Charles Middleburgh

Thoughts for the Week, short sermons, delivered to the members of the Progressive Synagogue in Dublin, 2020-2022, by their Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Dr. Charles Middleburgh.

The crisis spread across the world in 2020-21 by a rampaging virus previously unknown to science impacted every area of life. For rabbis, the challenges were multi-levelled. In late March 2020, synagogues closed as soon as lockdowns began and all the activities that had previously occurred as a regular part of communal Jewish life were summarily stopped. The sermons collected in this volume reflect many aspects of the impact of the coronavirus on Progressive Rabbis ordained by Leo Baeck College in London and their congregations. They are an important part of the record of these challenging times in Jewish life as well as testifying to the creativity and commitment of their rabbinic authors. The crisis spread across the world in 2020-21 by a rampaging virus previously unknown to science impacted every area of life. For rabbis, the challenges were multi-levelled. In late March 2020, synagogues closed as soon as lockdowns began and all the activities that had previously occurred as a regular part of communal Jewish life were summarily stopped. The sermons collected in this volume reflect many aspects of the impact of the coronavirus on Progressive Rabbis ordained by Leo Baeck College in London and their congregations. They are an important part of the record of these challenging times in Jewish life as well as testifying to the creativity and commitment of their rabbinic authors.

Whether you are a person of faith or not, there are always times in every human life when we need to find comfort, to sustain us through times of anxiety, disappointment or pain, times of loss or bereavement. Throughout the millennia of Jewish history, from the Hebrew Bible to modern times, Jewish sages have written and spoken words of encouragement, reassurance and hope. This anthology presents a wide selection of poems, psalms and meditations from all periods of the Jewish past and the present day that will provide food for thought, and words of comfort at difficult times of life. Themes included are illness, ageing, patience, loss, memory, grief, faith, immortality and much more. The wisdom in this book is deep and real, and is borne of centuries of suffering endured, faced, understood and overcome.

The riches of the Jewish year with its high holy days, its times of preparation and celebration are opened up for all in this anthology of prayer, arranged in forty sections, which draws deeply on the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament and the Jewish spiritual tradition. Christian readers will be enriched by a deeper encounter with the roots of their own faith and the patterns of prayer and worship by which many Christian rituals and observances are shaped.