JUSTICE AND COMPASSION “Judges and officers you shall place for you within all your gates that the Lord your God is giving you for your tribes and they shall judge the people a fair judgment.” (Devarim 16:18) In the Midrash (Devarim Rabba 5:1) Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel...

WHEN ANIMALS HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN JEWS “If the place that the Lord your God will choose to place His name there will be far from you, you shall slaughter from your herd and from your flock that the Lord gave you, as I commanded you,...

THE SECRET OF THE SCROLL “At Horev [Mt Sinai] you provoked the Lord, and the Lord was incensed with you to destroy you when I had ascended to the mountaintop to take the tablets of stone, the Tablets of the Covenant that the Lord made with...

WE ARE ALIVE “Now, Israel, heed the statutes and the ordinances that I am teaching you to perform, so that you will live, and you will come and take possession of the land that the Lord, God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not...

I LAMENT “Over these do I weep; my eye continuously runs with water because a comforter to restore my soul is far from me. My children have become forlorn, because the enemy has prevailed.” (Lamentations 1:16) The service of the Fast of the Ninth of Av is...

NO PLACE LIKE HOME I recently returned from a short visit to Johannesburg (my third time this year!) to attend the wedding of a good friend’s daughter. The ‘golden city’ is a very different place to Cape Town. It’s dusty, crowded, and fast-paced, and almost every...

SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK Political leadership around the globe is in shambles. This week, President Joe Biden informed the citizens of the United States that he is pulling out of the upcoming presidential election. The announcement came as no surprise to many considering that Biden has...

THE KING’S HEART “A king’s heart in the hand of the Lord is streams of water. To wherever He wishes He turns it.” (Proverbs 21:1) King Solomon reveals in this verse that the heart – the desires, decisions and actions – of a king is in the...

HASBARA The Israelites have almost completed their forty year journey in the wilderness. They are close to the borders of the land of Canaan. In their path, stand a number of fearsome warrior nations, including Moab and the Emorites. The first such nation they encounter is...

THE DRAFT In mid-1991, while I was in my matric year, I received call-up papers to serve in the South African Defence Force. I obtained a deferment while I was studying in yeshiva and by the time I graduated as a rabbi, obligatory military service had...