A meeting place for tradition and modernity, viewed from a Masorti perspectivenoreply@blogger.com (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)Mon, 5 Oct 2026 21:24:39 +0100Blogger http://www.blogger.com796125http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/en-usnoJudaism,masorti,conservative,Rabbi,Louis,Jacobs,Jeremy,GordonClasses, lectures, concerts and other treats from New London Synagogue and elswhere in the Masorti world.Podcasting from New London Synagoguerabbi@newlondon.org.ukhttp://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/10/a-response-to-green-partys-anti-zionist.htmlMon, 5 Oct 2026 20:20:14 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4180812840107635220 I am a Zionist; that is to say, I believe in the right of Jews to live in self-determination, in peace, in the Land of Israel to which we have been bound for millennia.I also believe in a free Palestine; that is to say, the right of Palestinians to live, in self-determination, in peace, on land to which they have also been bound for millennia.It’s not going to be easy, neither practically 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/10/on-heroes-and-humanity.htmlThu, 1 Oct 2026 17:30:44 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4656023979114944587 Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. He spoke of the heroism of the Indian pilot, Captain Smit Machchhar – may he heal speedily – and passengers on that fateful flight who took such heroic measures to save lives; the woman who raised the alarm, the plumber who dragged the co-pilot away and pulled up on the yoke because he had watched a0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/there-is-time-for-kohelet-ecclesiastes.htmlMon, 28 Sep 2026 21:01:58 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4105397915293226845 For the past four years, I’ve been writing (and publishing) commentaries on the great Megillot of our tradition.They are available at www.izzun.com. Ester and Rut are complete; Song of Songs will be out in time for Pesach.Kohelet is stunning in its refusal to hold by conventional religiosity. It’s corruscating and utterly glorious. I’m reproducing here the essay commentary to the first 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/walter-benjamin-and-pursuit-of-aura.htmlSun, 20 Sep 2026 14:13:25 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-192305979731748423 A perk of the job.I was invited to perform a wedding, right back in the early days of the Hebrew Year just concluded, close to the border between Spain and France.“We should go,” my wife suggested, “to Portbou” – the first town inside Spain, “and visit the sculpture Passages, Homage to Walter Benjamin, by the Israeli artist, Dani Karavan.”So we went. Walter Benjamin first – Benjamin was one0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/please-use-ai-yizkor-sermon.htmlSun, 20 Sep 2026 13:56:54 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-940263403108893729 I have a Yom Kippur confession – it’s the worst professional mistake I’ve made this year, one of the worst in the 20+ years I’ve been a Rabbi. I was trying to organise a group of stonesettings on the same day and somehow a family, grieving the loss of their parent, understood they had a confirmed date and time for me to officiate. And I had no idea. I was actually confirmed and committed 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-golem-and-i-neilah-sermon-on-how-to.htmlSun, 20 Sep 2026 13:26:30 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-3421215633234729125   I’ve been thinking about Golems, the mythical artificial automata of Jewish mythology, and headed off to the British Library to dig out Leivick Halpern’s 1921 script Der Golem. It’s a play based on a story about a sixteenth-century Prague-based Rabbi, Yehudah Ben Betzalel Loew – known as the Maharal.   The Rabbi, we are told, wanted to create an automaton capable of solving the 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/incurving-and-solidarity-of-shaken.htmlFri, 11 Sep 2026 14:12:15 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-1775421406772027109 I want to share a dream I had back in the Spring and share some of the things I’ve been reflecting on since. I don’t think it’s a particularly complicated dream to understand, but there are a couple of pieces of background that will help. The first is that there’s a house, just across the road from my own, where they are doing a renovation that involves ripping out the kitchen, bathrooms, 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/09/an-open-letter-on-settler-violence-and.htmlWed, 9 Sep 2026 09:11:01 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-8107309875452636141I’ve witnessed and experienced settler violence first-hand. On a 2024 visit to the West Bank, a group of rabbis, including myself and Rabbi Natasha, were stoned and repeatedly threatened with being rammed by a pick-up truck in the ruins of the Palestinian village of Zanuta. The picture above, taken at that time, is of the school destroyed by settlers – the Israeli High Court ordered the settlers 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/08/who-by-water-reflections-on-floods-in.htmlFri, 28 Aug 2026 11:25:44 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-1618965310190286586 Footage and reports of the floods in Nepal have been heartbreaking. I’m proud to recommend and support personally World Jewish Relief‘s emergency appeal in response to this awful news. WJR partner with the Disasters Emergency Committee and I recommend them fully. My thoughts and prayers - and some money - are with all those needing emergency assistance as well as those mourning and in 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/07/every-brother-has-heel-like-me.htmlFri, 24 Jul 2026 11:31:39 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-7859956442001445597Preparing this phrase from Jeremiah for the Tisha B’Av Haftarah, I stumbled at its discomforting brilliance. כָל-אָח עָקוֹב יַעְקֹב – khol ach akov yaacov - is an impossible phrase to translate – “every brother has a heel like me” doesn’t quite get there. As a name, the letters Ayin Kuf Vet, make up the name Yaacov – us. As a noun, they mean “heel” and as a verb they suggest “deceit” (We have 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/07/jewish-and-democratic-values-in-time-of.htmlFri, 10 Jul 2026 17:10:31 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-5554728502194549961 On Thursday night, I went to the London School of Jewish Studies, the central education arm of mainstream orthodoxy in this country, to listen to three Orthodox Israeli educators, in London for a major conference. They were asked to reflect on Jewish and Democratic Values in a Time of War. The event was hosted by the New Israel Fund to whom I’m grateful.One of the speakers was Charedi – 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-biggest-organising-principle-in.htmlMon, 6 Jul 2026 13:35:38 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-8213952063449082905 I came across, this week, a new version – to me - of an old argument. The old argument, between two rabbis both of whom have been dead for almost 2000 years is about the Klal Gadol BaTorah – the central organising principle of the Torah. If you could strip the entire Jewish tradition back to just one verse – what would you go for.   Rabbi Akiva, says that the Klal Gadol -greatest 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/07/please-use-ai-by-jo-atkins-potts.htmlFri, 3 Jul 2026 11:08:26 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-1885131345370700804I was taken by this poem;read– so it seems - by a real human and written by a real human also.Please use AI when your mother dies.Ask it what grief feels likeLet it explain bereavement in 12 clear bullet pointsDo not spend years finding her in the supermarket by the tomatoes she always bought.Discovering new ways to miss her.Please use AI the next time you fall in love.Ask it how to know whether 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-goodly-are-your-tents-o-jacob-how.htmlFri, 26 Jun 2026 14:56:35 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-1426134829042911061In this week’s double-Parasha Torah reading, the wicked Bilaam is commissioned to curse the tribes of Israel and finds himself unable to do so. Instead, he looks over the Israelite encampment and remarks Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov.What was it about our encampment, Rashi wants to know, that struck Bilaam as so good? Our greatest commentator supplies an answer drawn from Talmud Baba Metzia, “It was 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/06/thoughts-on-thread-of-blue.htmlFri, 12 Jun 2026 11:15:10 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4112409151791240936  At the end of this week’s Torah reading comes the passage that articulates the Mitzvah of Tzitzit, fringes; a thread of blue tied into each corner of a four-cornered garment.   The obligation is explained this way – we are to look at the Tzitzit and remember all the Mitzvot. Tzitzit serves as a sort of physical mnemonic. It’s hard to remember everything we wish to be – so we wrap 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/05/order-and-chaos-as-we-open-book-of.htmlFri, 15 May 2026 11:38:17 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-1408135492708958607   BeMidbar, or the Book of Numbers, contains two very different kinds of material. At its opening, the Book is resplendently ordered. Each adult male member of each Tribe is counted and arranged around the central Sanctuary. Specific roles are allocated for specific sub-groups, and everything feels ready for the grand departure from the foothills of Mount Sinai.   Then everything 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/05/sunday-something-im-delighted-to-share.htmlFri, 8 May 2026 10:36:00 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4508536388380530208For those experiencing life as darker than we would wish, I have a recommendation. Come to Shul, Sunday evening for some glorious music. We are welcoming Sharqia, with guest artist Yoav, to share their Middle Eastern grooves. We have a hammered dulcimer, an oud, clarinets, saxophones and … Yoav is back. It will be a very special celebration of the Jewish music of the Middle East and North Africa.0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/05/how-to-be-happy-in-unhappy-times.htmlFri, 8 May 2026 09:13:00 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-7560404799350902409 In honesty, I’m having a lousy time at the moment – too much worry, too much hate and not enough joy.If you are anything like me, here are a couple of IG reels that have lifted my heart, both connected to special needs.https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYA2gY2u_mY/ andhttps://www.instagram.com/reels/DX-QcSePKQ9/As I was wiping away the result of some dust clearly having got in my eye … twice!0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/05/parshat-emor-polarity-management-after.htmlFri, 1 May 2026 17:26:00 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-5636788468135666150 I was at a Faith in Leadership Seminar on Wednesday morning. There were fifteen of us, Jews, Muslims and Christians in the midst of studying something called polarity management when one of our group – he works closely with the orthodox Chief Rabbi – sprinted out of the room. The other Jews and I swapped glances and, expecting exactly what turned out to have happened, quietly checked our 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/04/and-then-came-holy-blessed-one-and-slew.htmlWed, 1 Apr 2026 13:35:00 +0100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-4072803151716976040I didn’t want to do a political sermon on the First Day of Pesach – I get it, we were all up late last night and everything before that. And I wasn’t – looking at the passage of this new piece of legislation in Israel – right up until I was reflecting on the last line of the Seder.So … here we go. I didn’t want to do a political sermon on the First Day of Pesach – I get it, we were all up 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/03/what-to-do-in-aftermath-of-attack-on.htmlMon, 23 Mar 2026 20:20:00 GMTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-2383799351149994924 What To Do in the Aftermath of the Attack on the Ambulances of Hatzolah in Golders GreenThe destruction of ambulances is appalling and utterly unacceptable. It’s also been predictable and predicted. It’s an attack on not only the Jewish Community of this country, but on all British citizens and the very notion of what it means to be British. There’s police work to be done, political work to0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/03/goats-flies-and-freedom-in-unsafe-world.htmlFri, 13 Mar 2026 12:56:00 GMTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-5938471269429039936 Pesach is coming – first night Wednesday 1st April. It’s an odd time to be preparing to celebrate freedom. There are those sprinting back and forth to shelters, and many more for whom shelter feels a far-off dream. That’s not even merely about Iran, Lebanon, Israel and others experiencing militarised conflict. There was an attack yesterday on a Synagogue in Michigan. One of my Detroit-based0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/03/jewish-reflections-on-war-and-peace.htmlFri, 6 Mar 2026 10:59:00 GMTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-964140885134973714This is something I wrote in, I think  2018. A long time ago. Long before these most recent trials. It's in my book, Spiritual Vagabondry but I haven't posted it before here.   Judaism believes in peace, loves peace and prays and works towards peace. The greatest visions of the Bible are of the wolf lying down with lamb (Isaiah 11) and of swords being beaten into ploughshares (Isaiah 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/02/learning-from-bad-bunny-and-hen-mazzig.htmlFri, 13 Feb 2026 12:53:00 GMTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-8589349451798876833 Learning from a Puerto Rican RapperI caught the Superbowl Half-Time Show on Monday morning. My, American, rabbinic colleagues were already posting about it. The Israeli writer, Hen Mazzig, suggested ‘Bad Bunny’ offered a “masterclass in a lesson every minority community needs to learn”. I think his analysis might be the most interesting take on antisemitism and how to defeat it I’ve 0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)http://rabbionanarrowbridge.blogspot.com/2026/02/when-bar-mitzvah-has-prepared-wrong.htmlFri, 13 Feb 2026 12:43:00 GMTtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-404148146888473428.post-8160646800100911769 I wrote this several years ago and have held off posting until this year.It's not about any current young member of the Synagogue I serveOn the Shabbat before Purim, the Mesorah states we should read the regular Torah reading (almost always Parshat Tetzaveh) then the special Maftir Zachor “Remember what Amalek did to you,” (Deut 25:17) from a second scroll. The obligation to remember Amalek0rabbi@newlondon.org.uk (Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)