• The Rabbi's Essays

    TO WHAT CAN WE COMPARE HAMAS?

    TO WHAT CAN WE COMPARE HAMAS? By Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM Prelude: For those who may have missed this essay first time around, and those who may wish to peruse it again, I reproduce it as we approach Shabbat Zakhor and the annual formal remembrance of who Amalek was. I have made a subtle change in the last paragraph. I don’t believe that anyone reading this has any doubt that the war Israel is pursuing against Hamas is an existential war for its very survival. Not so the world, not even our supposed chief ally, the USA, whose President now issues Israel with ever less veiled, ever more open threats…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    THE WILDERNESS YEARS AND SURVIVOR SYNDROME

    A New Essay for the Conclusion of Sefer Bemidbar by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM How Does A Nation of Wisdom Behave with Such Apparent Folly? The fourth book of the Torah, Bemidbar, means “in the wilderness”. Perhaps it should be renamed In The Bewilderness. It is the most perplexing book of the Torah! The generation of the midbar are called by our Sages dor de’a, a generation of wisdom. Indeed that is exactly how they appear in the opening chapters of the book.  Sefer Bemidbar takes up more or less from where or less Sefer Shemot left off  (Vaykira being principally legislative).  The mishkan has been erected and now the…

  • Acute Angles Series

    ACUTE ANGLES: Cremation – The Ulimate Abuse

    ACUTE ANGLES Real Questions on Jewish Thought Answered An Occasional Series – 50 By Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM Cremation – The Ultimate Abuse Dear Rabbi. My elderly mother is lying in hospital, unconscious. The doctors say it is only a matter of days before she succumbs. In her last lucid moments, she declared to my two brothers and me that she wishes to be cremated. This had never been discussed before. We are secular Jews, but I know enough about Judaism to know that cremation is not the Jewish way. My brothers feel we must honour our mother’s request – after all isn’t “honour thy mother” one of the Ten…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    WHY MOSHE – A New Essay for Parshat Bo

    WHY MOSHE ? A New Essay by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM …Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the eyes of the servants of Pharaoh and in the eyes of the people (Exodus 11:3) Midrash Raba (Vayyikra 1:3), partly based on I Chron. 4:18, lists ten names for the man of whom the Torah testifies “never has there arisen a prophet like [him]”(Deut 34:10). They are: Yered, Heber, Yekutiel, Avigdor, Avi-Sokho, Avi-Zanoakh, Tuvia, Shemaya Ben Natan’el, Levi and Moshe. (Other Midrashim also cite the names Heiman and Michokek.) The Midrash concludes: Said G-D to Moses: As you live, out of all those names, I…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    WHY ARE WE JEWISH?

    A Two-Part Essay by Rabbi Chaim Ingram – 1 If I am I because I am Iand you are you because you are youthen I am I and you are you.But if I am I because you are youand you are you because I am Ithen I am not I and you are not you(R’ Menachem Mendel of Kotsk  1787-1859) Note: Some may find ideas contained within this essay challenging and confronting, others may find them exciting and liberating. I am happy as always to receive feedback and to debate these issues with anyone who would like to engage. Prologue Last year, a survey of Australian Jewry (Gen17) was commissioned…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    VAYAKHEL. Don’t Be A Bystander

    DON’T BE A BYSTANDER! A New Essay on Vayakhel by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (and women) do nothing (authorship uncertain.) A Second Honeymoon This week’s sidra opens with Moses assembling the whole nation. According to all our major commentators, it occurred on what we now know as 11th Tishri, the day after Yom Kippur. I still recall Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovitz zl quipping, at a rabbinic conference, that any rabbi can summon his flock on Yom Kippur but only a Moses can assemble three million people the day after! The previous day, Moses had successfully brought down…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    THEIR WAY IS NOT OUR WAY! – A Perspective on Justice in Judaism

    THEIR WAY IS NOT OUR WAY! A Perspective on Justice in Judaism A New Essay by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM This upcoming week’s Sidra, Mishpatim, affords us the first in-depth exploration into the Jewish concept of justice. Several more will follow in the Torah, notably in the sidra of Kedoshim in Sefer Vayyikra and in the sidrot of Shoftim and Ki Teitsei in Sefer Devarim. The principle of equality of status for all classes in society – master and servant, rich and poor, man and woman, born Jew and convert, parented and orphaned, wife and widow – suffuses our parasha. Indeed, the concept of reverse-discrimination, such a feature of our…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    THE TEN ABANDONMENTS. Confronting a World Which Has Jettisoned G-D

    THE TEN ABANDONMENTS Confronting a World Which Has Jettisoned G-D Epilogue Decalogue? On 19th May 2022, the NSW Upper House formally passed the so-called “Assisted Dying” (actually assisted-suicide) Bill (against the advice of both major state party leaders). In so doing they joined every other State in Australia in proclaiming that life is no longer sacred and G-D is no longer its custodian. Next week on Shavuot we shall be celebrating the Revelation on Mount Sinai. We shall be reading the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments which were heard and affirmed by our ancestors numbering some three million souls. These Commandments came to form the bedrock of Western society. Now…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    SHO’A AND THANKFULNESS – ARE THEY CONFLICTING CONCEPTS

    SHO’A AND THANKFULNESS – ARE THEY CONFLICTING CONCEPTS? A New Essay by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM Seeking Light Amid the Darkness The Nazi Holocaust (in Hebrew Sho’a – catastrophe) which saw the systematic slaughter of one-third of the Jewish nation – the word “decimate” which means “to reduce by one-tenth” cruelly mocks the heinous extent of our losses – in an evil scheme of attempted genocide, was indisputably the most heinous, brutal and monstrous war crime to have been committed in human history. So why am I about to talk about the Sho’a in the same breath as thanksgiving? Because Hitler y.sh failed miserably in what he set out to…

  • The Rabbi's Essays

    SHAVUOT SPECIAL: ARE WE NOAH OR ARE WE ABRAHAM

    ARE WE NOAH? OR ARE WE ABRAHAM? by Rabbi Chaim Ingram OAM A Unique Transition In the third month (which we call Sivan) of the year 2448 from the creation of Adam – marking 500 years since the birth of Avraham Avinu – the nation of Israel passed from being “children of Noah” (like the rest of the world) to being “children of Abraham”. After all, Abraham was the first man to anticipate G-D’s Torah and observe it centuries in advance of it being given (see Gen 26:5). If one were to pinpoint the exact moment of the transition it would appear to be when Moses heard the entire nation…