This week, Rabbi Miriam shares a 90-second video sermon on Parashat Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol. She reflects: "A little vort and some music to inspire for this week's parasha, Tzav and Shabbat HaGadol. Keep the fire burning. Don't let it go out. Oh and by the way, that eternal fire on the alter is kept alive in our shuls today with the ner tamid over the ark. Exciting to be planning one for our own new shul design at the moment. " Watch below:

Rabbi Miriam's sermon - delivered Shabbat morning on 21st March 2026. My son was sent home with an intriguing homework assignment a few weeks ago as part of the Ancient Egyptian curriculum. Mummify a tomato. We had to scoop out the tomato’s innards, then stuff it with a mixture of salt and bicarbonate of soda. Then record what happens. Well, I can report that weeks later, the tomato is not mouldy. But it is still kind of gross. The salt and bicarb dehydrated the tomato whil

Rabbi Miriam's sermon - delivered Shabbat morning on 31st January 2026. Some people here will have heard of the 5 stages of grief, developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. While Kübler-Ross herself said herself that they’re not always linear, she has faced criticism for a theory which seems so neat, with its stages to progress through, ending in acceptance. Closure. Then with grief wrapped up, you can move on. Grief, I thin

Rabbi Miriam's Vayetze sermon - delivered Shabbat 29th November 2025 What does it look like to have a safe home? The home is usually the place where we expect to “switch off” our threat responses. A place where you are physically protected, but also one with psychological safety. If home doesn’t feel safe, the body can stay in a chronic stress state and never truly relaxes. On the other hand, a home with good physical and psychological safety has long-term positive effects o

Rabbi Miriam's Toldot sermon - delivered Kabbalat Shabbat 21st November 2025 Our parasha is Toldot, which contains the story of Yaakov and Eisav’s brotherly wranglings. It all starts with the twins wrestling in utero, which leads their mother to ask the existential question: “לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי” “if so, why do I exist?” In a time before obstetricians, she speaks to God via an oracle or teacher and is given a prophecy that the older twin will end up serving the younger - th

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. “The daughters of...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. “Miriam spoke, and Aaron,...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. “When a person commits a...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. “And the priest Jehoiada...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. “Yet Pharaoh hardened his...

Rabbi Miriam's sermon - delivered Shabbat 18th January 2025 In 2020, I was lucky enough to have a Zoom call with Rabbi Dr Burt Visotsky,...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parashah column. Parashah of the Week:...

This year, Rabbi Miriam is one of 5 rabbis and Jewish educators writing the Jewish Chronicle’s parasha column. We’re delighted to share...

Written by Rachel Harris Delivered Shabbat 13th July 2024 Shabbat Shalom The story I read today is a famous one – the Israelites in the...

The legendary comedy troupe Monty Python (who I am proud to call fellow Brits), in their take on Second Temple life in The Life of Brian,...

I love when the Jewish library offers a scavenger hunt. A trail of connecting texts across Torah, Tanach and Rabbinic writing which comes together to tell a story bigger than any of its parts. This week provides such a moment. And from a very unpromising start, we can end up somewhere rather beautiful. Shabbat Zachor, meaning the Shabbat of remembrance, is when we have a deoraita (from the Torah) commandment to remember when Amelek attacked the weakest of the Israelites leavi

Saw you at Sinai? Regular readers of this parasha blog will know that I don’t often take up an explicitly feminist theme. Sure, I’m...

When Harris and I watch Netflix, it’s generally in ten minute chunks, snatched here and there amidst busy lives. On the odd occasion...

Hagar Part II - or the Akeidah of Ishmael Last week we looked at Hagar’s first exile in the desert, and this week she’s there again -...

It’s Shabbat shuva - the shabbat of repentance - and our days before Yom Kippur are slipping away. Very resonant therefore, is our...