Imagine driving down the road and seeing a bumper sticker on the car in front reading “I have a TV-free home: I want slim kids!” That could foreseeably happen in the wake of a new scientific study on the effects of TV. Many of you might have heard the media stories that researchers at New Zealand’s University of Otago looked […]

“Star Wars”, “War of the Worlds”, “Fantastic Four”…the movie industry is full of exploits – and no doubt many loud explosions – focusing on man’s passion for the ‘unknown’ and the ‘unbelievable’ from outer space. Nu, so what’s the ‘Jewish view’ I hear you ask? If everything is in the Torah, surely there must be an opinion or two here.

In light of the recent miraculous rescue of the two miners in Beaconsfield, Tasmania and the failure of (Jewish) illusionist David Blaine’s latest daredevil act “Drowned Alive” attempting to beat the world record for holding one’s breath underwater, a reasonable question can be asked: are these kinds of activities actually permitted, since we see they involve significant danger to life […]

Muslims and martyrdom is a topic no-one can get away from these days. The abominable bombings in London last June has literally brought the “Israel suicide scene” right onto the streets of Bloomsbury…and the TV sets of suburbia. So what does Judaism say about this. Certainly there is a concept of martyrdom in Jewish literature but it’s radically different from […]

Following the shooting of the police woman Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford on November 18th 2005, the former Metropolitan Police Chief , Lord Stevens has said the death penalty should be reinstated for people who kill police officers. What is the Jewish view with regard to capital punishment? Judaism does believe in the death penalty in certain extreme cases, The Torah […]