Beginning in 1818, exactly two centuries ago, many of the West’s first breakaway synagogues were founded. Different motivations guided these moves, including tradition, reform, custom, and location. However, all sparked controversy and division, and each impacted their original local Spanish and Portuguese congregation. This history series looks at these…

Beginning in 1818, exactly two centuries ago, many of the West’s first breakaway synagogues were founded. Different motivations guided these moves, including tradition, reform, custom, and location. However, all sparked controversy and division, and each impacted their original local Spanish and Portuguese congregation. This history series looks at these…

Beginning in 1818, exactly two centuries ago, many of the West’s first breakaway synagogues were founded. Different motivations guided these moves, including tradition, reform, custom, and location. However, all sparked controversy and division, and each impacted their original local Spanish and Portuguese congregation. This history series looks at these…

Please click HERE to read a printable version. Prime Principles Pirke Abot 1:6 Masters, Comrades and Connections Yehoshua ben Perahia says, ‘Make for yourself a mentor, acquire for yourself a friend and judge every person on a scale of merit.’  We move in this mishna from the environments within which…

AUTHORITY, RESPONSIBILITY, & KNOWING BETTER  Much of the subject matter in this tractate deals with issues with which the modern Jew is generally unfamiliar. It discusses the Jewish people not as a religion, but as a nation governed by the law of Torah. Sitting at the centre of this…

Pesah 5778: Get With the Times  If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.  — Bruce Lee Time has long been a conundrum for us: do we pass through it or does it pass by us?  Is it different for different…

Rabbi Joseph Dweck’s Lecture Series in Hendon at LSJS This is a special pre-Pesach shiur ‘The Four Sons and Freedom’   **These classes have been made possible by the generous support of The Sephardi Centre.**

Please click HERE to read a printable version. Touring the Talmud Aboda Zara 47-54 We continue in the fourth chapter of Aboda Zara, we continue discussing prohibited objects of idol worship. We examine as well, items brought as offerings to an idol and their halakhic status. We explain in this chapter…

Please click HERE to read a printable version.   The Talmud turns its focus from relationships with idolators and focuses now on the very objects and paraphernalia of idol worship. We are not to gain benefit from any such items and we are to eradicate them from our midst. There are, however,…