Rabbi Chaim Ingram

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…

A TELLING TALE Insights into Hillel’s Golden Rule (1986) Shammai and Hillel One of the most familiar of all anecdotes in the Talmud relates of the gentile who came to the Sages Shammai and Hillel with the preposterous request that he be made a proselyte “while I stand on one foot” Shammai, who was renowned for not suffering fools gladly, showed his visitor the door in none too gentle a fashion. When the same man came before ever-patient Hillel with an identical request, the Sage immediately agreed, replying: “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your friend (da’alach s’nei le-chavrach,la ta’aveid). This is the entire Torah; the rest is…

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…

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…

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…

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 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…

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…

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…