The view from my veranda

2022

Terror, Trust, Truth and Kinneret Chaya

The First of April 2022 29th Adar Sheni 5782 Shabbat Shalom. As we near Passover, Easter, Pascha and Ramadan, a time of deep meaning as we look forward to family gatherings and prayer, others think of rage. It is hard to imagine such rage, encouraged by generations of hate-education and leaders who think only of…

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Vayikra, Ukraine, Despots and Generosity

11th March, 2022 Shabbat Shalom. Today we sense the need for Peace, Shalom, Salaam, Mir and Myr. These last two weeks we have learned to say Lviv instead of Lvov, Kharkiv instead of Kharkov and Kiv instead of Kiev – and watched in horror as a people who just recently learned what freedom means are…

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Kuwait, Kindness and Kim

4th March, 2022 1st day of the second month of Adar, 5782 This is the first of Adar – a new month. There are two months of Adar because in the lunar, Hebrew calendar, every four years is a leap year and we have an extra month!! Thus today’s date is 1st Adar2, 5782. Shabbat…

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Storms, Incursions and Satisfaction

25th of February, 2022 Shabbat Shalom to one and all. I hope you had a good week. As the excellent British children’s radio programme “Listen with Mother” would say “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin” Those were innocent times when Mothers sat with their children to hear stories, in fact they used to read…

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Strawberries, Storms and Supper

18th February, 2022 17th Adar, 5782 Shabbat Shalom! To all of you in the UK, especially in Wales where there is a red storm warning, stay home, take care, Eunice is coming. I’m not trying to make light of the storm, far from it, I have too many family members and friends in Eunice’s path…

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I’m Reviewing the Situation

4th February 2022 Shabbat Shalom! I know I should have written on the 2-2-22 then it would have been fascinating, in fact even better at 22:22 on 2-2-22 but then I couldn’t have wished you Shabbat Shalom!! An acquaintance of Charles Dickens wrote “Charles Dickens, the large-hearted, whose works plead so eloquently and so nobly…

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day

27th January, 2022 Shabbat Shalom to one and all. I have been going over and over in my mind as to what I should write to you today, 27th January, 2022, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Never Again is so banal, in fact it really means nothing since it is happening again, over and over again…

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Hamlet, MLK and Trees

22nd January, 2022 Good Shabbes, Shabbat Shalom, This week saw Epiphany on the 18th and Martin Luther King Day on the 17th and today is a day that we all want to celebrate but are scared to do so – International Hug Day. I have a feeling that with Omicron rampant, changing from a pandemic…

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My Birthday, Wishes and Prayers

14th January 2022 12th Shvat, 5782 Shabbat Shalom! I hope you are all well and that the current wave of Covid-19 will pass very quickly. My ever vigilant daughter Rachel was very excited to discover that since I was born on the 12th day of the Hebrew month of Shvat in the year 5706 my…

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Anecdotes, Education and Change

7th January, 2022 5th Shevat, 5782 (the Hebrew date) Shabbat Shalom! The first missive of 2022 and about 22 years since I started writing The View From My Veranda and my world widened and grew along with each and every one of you. Even though we may never meet you are my friends, the owners…

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