P.T.S.D. On Tuesday night, I attended an event honouring former Hamas hostage, Noa Agramani. It took place at the Gardens Shul which was packed to capacity with a wide range of members of the Cape Town Jewish community. Noa is a softly-spoken, unpretentious young lady who...

THE GREAT DEFENDER There is a famous teaching in Pirkei Avot (5:2) concerning the first twenty generations of mankind: “There were ten generations from Adam to Noah, in order to make known how long-suffering He is; for all those generations kept on provoking Him, until He...

SHEMINI ATZERET Even though Shemini Atzeret is attached to Sukkot and its name means ‘an assembly/gathering on the eighth day [from the beginning of Sukkot]’, it is, in fact, a festival in its own right. This is indicated by the fact that the mitzvoth of the...

TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON In 1965, a band called The Byrds released a song that immediately went to the top of the US charts. The song was a true example of the sixties peace movement and ends with a plea for peace. But what...

The Talmud expresses the attitude of the Jewish people towards this day in a most beautiful statement: "There were no better days for Israel than the 15th of Av (an ancient festival in the times of the Temple) and Yom Kippur. On these days, the...

THE NON-PEOPLE “They have infuriated Me with a non-god, they have angered me with their futilities. And I will infuriate them with a non-people, with a crude nation I will anger them.” (Devarim 32:21) The message in the verse above, which appears in the Song of Moshe,...

THE POWER OF UNITY “You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem, your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers – all the men of Israel; your small children, your women, and your proselyte who is in the midst of your...

BLESS YOU! “When you shall conclude to tithe all the tithes of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you gave it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow and they ate within your gates and...

THE RIGHTEOUS SOLDIER “When a camp goes out against your enemies, you shall guard against anything evil. If there will be among you a man who will not be clean because of a nocturnal occurrence [i.e. an emission of semen], he shall go outside the camp;...

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...