But no one doubts his brilliance and his influence on English literature and on William Shakespeare, with whom he worked with on some plays in which Marlowe’s influence is obvious. Some even think that he wrote much of Shakespeare’s work. But whereas Shakespeare set out to entertain, Marlowe wanted to challenge and shock, which in the febrile atmosphere of Elizabethan England was a huge risk that put his life almost constantly in danger. His plays combined controversial ideas of power and anti-clericalism and humanism with extreme physical violence, cruelty and bloodshed. Which appealed to the audiences of his days, when all kinds of cruelty – bear baiting, cock fighting and dogs tearing bulls to pieces in public arenas – rivaled the emerging theater for popularity.

At that moment in time England was at the crossroads. It was a divided, poor country caught between the richer and more powerful Catholic powers of Spain, France and Portugal. It was under constant threat of invasion and was riven with religious conflicts, different ideologies being forced on reluctant citizens by successive monarchs. You could be burnt at the stake (another popular entertainment) at one moment for being a Catholic and the next for being a Protestant, and a whole range of variations. We may think religious tensions in our era are dangerous and divisive. We haven’t yet reached the murderous conflicts of those days, at least in the West.

Favorites jockeyed for power and rose to the top, only to be cut down on whims, suspicions and jealousies. England was weak economically and resorted to piracy to fill government coffers. Almost everyone was suspected of heresy or betrayal, and the punishment was a horrible death. Friends and families turned against each other. Either for survival or gain. Marlowe was almost constantly under suspicion of heresy precisely because he was not afraid to shock, to challenge authority and convention. Anyone at that time who thought the sun revolved around the earth, or that it was older than a few thousand years, was regarded as dangerous.

Marlowe was born into a modest family at a time when England was a highly stratified society dominated by the aristocracy and landed gentry. Unlike Shakespeare, Marlow went to Cambridge University which meant that he was immersed in the classics. But to survive and rise with neither class nor wealth, he had to struggle financially and find ways of being useful to the hierarchies. Which was why he got involved in various nefarious activities and unsavory people.

The genius of Marlowe was in plays, in some ways cruder and less nuanced than Shakespeare’s, but pushing boundaries in ways that Shakespeare’s did not. Of his plays three stand out from the rest: Tamburlaine the Great, The Jew of Malta and Dr. Faustus. All concerned with lust for power and wealth. I will ignore the crude Jew hatred poured into the character of the Jew in The Jew of Malta. He was after all a child of his times even though there were no Jews in England. It made Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice look positively benign.

Marlowe was influenced by Niccolo Machiavelli the controversial Florentine political thinker known for his pragmatic theory of power. “It is much safer to be feared than loved,” “Men must either be caressed or annihilated,” “In actions of men, especially princes, the end justifies the means.” And most relevant to us at this moment of political upheaval, uncertainty and hypocrisy “He who studies what ought to be done, rather than what is done, will learn the way to his downfall rather than his preservation.”

All this is in response to an impressive book, Christopher Marlowe: Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival. Written by Stephen Greenblatt. A delight, combining history with literature. Going into the sources of Marlowe’s humanism, and what was called atheism simply because he challenged contemporary orthodoxies. Something I have some sympathy for.

I recommend it heartily, not only to anyone interested in English history and the evolution of the great flowering of intellectual creativity, literature and culture that emerged from the turmoil of the times and, as Stephen Greenblatt says, produced another  Renaissance and laid the foundations for magnificent cultural wealth – the cultural wealth that is now being dismissed, diminished, proscribed and rejected by the new barbaric culture warriors reminiscent of the Savonarola of Florence.

We have just witnessed in New York politics what can happen when the mob, blinded by insecurity and the record of failed ideology takes charge of the asylum. One can only pray that wiser counsel will prevail.

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I grew up in an English cultural environment in which the old British stiff Upper Lip class ridden society was being challenged by irreverence. Imagine a pompous British society of class distinction, conformity and stiff upper lips. In the 1950s a new generation emerged of intelligent graduates challenging the system.

You can think of a whole generation of British satirists encouraged then by a very different BBC. But my idol at that time was Tom Lehrer who died recently at the age of 97. And although there have been many glowing tributes on both sides of the Atlantic, I want to add mine.

He was born in New York City. He and his family were ethnically Jewish but he never identified with the community. He once said that his ties to Judaism were “more to do with the delicatessen than the synagogue”. He was a brilliant talented undergraduate at Harvard, where he began to write comic songs to his own accompaniment.  After the army he returned to full-time mathematics studies at Harvard. He taught mathematics at MIT. In 1972, Lehrer joined the faculty of the University of California. 

Parallel to his academic work, his life as an entertainer grew, satirizing every known perversion and hypocrisy without using a single naughty phrase. But also cultural icons like the mathematician Lobachevsky, Alma Mahler and her husbands.  Slowly he acquired a cult following but for years hardly earned anything from his select performances. But slowly, during the late fifties he grew in popularity, touring in America and abroad as his iconoclasm found a response particularly from the European intelligentsia. And although not becoming a superstar, he gained recognition and became successful financially.  Princess Margaret, sister of the Queen of England was a great fan of his and helped his reputation take off in Britian.  

He made fun of everything, from religion,  the military, to political incompetence, pollution, to needless wars, challenging convention in ways that are unimaginable in our pathetically oversensitive intellectual world today with  the fear of offending any poor withering flower’s desire for safe spaces ( except of course when it comes to Jews).After all these years I still remember some of lyrics that I attach a few examples below.

He touched on antisemitism in his famous song about false ecumenism “Oh, The Protestants hate the Catholics the Catholics hate the Protestants the Hindus hate the Muslims and everybody hates the Jews.” Couldn’t say that today without being threatened with death.

But the only song of his that showed anything Jewish was “Hanukkah lights in Santa Monica” where he lived during his time in California. Supposedly a response to Chabad increasing the number of public Channukah Menorot.

“I’m spending Hanukkah, in Santa Monica,
Wearing sandals lighting candles by the sea.
I spent Shavuos, in East St. Louis,
A charming spot but clearly not the spot for me.

Those eastern winters, I can’t endure ’em,
So every year I pack my gear
And come out here to Purim.

Rosh Hashona, I spend in Arizona,
And Yom Kippa, way down in Mississippa.
But in Decemba, there’s just one place for me.
‘Mid the California flora,
I’ll be lighting my menorah.
Every California maid’ll
Find me playing with a dreidl.
Santa Monica, spending Hanukkah by the sea”

Although Lehrer was “a hero of the anti-nuclear, civil rights left”, he disliked the aesthetics of the counter culture of the 60’s   and largely stopped performing in the United States as the movement gained momentum as he would today.

When asked why he had abandoned his musical career Lehrer replied: “If an idea came to me, I’d write, and if it didn’t I wouldn’t—and, gradually, the second option prevailed over the first. Occasionally people ask ‘If you enjoyed it’—and I did—’why don’t you do it again?’ I reply, ‘I enjoyed high school but I certainly wouldn’t want to do that again.'”

In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain. He said “I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.” Lehrer never married and died on July 26, 2025, at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 97.

I know the lyrics have not aged well and sound silly and banal. But at the time they encouraged me to be different, to challenge propriety and conformity. So out of nostalgia for a lost world, I leave you a few selections that I still treasure in my rebellious dotage.

Jeremy Rosen

August 2025

The Vatican Rag

First you get down on your knees

Fiddle with your rosaries

Bow your head with great respect

And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!

Get in line in that processional

Step into that small confessional

There the guy who’s got religion’ll

Tell you if your sin’s original.

If it is, try playin’ it safer

Drink the wine and chew the wafer

Two, four, six, eight

Time to transubstantiate.

So get down upon your knees

Fiddle with your rosaries

Bow your head with great respect

Make a cross on your abdomen

When· in Rome do like a Roman

Ave Maria, gee it’s good to see ya

Gettin’ ecstatic an’

Sorta dramatic an’

Doin’ the Vatican Rag.

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

All the world seems in tune

On a spring afternoon

When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.

Every Sunday you’ll see

My sweetheart and me

As we poison the pigeons in the park

When they see us coming

The birdies all try an’ hide,

But they still go for peanuts

When coated with cyan-hide.

The sun’s shining bright,

Everything seems all right

When we’re poisoning pigeons in the park.

We’ve gained notoriety

And caused much anxiety

So, if Sunday you’re free,

Why don’t you come with me,

And we’ll poison the pigeons in the park.

And maybe we’ll do

In a squirrel or two

Oedipus Rex

From the Bible to the popular song

There’s one theme that we find right along.

Of all ideals they hail as good

The most sublime is Motherhood.

There was a man, though, who, it seems,

Once carried this ideal to extremes.

He loved his mother and she loved him,

And yet his story is rather grim:

There once was a man named Oedipus Rex.

You may have heard about his odd complex.

His name appears in Freud’s index,

‘Cause he loved his mother.

His rivals used to say quite a bit

That as a monarch he was most unfit,

But still and all they had to admit

That he loved his mother.

Yes, he loved his mother

Like no other.

WHEN WE GO

Oh, we will all fry together when we fry.

We’ll be french fried potatoes by and by.

There will be no more misery

When the world is our rotizerie,

Yes, we all will fry together when we fry.

‘ And we will all bake together when we bake.

There’ll be nobody present at the wake.

With complete participation

In that grand incineration,

Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak.

Oh, we will all char together when we char.

And let there be no moaning of the bar.

Just sing out a Te Deum

When you see that I.C.B.M.,

And the party will be “come as you are”.

Oh, we will all burn together when we burn.

There’ll be no need to stand and wait your turn.

When it’s time for the fallout

And Saint Peter calls us all out,

We’ll just drop our agendas and adjourn.

The Hunting Song

I always will remember
‘Twas a year ago November
I went out to hunt some deer
On a mornin’ bright and clear
I went and shot the maximum the game laws would allow
Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow
I was in no mood to trifle
I took down my trusty rifle
And went out to stalk my prey
What a haul I made that day
I tied them to my fender, and I drove them home somehow
Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow

The law was very firm, it
Took away my permit
The worst punishment I ever endured
It turned out there was a reason
Cows were out of season
And one of the hunters wasn’t insured
People ask me how I do it
And I say, “There’s nothin’ to it
You just stand there lookin’ cute
And when something moves, you shoot!”
And there’s ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now
Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow

Yes I know it is childish. But it was MY childish. J

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The language in Hebrew is magisterial, powerful and crushing. I want to quote some excerpts both for its beauty and because it resonates with the current state of much of the Jewish people today. The translation and excerpts are mine.

It starts 

“ This is the vision of Yeshayahu Ben Amotz,  concerning Jerusalem in the days of Uziyahu, Yotam, Achaz and Chizkiyahu kings of Yehudah.” 

A time span from780 BCE to 690 BCE during which Assyria would destroy the northern idolatrous State of Israel in the North and invaded and threaten Yehudah in the south during Chizkiyahu’s reign. Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians around 720 BCE and Yehudah would finally fall to Babylon in 586 BCE.

It continues… 

“Heavens and earth listen to the word of God… I have produced children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me . Even the ox knows its master and the ass its master’s  stable, but Israel do not know, and my people don’t understand.

O, you sinful nation, a people heavy with sin, you seed of evil, children of corruption . You have abandoned and provoked, you have turned backwards.

Listen to me you Princess of Sodom pay attention to the words of God you people of Amora God, why do you want to suffer more. That you continue to offend me. Why do suffer more that you continue to do evil. Every head is sick; every heart is weary from foot to head, nothing is solid. Your land is destroyed, and your cities are burnt. Were it not for a remnant of good people you would be exactly like Sodom and Gemorah.

I do not want your sacrifices says God…  when you appear before me , I didn’t ask you to come and trample my courtyards. Don’t bring me these meaningless offerings. I can’t bear when you come on holy occasions to worship me. When you spread your hands in prayer, I’ll hide from you will not listen because your hands are full of blood . Purge yourselves from the evil, learn to do good, seek justice, support those who are oppressed, take care of the orphans and the widow.”

The condemnation of a corrupt, morally failed society where those who care are outnumbered by those who do not, is crushing. And the religious hypocrisy of people who think that simply performing religious laws atones for corrupt behavior resonates today in many Jewish communities. There is so much excessive materialism and  self-indulgence in our neo-pagan societies. We are becoming corrupted.

This passionate cry of Yeshayahu’s of course warned of  the catastrophes that would befall the Jewish states then. And it warns us today.

Corruption, and  defection from any sense of shared identity with the Jewish people, has always been a problem  whenever the forces of oppression were relieved.  Now we witness how mainly in the diaspora so many apparent Jews have neither experienced a passionate religious tradition at home nor any knowledge of Jewish history and Jewish identity. It pains me to see so many of them giving their support to our enemies. And yet at the same time and on the positive side here is far more spiritual, religious and ethical Judaism thriving around the world. So many more institutions of study and academia than ever before, let alone during the times of the two Temples. So much charity and community support. And indeed, even to our enemies.

We have always bounced back.  The week after the Ninth of Av we read the Haftarah of Comfort from Yeshayahu (Chapter 40).

“Be comforted, be comforted my people, says God . Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and declare to her that a period of suffering is finished her sins have been forgiven. Even though she has received a double punishment from God.”

I don’t want to draw parallels between one era and another. Or suggest that history necessarily repeats itself although there are certainly themes that keep on coming up. The rising and falling of empires, strengthening and weakening of cultures, constant fluidity.

 As I look around the world at this moment, the rational side of me inclines towards despair. This is an era of billions watching commercial and pornographic clips and distorted narratives  that are so easily hijacked and distorted. As Winston Churchill once said, “a lie can travel all the way around the world before the truth can get its pants on.”  A return to irrational, medieval hatred and ignorance by far outweighing those whose reservations and criticisms reflect the different ways one can look at events.

However, depressed one may be at the state of events in the world from a rational point of view,  there is another way of looking at the world.  What I would call the mystical or the spiritual point of view. And that is where I derive great comfort from. We will survive and improve. Yeshayahu doesn’t hold back from criticizing what is wrong, but he offers us hope for the future not only for survival but for revival and I think that is the most important message of all.

One of my favorite vignettes from the Talmud records an exchange between Rebbi Akiva and his colleagues who visited the ruins of Jerusalem after the Roman destruction.

“When they arrived at the Temple Mount, they saw a fox that emerged from the ruins of the Holy of Holies. They began weeping, and Rebbi Akiva was laughing. They said to him “Why are you laughing? “He replied, it is written “Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be ploughed as a field,” (Michah 3:12). But in the later prophecy of Zechariah, it is written: “There shall yet be elderly men and elderly women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:4).  Now that the prophecy of Michah was fulfilled, the prophecy of Zechariah remains valid. They replied, Akiva, you have comforted us, Akiva, you have comforted us. (Talmud Makot 24b).

The prophets were realists, rationalists who saw the problems and the dangers. But they were mystics too. It was this non-rational faith, hope and conviction that helped us overcome and survive the rational. As it will today.

Jeremy Rosen

August 2025

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The Holocaust represented something new and quite unlike previous disasters. The brutality, inhumanity and the technology enabled killing far more even proportionately than any other previous destruction. Unlike the Babylonian and Roman tragedies when thousands were killed and sent into slavery.  Neither of those sought to completely obliterate the Jewish people in the way that the Nazis did.

Isn’t it time to update?

Over the past two thousand years since, the Jewish people have suffered almost constantly both from Christianity and Islam who hoped we would convert and often forced us to abandon our own tradition. History buffs know that there were over 70 blood libel accusations that led to the deaths of Jews in Europe (and  now perpetuated in parts of the Muslim world). Of course there were periods of release. As the famous historian Salo Baron pointed out, we should not allow ourselves to fall into the trap of thinking that everyone and everything was against us, the  oiy vey version of Jewish history. Still Jews were always “the other.”  And the more we stuck together and the more we succeeded the more we were disliked. 

It was a fond hope to think that after the Holocaust the slogan “never again” would ensure the baseless hatred would cease. But unfortunately, politics that always puts ethics in the shade, has shattered that illusion. However much we might hope that Holocaust memorials and museums would achieve their educational aims it is now clear that this has not happened. Not that it means that they have no value, but the expectations of what they could achieve must be qualified . So how should we proceed?

Over the generations there have been lots of memorials of pogroms, in communities across the Jewish world. With their own very specific ceremonies and routines. Most of them now subsumed under the universal fast days.  Those who follow the Orthodox Jewish liturgy  will know that every time we recite the Yizkor prayers years we add a special prayer for our martyrs. 

“May God remember the souls of the holy and pure ones who were killed, murdered, slaughtered, burned, drowned, and strangled sanctifying the Divine Name. May their souls be bound in the bond of eternal life together with the souls of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” 

And some versions include specifically those who perished at the hands of the German oppressors. 

However, there is no unanimity about how or when we should mark this catastrophe.In Israel there are different Holocaust memorial days. One established by the Chief Rabbinate,  one ordained by the state, and  there are those who consider the Ninth of Av be a Holocaust Memorial Day too. There are too many factions within the Jewish community for there being any chance of uniting them all these different ones into a single one or getting everybody to agree to merge with the 9th of Av. Each community in the end makes its own decisions. 

There is another possibility and that is remembering the Holocaust through literature and art which of course does not need a specific day in the calendar. One might  point to the writing of Elie Wiesel. Anne Frank was popular until her memory  was hijacked. Menachem Rosensaft  a human rights activist, a professor of law and a leader of the Second-Generation Movement of children of Holocaust survivors, has published a compilation of new psalms that adapt the earlier historical format to the modern experience. Burning Psalms: Confronting Adonai after Auschwitz, January 27, 2025. It should at least be an addition to the medieval dirges, the Kinot, we recite nowadays.

But to end on a different note. The Talmudic tractate Taanit has some wonderful narratives of disaster and hope. There is one I really like because it is so relevant.

“On one occasion the wicked empire, Rome, issued a decree forbidding Jews to study Torah, or circumcise their sons, and to desecrate Shabbat.  Yehuda ben Shammua and his colleagues went and sought the advice of a certain Roman (not Jewish) matron who knew all the prominent people of Rome. She said to them: “Go and hafginu!” (which literally means to demonstrate publicly). They went and cried saying: Are we not children of one father? Are we not children of one mother? How are we different from any other nation and tongue that you single us out and issue against us evil decrees? Their cries were effective, and the authorities annulled the decrees, and they made that day a commemorative holiday” (Taanit 18a).

If only we spent less money and time arguing and demonstrating amongst ourselves and more on coming together as a nation, we might just be able to turn things around, as we did before. Sadly, as we see, at this moment there’s little chance of that. Much to fast about.

Jeremy Rosen

July 2025

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Henry was not only a cruel tyrant unpredictable and willful with regard to his wives, but also to those who served him well as his counselors. The two most significant after Cardinal Wolseley were Sir Thomas Moore (1478-1535) and Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540) . Both of whom were beheaded. As well as an endless list of beheadings and burnings of religious leaders and ordinary folk who took the wrong religious or political loyalties in the ever changing, corrupt world of the times.

Martin Luther(1483-1546) initiated the Protestant split with Rome when he pinned his 95 articles on the gates of Wittenberg Cathedral.  Sir Thomas More, loyal to the Pope wrote a fierce rebuff  and encouraged Henry to write a defense of the Catholic Church for which he was given the title “ Defender of the Faith” ( abbreviated in its Latin to FidDef). Still used by English monarchs. 

When Henry wanted to get rid of his first wife Katherine of Aragon, the Pope refused. Henry  broke with Rome and set up the Church of England and  expected everyone else to follow him and accept him as the religious head of the Church. And thus defy the Catholic church. To this day the English Monarch is still head of the Church of England which may explain why it has become such a pathetic disaster ( although I think King Charles happens to be a good guy but certainly no saint).

Thomas More was a giant in English society not just because of his political prowess and brilliance but also because he had written a major work of English literature Utopia which described a mythical perfect world that was both a political satire and an aspirational dream of a perfect society. Sir Thomas was conflicted over whether to stand firm on his principles and face death or capitulate and obey his monarch. He refused to capitulate, and it cost him his life.

The unstable history of religious turmoil only ended when Henry’s daughter Elizabeth stabilized the country at home and survived the attempts of Catholic Spain to remove her. And by the way there were no Jews allowed to live in England in those days so you can’t blame them.

In 1960 the dramatist Robert Bolt produced a remarkable play called “A Man for All Seasons.” About Sir Thomas Moore as a brilliant, stable counterforce to the unpredictability of his master King Henry and his struggle moral and religious to decide which way to go. It was first performed in London in 1960 and was subsequently made into a very successful and award-winning feature film in 1966.  

Much has been written about Thomas More. But in our days, he is known by most people from Hilary Mantel’s brilliant historical novel “Wolf Hall” which was turned into a widely watched and praised Television series in 2009 that dramatizes the relationship between More and Thomas Cromell, his pupil and then nemesis.

Mantel’s Thomas More is not Bolt’s perfect spotless idealist and all-round good guy in comparison to Cromwell the pragmatist. She sees the good and the bad in both. More had no problem torturing and burning heretics. A new biography of More has been published “Thomas More: A Life” by Joanne Paul that has been widely reviewed. She tries to present a balanced and more nuanced portrait of More. 

My interest in it is because I see so much of the present struggle between religious and political fanaticism and extremism not only in general but also in Jewish religious life today. There are those who absolutely refuse to budge. Or see another point of view. And even resort to violence although no one has been beheaded yet.

As for Martin Luther he claimed he stood for a new open-minded version of Christianity in reaction to the corrupt Catholic authority of Rome which only allowed the priesthood to determine what ideas and interpretations were acceptable. Luther wanted the Bible to be accessible to everyone, in a way to democratise religion. Initially he hoped the Jews would join him because we encouraged everyone to have access to our holy books. But when we politely refused, he turned into one of the most despicable of antisemites. 

Which is one of the reasons why so many (not all of course) in religions that sprang from us are uncomfortable with our independence and success, and end up being so antagonistic to Jews. Precisely because we are different and stand out in following our own paths. Most people don’t like those who disagree. There are many who die each for religion and fanatics who torture, behead and burn and follow herds of yahoos in denigrating the other.

I see the bitter vituperative religious and political antagonisms playing out before our very eyes in our own communities too though thankfully not so bloody.  I wonder whether despite our technological and scientific advances we are not as primitive, addicted to power and as bloodthirsty as they were then.

In the end we might say these religious upheavals laid the ground for a better world. Sadly, now it looks like we are being taken back to the Middle Ages.

Jeremy Rosen

July 2025

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“As elixirs of life go, long-term fasting is the surprising candidate. Yet it seems to work. Experiments on species from worms to monkeys show that near starvation prolongs lifespan. And although no long-term experiment has been conducted to prove the same is true of Homo Sapiens, short term ones suggest similar physiological changes do happen.”

I found this particularly relevant now as we have entered the three-weeks between the 17th day of Tamuz and the 9th Day of Av, a period of mourning for the destruction of both temples and Jerusalem which starts and ends with fasts. Fasts don’t seem to have been such a big thing in the Torah. Not one mention. Even Yom Kipur is not described as a fast but rather a Day of Affliction. 

But the catastrophes of our self-destruction ( helped by Babylonians and Romans) resulted in many more. A whole Tractate of the Talmud is devoted to fasts. Not just for atonement but for all kinds of catastrophes of which the most common was failure of the rains and even bad dreams. But medieval persecutions, particularly the Crusades,  led to many different local fasts commemorating massacres. Excessive penance and self-denial in celibate Christianity had an influence on us too. We added optional fasts ( BeHab) on the Monday, Thursday and Mondays after festivals to make up for too much gluttony on the festivals themselves.

But the fasts over the loss of the Temple and Jerusalem came to dominate because the events affected every corner of Jewish life. We have just had the Seventeenth of Tamuz. 

The Mishna ( Taanit 4:6) gives various reasons for the fast of the Seventeenth of Tamuz ranging from when Moses broke the two Tablets of Stone to the beginning of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And one may wonder why we don’t add one for the Holocaust. A matter I shall return to nearer the Ninth of Av.

My magnificent father who was in general strict on matters of ritual, would say that if a minor fast gets in the way of studying Torah or if it becomes merely an endurance test to see what a good person you are, one should rather prioritize by doing something positive rather than negative and minor fasts could be treated leniently. And he said such opinions were common in the Yeshivas of Lithuania. Of course, in our day and age you will not get any Orthodox rabbinic leader who would take such a lenient point of view in public. 

I have always had a problem fasting. Some people seem to be able to take to it like ducks to water and it has very little effect. But not me. It affects my concentration and ability to use time more productively. The strange thing is that when it comes to Yom Kippur which is a 25 hour fast, I seem to be able to manage it without too much trouble. Yet when it comes to minor fasts, I have great difficulty and struggle to get through the day. Although since I come out fine on the other side with no serious damage and quite the contrary having lost a pound or two in the process, it seems my anxiety may be psychosomatic.

But now having read that fasting is good for you I’m inclined to take the minor fasts much more seriously than I ever did before. And not only that, but as at this particular moment the dysfunctionality, hatred , violence, and ignorance that seems to be on display everywhere, I want to make a plea for taking the minor fasts a little more seriously and it might even add a few more years to our lives, to boot.

But let me not get carried away. The article about fasting being good for you ends with this sentence. 

“As for mere mortals who want a long and healthy life without the risk of drug side effects the advice remains the same, eat wisely, drink moderately, exercise regularly, sleep well .”

Jeremy Rosen

July 2025

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My late younger brother Michael ז״ל of Yakar, always used to say that once you let Jews abuse and denigrate Arabs, they will soon go on to abusing other Jews. I fear some have reached this point. We must stop them before it is too late.

I once agreed with Meir Kahana over Soviet jury. And I still do on the principle of self- defense. But the reason Kahana was excluded from the Knesset when he moved to Israel, was not the issue of Jewish self-defense. It was the language he used of dehumanization and denigration of whole groups of people regardless of individuals. And the refusal to consider compromise. 

I care not for ideological opponents from the left or right, Jewish or not. Nothing Israel does will change them. But I do care for people caught up in the conflict. There are good and bad everywhere and different people are educated ( or indoctrinated) into various value systems. Not every Jew not every Palestinian is the same and as the Torah says “Fathers are not punished (die) for what their children do, and children do not die for what their parents do. People are punished only for what they themselves have done” (Devarim 24:16 ).

The Law of the Land, must be obeyed and those who transgress it must be punished. ‘Rabbi Hanina, the vice-high priest said: pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear it inspires, every man would swallow his neighbor alive”( Avot 3:2). 

Silence leads to tragedy. Kahana led to Baruch Goldstein killing unarmed Muslims at prayer in Hebron. And the bellicosity of his clone Ben Gvir only encourages internal and external violence that in the end will benefit no one.

Israeli society always had its criminals its extremists as well as its saviors. The world we live in today only wants to see the bad in Israeli society. Many have tried endlessly to establish good relations, help their Arab neighbors and work for peace. Yet they are ignored. In one sense all of us who care for the Land of Israel are settlers and most of us are peaceful. But it is convenient to pick on the bad instead of the good and overlook the huge amount of good the people have done throughout Israel for reconciliation for peace for a better world. But all we hear is talk about a minority of others who have overstepped the limits.  And at the same time there are many who cannot distinguish between the different kinds of religious Jews in Israel that run the gamut of political and religious ideologies and are not blood thirsty fanatics.

There was a time when the humanitarian, universalist spirit that the great Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook (1865 to 1935) preached, a tolerant Judaism used to infuse early Israel religious Zionism and the religious character of the country. Since 1967 the different ideology of his less impressive son Zvi Yehudah Kook  (1891-19782) has set a very different tone of triumphalism and denigration which now infects what was once the moderate wing of  Judaism with a messianic passion. Messianism is a wonderful concept and a mystical antidote. But it is not a practical solution.

It may be argued that Jews are still traumatized by the rest of the world refusing to help them when they tried to escape oppression and were caught in the evil vice of Nazism. And it is common to say that Western or Christian ethics having failed so horribly they have no right to play a part in the decisions of the state of Israel. But this does not justify turning a blind eye to unnecessary suffering to distorted political ideas of dehumanization wherever it comes from today. 

I understand the inevitable turn to the right that always happens within Israeli society when it has been attacked and on the defensive. When you hit people, they close up, not open out. The Israeli army has always glorified in the concept of the “Purity of Arms.” And frankly I don’t care what the world says. The precautions Israel has taken, as a general rule even in Gaza, have allowed the human tragedy to drag on for so long precisely because the ultimate deterrence’s we’re not used.

Of course, I blame the barbarity of Hamas for the horrors they are inflicting on their own in Gaza. But I can condemn the Israeli policymakers who encourage Hamas to challenge the PLO. They too miscalculated tragically. Hardly any politician or leader comes out of all this well. Only the young and older courageous and intrepid men and women who fought and gave their lives for the safety of their country and their people.

The Talmudic giant Ben Azai ( the second century) disagreed with Rebbi Akivah as to the most important principle in the Torah. Not “ Love your Neighbor as Yourself,” important as it was. But  rather that we are all the creatures of one God, quoting “This is the story of all mankind” (Bereishit Raba  24:7).

“ For the sake of Zion, I cannot remain silent, and for the sake of Yerushalayim I cannot be quiet (Isaiah chapter 62 verse 2).

Jeremy Rosen

July 2025

The post Is Peace Possible? appeared first on Rabbi Jeremy Rosen.

 We live in a hyper world of facile theories, both about what is happening in the world today and what is likely to happen in the future. A world divided between goodies and baddies, rival religions, Zionists and anti-Zionists and almost every other conceivable human political division, let alone sexual identities. All of them claiming moral high ground and predicting sea changes within the tide of human history. Theories are fine. But they are not reality.

I was brought up in a culture where there were divisions and disagreements, hatreds and prejudices. But there was a veneer of politeness and sensibility that acted as a safety net. “I might hate you, but I won’t say so in public.” Hypocrisy? Perhaps, but it made life livable. This has now been swept away by the vicious destructive banality and corruption of the media and their pathetic victims.

I always felt anti-Semitism embedded in British and most of European societies. Whenever our Jewish school played non-Jewish schools, we were assailed by Jew hatred. The artsy world tended to side with the Palestinians. One of the most vociferous opponents of Israel at Cambridge in my day was an aspiring Jewish actress and of course there was Roald Dahl. Of course there were many good Britons who were if not Philo-semitic at least understood a Jewish point of view that saw autonomy rather than assimilation as a solution to its sense of alienation.

Similarly in the United States of America a vein of anti-Semitism has run through that society since Peter Stuyvesant tried to ban Jews from New York. In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. And Harvard had anti-Semitic restrictions until after the second World War. 

Even so, for many Jews escaping the killing fields of Europe thought that America was a Goldene Medina. Its all relative. Let us not forget that the gates of the USA were slammed shut before the Second War. Jews were looked on as outsiders and in America the desire of assimilating Jewish immigrants was always to distance themselves from the passionate commitment to a Jewish identity that has survived all the attempts over millennia to suppress it.

There was for a short period in American history when the idea that the Jews deserved to have a homeland of their own and protect it was accepted. Even though it was never allowed to secure a peace treaty. American policy despite the reservations of the state Department  upheld Israel’s right to exist even if it often impeded it from Suez onwards. At least under Nixon and Trump America had our backs. Yet New York now looks like reverting to Stuyvesant. Jews who want to stay Jews may no longer be welcome.

The issue now is not whether Israel is right or wrong, good or bad, whether one can criticize or excoriate it. But whether it has any right to exist at all. In New York which was once considered to be a Jewish city, the man who would be mayor believes Israel as a Jewish state needs to be obliterated and has no right to exist and is proud to say so.  We have experienced shock after shock these past two years. Hamas and Iran, dedicated to killing Jews are praised and glorified. Not only our enemies but even from within our own ranks, opposition to the idea of a Jewish state is returning to the time during the last century when most American Jews were anti-Zionist. 

Ideological opponents delight in the claim that there’s a fundamental change in American Society. From a position once where the majority supported Israel and its right to exist, to one in which possibly half of the country now believe that you ought not to. There is indeed constant fluidity. Huge ideological differences in the US between ideologies, on sex, politics, race and social values and identities.  Counter theories and counter ideologies. There are those who claim the crazies will take over New York, go on to take the presidency with disastrous effects on Israel. Yippee say a whole generation of useful, ignorant fools. But neither New York nor America in general have become so anti-Semitic that it’s time to get out, for fear of pogroms.  And nearly everybody ( except Iran of course) is anxious to say that they are not anti-Semitic heaven forbid. It’s just that they object to Israel.

 And here we come to the  pig. The Bible says that kosher animals have to have the cloven hoof and chew the cud. Cows have both. Pigs only have one. Why is the pig picked as the epitome of non-kosher more than any other animal?  The answer is that the pig could put forward its two feet and show that he must be kosher because he has  cloven hooves. But look further and you see that it doesn’t chew the cud. The pig may protest it is kosher. But it is not! The current wave of dogmatic liberals of race and sex who are products of years of infiltration and indoctrination, still want to claim they are not antisemites heaven forbid. 

Lord knows, I have throughout my career criticized many aspects of the secular and religious Zionism of Israeli Society and Jewish life. I know full well what our faults, hypocrisies and failures are and wish we would not have war imposed on us with all its cruelties. But when it comes to Israel as a Jewish State ( in an imperfect world where nationalities still hold sway)  the right to exist the way that we want to, is after all incorporated into most documents of human rights ( but for countries that have none). It remains rooted in the idea that we can choose how we want to live. And that includes the right of Judaism to a state of its own. Predicated on the fact that no matter how the other nations of the world may have been polite, supportive and helpful, there are within them, many who wish to see the destruction of the Jewish state and for that reason they remind me of pigs. Yet most people love pigs!

Meanwhile Israel continues to face an existential threat. The war in Gaza and its casualties continues. China is rearming Iran as fast as it can. North Korea and Pakistan are offering nuclear support. They are encouraging Iran to go on with its attempted genocide of Israel. Much of what is left of the Jewish community in Iran is either already dead or imprisoned and tortured in jails. There is still no end to this. We have to stay strong. 

Nothing remains static. That’s what we can learn from history. For all the fine theories, expert opinions, and predictions, we never know for certain how things will work out. And yet we soldier on. We cannot rest on our laurels. In the first battle the Israelites fought against Amalek it was Moshe holding his hands up  high that made us realize that it is not by physical strength alone but spirit that wars are won.

Shabbat Shalom

Jeremy

July 2025

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But here, by way of distraction, I am writing about a person. This Yalta was a distinguished lady from a noble and wealthy family who lived in Babylon between the end of the Second and the Third centuries. She had a strong sense of self-worth, and self-confidence in an era of almost total male dominance. She was, according to Rashi, the daughter of the Exilarch, the head of the Jewish community in Babylon. She was familiar with Jewish law. But she had a temper. When she thought she was being slighted. She smashed four hundred barrels of wine after a guest offended her and women in general (TB Brachot 51b.) 

Yalta showed her expertise in kashrut matters. In a debate that hinted at current questions of what constitutes meat if it is produced artificially, she asked her husband about kosher food that would taste like meat cooked in milk. She argued the halachic case expertly. And he accepted the argument (TB Chullin 109b). She also argued the law in other matters such as purity.

 Yalta was a doctor too. She personally took Rav Amram to the bathhouse to soak in hot water for a cure when he was stricken with an unknown disease (TB Gittin 67b). And she offered her husband counsel on how to deal with someone who was arguing with him disrespectfully (TB Kidushin 70b). Perhaps not in themselves major issues. But indicative of her importance in that society. Where the only chance women had beyond the home depended either on independent wealth or a compliant husband.

The more famous Talmudic woman however, was Bruria, the daughter of the saintly Chaninah Ben Teradion(outstanding scholar, from a very wealthy family and martyred by the Romans). She was the wife of Rebbi Meir, who lived in Israel during the second century CE. He is the third most frequently mentioned rabbi in the Mishnah.

She was admired for her breadth of knowledge. She was said to have learned 300 laws from the rabbis on a single cloudy day (TB Pesachim 62b) and was happy to challenge rabbis she thought less knowledgeable than she was. She was also renowned for her sharp wit and often caustic jibes, attacking males for underestimating women. Rebbi Meir was sorely troubled by local louts and prayed that they should die. Bruria argued that he should rather pray that evil disappear. Not people.

Bruria scoffed at the Talmudic assertion that women are “light-minded” (TB Kidushin 80b). A later and much disputed tradition (obviously propagated by less open-minded commentators), says that Rebbi Meir himself sent one of his students to seduce her. She resisted the student’s advances, some say she eventually capitulated. When she realized what she had done, she committed suicide. Other sources have it that she fell ill emotionally due to shame because of the rumour. Rebbi Meir, in turn, exiled himself from Israel and fled to Babylonia. An example of the disastrous effect that rumour can have, as in our era of social media and fake news. You can see how reluctant men were then to accept female intellectuals. But to be fair that was a thousand years ago and only now have women gained equality (in some countries).

And finally, Rav Chisda’s daughter. Her actual name is never mentioned. She was gifted with the power of prophecy. She predicted her marriage to her father’s two students (consecutively). First, she was the wife of the Rami Bar Chama, after his death she married Rava (both were Amoraim of the third generation). She is mentioned many times in the Talmud and commentaries in the Talmud and its commentaries only as “the daughter of Rav Chisda.”  The Talmud (TB Bava Batra 12b) says she sat on her father’s lap as he taught Torah in the academy and taught her and her sisters Torah and laws, personally. There were rabbis in those days and later who recognized the value of female scholarship and empowerment. Even in times when the rest of the world resolutely refused to encourage it.

I fear that too try to show leadership through creativity and flexibility. Most are being silenced by the plague of conformity and the fear of stepping out of line.  But the reality is that more and more women within the Orthodox world are studying to the highest levels and making their mark. There are signs of their campaigning to achieve political power too. More power to their elbows (so long as they are covered of course)!! You can’t keep a good woman down for ever. And more young men are volunteering to serve in the army.

But Trump seems to have learnt the lesson of Yalta. But will his natural desire for a long-term deal end up with his being suckered by Iran’s Shiite well established ideology of deceit to achieve victory? Time will tell. Meanwhile I pray Israel will take a long hard look at its divisive politics.

Jeremy Rosen June 2025

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 Some people claim that Shavuot, originally, was no more  than the closing of the harvest cycle that started with the first barley crop and ended with a wheat harvest. Which is why it was called Atzeret which means completion or conclusion. And why we read the Book of Ruth that takes place at the wheat harvest time of the year. The harvest was the opportunity for the poor and the needy to find free charitable grain to sustain themselves. So that we emphasize the humanitarian as well as the spiritual.  But then you could argue that we should be doing that all year round.

Over the years and changing circumstances, and much later traditions reflect the loss of the land and the Temple and the compensating emphasis on Torah and study. But it was not until the post Talmudic era of the Gaonim of Babylonia around 1000 CE that Shavuot came to be called “Zman Matan Torateynu” The Time of Giving the Torah, that we use today in our liturgy. And this is why  Shavuot  came to be associated with the anniversary of receiving the Torah and the two tablets of stone, even if the Torah does not actually say so. A wonderful example of how adaptability added a new layer to the Torah to meet new and different conditions.

 Each festival had its association with foods. But beyond Judaism, the custom of eating milky products during harvest time was widespread in Europe. Perhaps that was why eating cheesecake on Shavuot came to be so popular. Today there are many reasons given. In my opinion none of them is persuasive but let me summarize.

The most amusing one is that once the Israelites received the Torah (which includes the laws of kashrut), they had to throw out all their crockery and cooking utensils, that must have been filling their pantries in Egypt, rather than violate the laws. So, they ate simple dairy meals until they could properly prepare kosher meat. Or they needed time to get two sets of cutlery, one for meat and one for milk and additional ones for Pesach. 

The Torah describes the Promised Land as a “land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8). Eating dairy foods like cheesecake symbolizes the richness and sweetness of the land. But then that doesn’t explain why specifically on Shavuot only we have this custom. Those who love numerology (or gematria as we call it ) like to point out that the Hebrew word for milk (chalav) has a numerical value of 40. And Moshe spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah ( on Shavuot). A mystical explanation is that dairy is associated with purity and simplicity. And in preparation for receiving the Torah on Shavuot, the whole of the Israelite community came together and purified themselves.

All religions, all cultures, have their special days and customs. That’s what differentiates one from the other. To try to find scientific or historical reasons is fun and speculative but beside the point. So Shavuot and Cheesecake go together regardless.

It seems that Jews now are universally blamed and hated regardless of whether they have a right to a refuge of their own. Even our right to a homeland is contested. There is no other way to combat irrational hatred other than to stand proud and strong in defense of our religion and our culture. All the more reason therefore for us to take every opportunity to show how different we are and to enjoy Life on Earth, while and when we can. Be grateful for the good and accepting of the not so good. If there are pathetic yahoos who don’t like that, that it is their problem!

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Shavuot.

PS I will be away from June 6^th till the 12^th for a grandson’s Bar Mitzvah so don’t worry if you don’t hear from me.

Jeremy Rosen

May 2025

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