Before I begin, I feel we need acknowledge what an occasion this has turned out to be. Our first fully multiaccess in person and on zoom service, in a marquee, at Friends Meeting House, with Read more…
This morning I want to share with you some insights about the Sh’mittah Year and Climate Change and particularly with COP26 the Climate Change Conference on the horizon. But first, we have to understand our Read more…
If only we would stop and let ourselves breathe and notice our soul’s gentle pulse and earth’s cycles. The Shofar says the cycle of time is not without meaning. The Sh’mittah year says one year is not just like any other.
I’m a rabbi who has a world view of the goodness of most people – they just want to live in peace and security, with food on the table and a roof over their heads. Read more…
A sermon in memory of my father Paul Janes, whose first Yarzheit (in the Hebrew calendar) was this week. We made it to Penarth whilst on holiday. It was a moment of peace after the Read more…
It was December 2012 and the Conservative Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP, suggested that wealthy pensioners (or at least those with enough income) could give their winter fuel payment to charity instead of Read more…
As lockdown really started to kick in and the challenges of what it meant to not leave your home for days, social isolation, money worries and bereavement, kicked in, organisations, charities and even synagogues were Read more…
Many of you will know the famous story of the Maharal of Prague and his Golem – the lump of clay that he animated to be a living-but-not-human-being. The story goes that through mystical incantations Read more…
The conversation about facemasks is probably as emblematic of our age as any. I’m not talking about the extent to which the science demonstrates the protective effect of a facemask. We are all (children and Read more…
This week I wrote to an academic colleague who is a mentor to me and a friend. I was trying to explain what it means to be a feminist reader of rabbinic literature as a Read more…
I’m teaching rabbinic students a text in the Talmud that is famous for a story it contains (more on that another time). But a question that I keep asking myself is why the idea of Read more…
To be – to choose life – to be written in the book of life. A sermon this year for Rosh Hashanah – there’s so much to think about and reflect upon. I’m sure my Read more…