Paul Pfeffer

Personal reflections not connected to work. Random thoughts resulting from too much / too little coffee...

[Liron Kopinsky 🇮🇱 Am Yisrael Chai @ldkop]

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[Robert Sterling @RobertMSterling]

It’s been amazing this week to watch the left invert every rhetorical device they’ve used since 2020, all to avoid having to criticize terrorists dedicated to Jewish genocide. It would be hilarious, if it weren’t so reprehensible.

2020: Silence is violence.

2023: People can’t be expected to comment on every situation. It’s okay to just keep silent, especially while events are still unfolding.

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2020: If you’re nitpicking small details instead of focusing on the big picture, you’re doing so to avoid your complicity in atrocities.

2023: 40 babies weren’t actually beheaded. 40 babies may have been killed, and some of them may have been beheaded, but that’s not the same as 40 getting beheaded. Details matter.

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2020: Universities must proactively take a stand and speak out in opposition to racism. “Academic freedom” is a false concept used to enforce oppression.

2023: Universities need to maintain neutrality and ensure that they do not make any statements that jeopardize the principle of academic freedom, which is a paramount virtue in the realm of scholarship.

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2020: You must immediately and forcefully condemn an attack, even if investigations are ongoing.

2023: You can’t expect us to release statements opposing an attack within four days, when the facts are still being discovered. Israel hasn’t even allowed UN investigators at the scenes of these “alleged massacres.”

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2020: People are responsible for their words, even if they are just working-class teenagers in small towns. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences.

2023: Graduate students at the most prestigious university in the world are just kids and cannot be held accountable for statements they sign. This is cancel culture.

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2020: Believe all women.

2023: Where is the physical evidence of these “alleged rapes”?

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2020: It’s not enough to be non-racist. If you are not actively anti-racist, it means that you are, in fact, racist.

2023: How dare you question whether I support terrorists just because I haven’t actively spoken out against Hamas freedom fighters.

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2020: We don’t get to tell people in affected communities how to deal with their pain in the aftermath of violence.

2023: It is Israel’s responsibility to ensure that violence doesn’t escalate.

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2020: Anything that disproportionately affects one group of people is oppression and must be condemned.

2023: Settlers—a term that includes all Israeli Jews—are not civilians and are therefore all valid targets for attacks.

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

@chiefrabbi Can we have an abbreviated version for use in Children’s Services?

[Liron Kopinsky 🇮🇱 Am Yisrael Chai @ldkop]

May today be a better day than yesterday

[David Collier @mishtal]

An open question to @RishiSunak @SadiqKhan and @metpoliceuk

In September 2001 I don't remember Al Qaeda supporters being allowed to wave their flags on our streets.

In July 2005 Islamists were not allowed out in London in celebration.

In Nov 2015 - pro-ISIS demonstrations were not allowed to take place here.

Following the slaughter at the Manchester Arena - were our streets filled with Islamist chants of 'power to the resistance'?

No they were not.

So why - just days after Hamas massacred 100s of innocents in Israel - are our city streets overrun with chanting Islamists - people who think it is okay to murder Jewish families in their homes and massacre young people at a music festival?

How is this acceptable?

[Imtiaz Mahmood @ImtiazMadmood]

Hamas: "WE WANT TO KILL YOU"

Okay, I'll seal you off from us so you can't kill us. You can manage yourselves and we'll provide aid and electricity for free.

Hamas: "WHAT?+ THIS IS A SIEGE! OPEN AIR PRISON! GENOCIDE!"

If we let you out, will you kill us?

Hamas: "YES. WE WILL KILL EVERY JEW WE FIND."

Okay. No.

Hamas escapes and kills every Jew they find.

Islamic World: "See, they did this because you built this wall. Israel, this is your fault.

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

For a religion that I think emphasises God being in charge of the big events, have we shied away from directly addressing the spiritual why of the pandemic?

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

Wondering has anyone seen a Jewish response to the ‘why’ of the pandemic? Perhaps drawing on rabbinic responses to previous pandemics / plagues? @DBashIdeas @TheRaDR @chiefrabbi

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

Have seen plenty on how to adapt Halacha to the pandemic and the importance of community in caring for each other during the pandemic, ie practical responses, but little on spiritual responses.

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

Anyone know why we say the sections of Gemara we do between Ein Keloheinu and R Kaddish on Shabbat Mussaf? Could they be swapped for other sections read in English? Trying to design an educational service...

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

This. To controversially paraphrase Isiah, other aspects of Jewish spirituality more important than observing synagogue rituals. Now must get ready to go to Shul...

[United Synagogue @UnitedSynagogue]

Gemar chatima tova, wishing you all well over the fast.

[Tamar Ron Marvin @tamar_marvin]

My teenager says I put "weird" music on my playlists.
"What is this song even about?"

Actually, kiddo, I'm pretty sure it's about Yom Kippur.

Come
As you are
As you were
As I want you to be

Take your time
Hurry up
Choice is yours
Don't be late

[The Rabbi Sacks Legacy @rabbisacks]

On #YomKippur, we plead with God for forgiveness and reassess our life. Here is a powerful clip from Rabbi Sacks zt"l talking about how to find your purpose in life, which he describes as: "Where what you want to do meets what needs to be done, that is where God wants you to be."

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

Am proud of my sons’ school for its Yom Kippur message.

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

@mark_fraenkel It’s a line whose history is often lost (though perhaps that is in a way a positive)

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

Rabbi Sacks’ writings are a real inspiration and this book is great. Have already enjoyed chapter on Sukkot by @rabbiph

[United Synagogue @UnitedSynagogue]

READ this @JewishChron article about "Rabbi Sacks And The Community We Built Together", the new tribute book created to honour the memory and teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks zt''l: https://t.co/ypGNor27UV

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

@DBashIdeas So many people lack confidence that they can do Mitzvot - this would be a really positive text to include in an older Children’s Service @TheTribeUK

[Paul Pfeffer @WaitForCoffee]

@DBashIdeas I really like this. Do any services include it?

[David/Dovid Bashevkin @DBashIdeas]

Prayer was written by Rav Binyamin Holtzman based on the teachings of Rav Kook.

Here’s a translation.