It’s now 11PM on Monday evening. Having spent most of the last week finalising the layout and graphics for the shul magazine, I was able to proofread the galleys of the English half of the magazine today, which puts me, thankfully, ahead of schedule for our publication date.

However, when I came to sit down three hours ago to write this week’s blog post, I found that my brain had more or less turned to mush. Having spent the last two days trying, and failing miserably, to decide between another depressing post bemoaning how the world is going to hell in a handgun (yes, I know) and a short riff on the cultural significance, or otherwise, of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, when push came to shove I discovered that I couldn’t actually string two sentences together about anything. If I were a real writer, I’d say I had a case of block, but I don’t flatter myself..

Ando so, in what is disturbingly starting to look like a trend, I am actually going to admit defeat this week. Now that even we lie-abed Ashkenazim have started saying selichot, and I am having to get up twenty minutes earlier in the morning, I simply can’t stay up as late as I too often do.

If you’re looking for something to read this week, I recommend Gil Troy’s latest book, which goes by the least catchy title of the year so far: The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-Hatred. For those of you who don’t know him, Troy is an academic historian who has published several works about Zionism, and writes one of the two opinion columns in the Jerusalem Post that I feel is always essential reading. His latest book is short but typically authoritative and timely. This is a book that he wants to reach as many defenders of Israel and intelligent bystanders as possible, and so he has made it available to download for free. Here’s the link:

There you go: a gateway to considerably more than my usual 1500 words, and written by someone who actually knows what he is talking about.

I’d like to reassure you that normal service will be resumed next week, but I see that Rosh Hashana starts on Monday night, so, being realistic, and barring miracles,I think that my next post will be published a day before Erev Yom Kippur.

Until then, may I wish you and us all a happy and healthy New Year, a year in which we find resolution and closure to at least some of the conflicts that are afflicting us all, and in which the world as a whole starts to emerge from the nightmares that threaten to engulf us.