15th October 2026
Rabbi Scott’s latest blog
As a new arrival to Manchester, I consider myself fortunate to be able to see and experience new things in my daily life. I had one this week on the Tram. I had to be at the office early before normal opening hours one day, so I rode the Tram in at an earlier time than usual. It pulled into my station and was packed with school kids. I was able to slip in and the Tram took off. Being tall and wedged into a corner, I was able to look around the whole Tram and saw that the kids were actually from different schools. There were three distinct uniform colours: Navy, Green, and Maroon. As I looked closer, I was able to tell that the kids in Navy school uniforms went to a Jewish school, the kids in Green school uniforms went to a Christian school, and the kids in the Maroon uniforms went to a Muslim school. They were not intermingling per se except as the Tram had everyone pushed together to accommodate the riders. What struck me was the seeming normality of this to the students. They come from different backgrounds, study different sacred texts, and have different understandings of G-d. Yet they all were sharing a common mode of transportation, following a similar school schedule, and speaking a common language. They came from different families and communities, but they were all distinctly British. For me, as an American, this was a new experience.
This experience also got me thinking about this week’s Torah portion, Noach. The portion is best known for the story of Noah, but it also contains the story of the Tower of Babel which our Bat Mitzvah, Lois Chepner, will read from the Torah in synagogue this Shabbat. The story says, in a nutshell, that at one time everyone spoke the same language, and someone had the bright idea to build a city with a tower that reached Heaven. Because everyone could understand each other, the city and tower were being built at an astonishing pace. G-d sees this and realizes that if people use their common language just to enlarge and enrich themselves, then they are destined to make only trouble in the world. So, G-d changed their common speech into many different languages. People had to split up and wander looking for those whose speech they could understand, and this scattered the people all over the earth into separate tribes, clans and nations.
According to the story, we were intended to stick with those we understood and thought and spoke alike. As I reflected back on that tram ride, I was struck that humanity has found a medium between the unified people that built the Tower of Babel and living in completely isolated nations and communities. Today we live in a globalized world, where travel and commerce and education can cross national and cultural boundaries in an instant. Not only is knowing a different language and experiencing a different culture normal today, it is encouraged and desired by most modern communities to one extent or another. Those kids in their different school uniforms and their families have chosen to live in a multi-cultural nation where society expects and even relies upon the intermingling of peoples, and to do so they must share common experiences like knowing a common language and sharing a common tram.
Humanity has evolved into a middle ground from the biblical transition of a complete unification of humanity to the complete separation of people by language and tribe. We now can and do live side by side, sharing some commonalities that make us all part of one society while also holding on to and celebrating cultures and beliefs that still allow us to be distinct tribes if we choose to do so.
So, the next time you are on the tram or a bus or at the Trafford Centre, take a look around and notice both the distinction and commonalities of the people you are sharing space with. You might discover you share more with these strangers than you thought.
23rd July 2026, Tisha B’Av
Rabbi Scott’s thoughts on his and Donni’s first week in Manchester
This week is my first week on the job as the rabbi of Manchester Reform Synagogue and I’m just figuring out to use the Bee Network, learn what things like Toad in the Hole and Spotted Dick are, and being asked on which I stand of the dividing line between Red and Blue. My wife Donni is experiencing similar ah-ha moments, and we anticipate so many more as we acclimate to Manchester. It has not been lost on me that in the midst of us trying to integrate into Manchester and meeting so many welcoming and friendly people along the way we are also encountering Tisha B’Av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av) on Thursday, June 23rd.
Tisha B’Av historically marks the days of destruction of both the First and Second Temples, but our ancestors used it as a catch-all date for mourning and remembrance. Many historic tragedies happened around this date or season including the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290. We have historically marked this day with fasting and the reading of the biblical book of Lamentations which is an epic poem of loss and blame and anguish regarding the destruction of the First Temple and the expulsion of the Jews from Israel as part of the Babylonian Exile. Today many still mark the holiday through fasting, abstaining from pleasurable activities – Jewish summer camps in the United States will close their swimming pools for the day, for example – and the communal reading of Lamentations while sitting on the ground rather than furniture similar to what a mourner at a traditional shiva might do.
Our Sages proposed many reasons why G-d allowed the Temples to be destroyed on this day in history, but the most well-known reason they say is because of sin’nat chinam, senseless hatred. We as a community were so divided even back then over issues such as politics, observance, rabbinic authority and other issues (sound familiar?) that we could not see past what divided us to the common humanity amongst all of us. If we were going to treat each other so adversarial and inhumane, then G-d was not going to remain with us in The Temple. G-d withdrew from the Temples, so we are told, and let our enemies destroy those sacred places as punishment for our wretched treatment of each other, all of whom were (and are) made in G-d’s image.
My wife Donni and I have been so warmly welcomed here in Manchester this past week and people have done some wonderful things to help us get settled. The possibility of the local community engaging in sin’nat chinam seems remote to us. But at the same time, Tisha B’Av arrives to remind us that we all have the capacity to think and act negatively in ways that can cause real pain and destruction to others be they strangers or loved ones. This Tisha B’Av, don’t let the day go by without doing or saying something positive to someone. Family or friend or stranger, let someone know that you see them, that they matter, and that you believe in a world not dominated by senseless hatred but by ahavat rabbah, abundant love.