Post List

Parashat Yitro

Setting boundaries for protection This portion begins with our people waiting before Mount Sinai, encamped 3 days, expectant, having been commanded to go out and worship Him ‘on this mountain’. They had purified themselves and the encounter with G-d and Moshe is about to begin. Curiously Moshe is told to do something, read Shemot (Exodus) 19:10-13 and 21. He is told to ‘set bounds’ or build fences around the mount,…

Parashat Beshalach

Tu b’shevat, the 15th of Shevat, is a day designated as the New Year for trees. Our Land has always been a fruitful and blessed, fertile Land, while at the same time having the potential to be incredibly dry and arid, a living picture to the narrow balance we have in Israel between being blessed of the Lord, relying on His faithfulness to provide (as we see today in the…

Parashat Bo

In last week’s Parasha, G-d brought seven of the plagues on Egypt and each time we are told that Pharaoh hardened his heart. In this week’s Parasha, G-d brought a further three plagues upon them: a plague of locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn. After the first of these three, the locusts, Pharaoh called for Moshe and said… “I have sinned against ADONAI your G-d and against you….

Parashat Va’era

Knowing when not to say no For 400 years our people toiled and worked in Egypt, just as G-d had promised they would, not a day longer or less, exactly what was promised and foreseen. When the time was up, G-d, who had been working behind the scenes for all this time, began to bring about Israel’s deliverance: Moshe was born, a man destined by G-d to walk with Him…

Parashat Shemot

‘And these are the names…’, thus begins this new book in the scroll, the same phrase used at the end of Bereshit to detail the people leaving their homeland to sojourn in Egypt. The parallels are meant to be stark, then we were small, now we are large in number, then we were free, now we are enslaved. Much had happened in the ensuing 400 years. To begin with life…

Parashat Vayechi

The long term historical aim of British society has been to develop a multicultural model of existence where all value systems are equal and to be exalted as valid and worthy of contribution. Alongside this we have seen the concept of individualism as a high ideal and a cultural rebuttal of the age old dictum ‘no man is an island’. In the face of this we see community breakdown, family…

Parashat Vayigash

Stepping closer to redemption This week the final part of the Yosef story unfolds: the most crucial bit which is the unveiling of his real identity. The summary of Josef’s life is difficult reading: his mistreatment, abuse, sold into slavery, the incident with Potiphar’s wife, in prison for 2 years, and at the end of it all was he bitter? No, he forgave and saw that there was a bigger…

Parashat Miketz

Chanukah – God is in control Two thousand years ago, one wintry day in Jerusalem, a solitary figure walked through the Temple precincts in Shlomo’s Porch. It was the ideal place to be during this time, the marking of Israel’s ‘Independence Day’ as it was then known: Chanukah, the time of the rededication of the Temple after its dreadful desecration by Antiochus. That man was Yeshua Mashichanu. He was asked…

Favouritism or Choice?

We all like to go and see a good film. So there you are, popcorn in hand, choc-ices dripping, the film rolls and it reveals a handsome young man who is despised by his brothers, a family racked with internal jealousy, plotting and intrigue, a father who is trapped in the past, locked still in family personality and character traits which should no longer exist. There is an attempt on…

Facing up to the enemy

Shabbat Vayishlach In this portion we see Ya’akov returning to the land after 20 years, returning to face all the issues he had so quickly avoided on his departure. Ya’akov, the one who fled from his brother, unable to confront what had happened, the fear of reprisals, the fear of the unknown, all this dogged his footsteps. We see now a changing Ya’akov, slowly beginning to learn the spiritual lessons…

Weekly Drash