This is a very special Shabbat, called Shabbat Shuva or the Sabbath of the Return. Return to what? The Torah reading tells us that…

3rd September 2021 Shabbat Shalom dear friends, This is the last Shabbat of the Hebrew year of 5781 and the start of 5782, yes five thousand, seven hundred and eighty two years of history, Despite innumerable attempts to wipe us out we are still here!! Today’s Jerusalem Post made me angry! The headline read something…

27TH August 2021 Shabbat Shalom! I hope this letter finds you well, vaccinated and Covid free. Every leader suffers the mistakes of his predecessors. I don’t know if there is an appropriate quote but that’s the fact. It takes at least two years, some say four years, to undo mistakes and if concurrent leaders made…

20th August 2021 Shabbat Shalom to everyone, wherever you may be, however you pray, to whom you pray. How on earth do I start this missive? Afghanistan, forest fires and arson, the return of Covid? (not that it ever really left us) Caliphate, Rockets? I will try to explain all of it but in no…

13th August 2021 Shabbat Shalom to everyone but especially to my amazing, clever, gorgeous and kind grandson Zachary who will celebrate his Bar Mitzva this weekend and thanks to Covid I can’t be with him or with my family. If only people were less selfish and more understanding that this is a scary pandemic perhaps…

210806 6th August 2021 Shabbat Shalom to everyone! Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem, well, just outside Jerusalem but with a wonderful view over the city. Gosh it’s been hot, but then this is the Middle East and it is August after all. I don’t know why everyone is surprised at the high temperatures, I still remember…

30th July 2021 Shabbat Shalom! I hope this missive finds you well. I have a question to start us off…. It’s basically the end of July 2021, more than half way through the year…..where did the time go? I feel a bit like the song “I’m busy doing nothing” because these past two years have…

23rd July 2021 Good Shabbat, a blessed Eid al Adha, have a safe and beautiful weekend I hate saying “I told you so” but sadly the raucous parties, pubs and huge crowds at the Euro 2020 football games, especially the final, have put Britain, or rather England, into the red. Thanks to the idiocy of…