About the Author


Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair

In 1972, Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair opened SARM Studios the first 24-track recording studio in Europe where Queen mixed “Bohemian Rhapsody”. His music publishing company, Druidcrest Music published the music for The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1973) and as a record producer, he co-produced the quadruple-platinum debut album by American band “Foreigner” (1976). American Top ten singles from this album included, “Feels Like The First Time”, “Cold as Ice” and “Long, Long Way from Home”. Other production work included “The Enid – In the Region of the Summer Stars”, “The Curves”, and “Nutz” as well as singles based on The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy with Douglas Adams and Richard O’Brien. Other artists who used SARM included: ABC, Alison Moyet, Art of Noise, Brian May, The Buggles, The Clash, Dina Carroll, Dollar, Flintlock, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, It Bites, Malcolm McLaren, Nik Kershaw, Propaganda, Rush, Rik Mayall, Stephen Duffy, and Yes.
In 1987, he settled in Jerusalem to immerse himself in the study of Torah. His two Torah books The Color of Heaven, on the weekly Torah portion, and Seasons of the Moon met with great critical acclaim. Seasons of the Moon, a unique fine-art black-and-white photography book combining poetry and Torah essays, has now sold out and is much sought as a collector’s item fetching up to $250 for a mint copy.
He is much in demand as an inspirational speaker both in Israel, Great Britain and the United States. He was Plenary Keynote Speaker at the Agudas Yisrael Convention, and Keynote Speaker at Project Inspire in 2018. Rabbi Sinclair lectures in Talmud and Jewish Philosophy at Ohr Somayach/Tannenbaum College of Judaic studies in Jerusalem and is a senior staff writer of the Torah internet publications Ohrnet and Torah Weekly. His articles have been published in The Jewish Observer, American Jewish Spirit, AJOP Newsletter, Zurich’s Die Jüdische Zeitung, South African Jewish Report and many others.
Rabbi Sinclair was born in London, and lives with his family in Jerusalem. He was educated at St. Anthony’s Preparatory School in Hampstead, Clifton College, and Bristol University.


 

A Divine Symphony

Parashat Ha’Azinu is not merely a poem; it is a shirah — a Divine song. The combination of words and music gives song the power to express simultaneously joy and sorrow, exile and redemption, judgment and compassion. That is why Moshe, on the last day of his life, chooses a song to seal the Torah’s message for eternity.

 

Elul Inspiration!

A story for Elul by Rabbi Yisroel Meir Shushan

 

The Song Remains The Same

 

Shavuot - Hearing Is Believing

The 'Shema' is the basic credo of the Jewish People - that God is One. But why do we say, "Hear O Israel!" rather than "See O Israel!" or "Know O Israel!?'

 

Hijacked!

Look around you! Everything is Hashem’s word. There is nothing else. Every challenge is being sent to you by Hashem. We are Jews. We don’t believe in Dualism. We don’t believe in two powers. We don’t believe that the Yetzer Hara is a loose gun. Nothing has any independent power.

 

Connecting To Beyond - Counting The Omer

What is the connection between the human brain and the Counting of the Omer?

 

Pesach with Maxwell House

In 1932, Maxwell House put out a Pesach Haggadah as a marketing promotion. It’s been continuously in print since then. They’ve printed over 50 million copies. Pesach is the most observed of all the Jewish festivals. Even whenJews become secular, and all the other festivals fall by the way, Pesach still hangs in there. Why is that? What is it about Pesach that is so deeply rooted in the Jewish psyche?

 

Giving Leads To Love

We are in the middle of a period of spiritual uplift in the Jewish calendar . A journey from the beginning of Adar to Pesach. This is how it unfolds...

 

The Last Word

Although AI is still very much in its infancy, it’s clear that the basic skills of drawing and painting, of music, and much more, are becoming redundant. Why spend 5 years in art school when you can create a Turner or a Dutch Master with a few computer commands?

 

Digital Torah 1.0

The Torah is a ‘digital communication.’ It never loses its original pristine holiness, however much it is surrounded by the background noise and static of this physical world.

 

Fast On Friday?! - The Tenth of Tevet

Why is the Fast of the Tenth of Tevet the only fast in the Jewish calendar that can occur on Friday, Erev Shabbat?

 

Hope And Optimism

Yaakov says in Parshat Vayetze, “If God…will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear…” Ostensibly, there is no other reason to have bread than to eat it; no other reason to have clothes that to wear them, so why did Yaakov spell out ‘bread to eat’ and ‘clothes to wear?

 

How Long Will the Arabs Rule the World?

If you told someone living a couple of hundred years ago that the Arabs would be a force to threaten Western civilization, they’d have laughed. The thought that a bunch of nomads floating around the desert, like some lost extras from Lawrence Of Arabia, could rule the world, would have seemed preposterous. But יוֹשֵׁ֣ב בַּשָּׁמַ֣יִם יִשְׂחָ֑ק, “He who dwells in the Heavens will laugh.” (Tehillim 2:4)

 

Living On The Crest Of The Wave

There are many times in our life when we know that things will not be as good as they are right now, and nevertheless we should always focus on that wonderful moment that is the present and not become downcast by the thought that it may not, and will not, last forever. Judaism says that we shouldn’t live FOR the moment, but we certainly should live IN the moment.

 

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!

Yom Kippur is the day that we see who we really are.

 

The Jews Run The World!

The antisemites of this world are right – the Jews do run the world – but not in the way they think...

 

Free Love: A Tisha B'Av Rectification

Every person is priceless. A smile says, ‘You matter.’ A hello says, ‘I noticed you – I didn’t cancel you.” A nod says, ‘You are in my world - I didn’t remove you from my radar. I respect you because you have a neshama – even when you make choices I wouldn’t make; even when you’re wrong.'

 

Beyond Your Greatest Dreams

We have lived so long in darkness and in captivity that our horizons have shrunk, our aspirations dwindled. We have no idea what it will be like when the Moshiach comes, but when he arrives, it will be beyond our greatest dreams.

 

The Last Carriage Of History

Even when the night is closing in and we feel very much alone, we should know that Hashem is there with us every mile of the journey, and that we have nothing to fear.

 

The Mysterious Shabbat

What do we commemorate on Shabbat HaGadol and why don’t we celebrate it on its calendar date?

 

The Eternal Sign

Every mitzvah that the Jews accepted upon themselves with joy, such as circumcision, endures.

 

Strange Fire

Rabbi Yosef Dov Soleveitchik once said that if" G-d had not given us explicit permission to pray to Him, it would be forbidden. Why?

 

First Child at 88 Years Old

Rabbi Tzvi Kushalevsky celebrated the birth of his first child, a boy, at age 88. 

 

Clothes That Reveal (Purim)

You can see who someone really wants to be by the way they dress up on Purim.

 

Rights And Obligations

The Torah isn't about rights. It’s about obligations.

 

In Praise Of Judge Julia Sebutinde

In her lone dissenting view, this judge argued the absence of a credible indication of genocidal intent by Israel. 

 

Turn Saturday Into Shabbat!

The English word for Shabbat is Saturday — so named because the planet whose astrological influence is felt most strongly on that day is Saturn – Saturn’s day. But Saturn is really the opposite of Shabbat. 

 

The Worm That Turned

Some of God's signs become clear to us only when we've attained the spiritual level required to understand them.

 

Turn It Up To ELEVEN!

Why is this world  bounded by the number Ten?

 

Imposter Syndrome

Do you feel deep down like a fraud? 

 

Automatic Approval

If an inanimate object recognizing us can bring a smile to our face, imagine what a human can do?

 

Our Brothers - The Entire House of Israel

How to help alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

 

Why The World REALLY Hates Israel!!!

Even if you've heard many reasons for antisemitism, this is one that you never dreamed of. The Jews are the filthy rich, the filthy poor; dangerous left wing revolutionaries and capitalist blood suckers; cowardly draft dodgers and a merciless war machine. Why is antisemitism infinitely malleable and protean? This is an answer you haven't heard before.

 

The Jewish People Are One

The Jewish People are the reflection of God's Unity in this world. Just as He is One, so we must be one.

 

Solid As A Wall

"The Ten Commandments" were not given as the "Ten Suggestions" rather the bedrock on which to anchor our world view.

 

No Missing Stone

Organized religion sounds boring and conformist, but maybe there's more to it that meets the eye.

 

A Tisha B'Av Message

Giving someone 'the benefit of the doubt' does more than change your mind about them, it changes" the way they see themselves.

 

Like The Stars

Why are the Jews compared to the stars?

 

The Master Of All Pizzerias

My son's kosher lemehadrin Pizzeria "La Piedra" was just rated one of the 50 best in Asia and the Pacific. The only one ever to have made it onto this list from Israel. Here's how I congratulated him.

 

Making A Wedding On The Night After The Passing Of A Gadol

No-one wants to make a wedding on the night after the gadol hador (the greatest rabbi of the generation) passes away. But that’s exactly what happened to us. On the day of our daughter’s marriage in Jerusalem, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the gadol hador, left this world in B’nei Brak.

 

Me And My Shadow

A nazir was a man or a woman who adopted voluntary restrictions to elevate themselves. The nazirut was a kind of therapy to remove excesses, indulgence and self-centeredness. If this procedure was successful, the nazir was able to see himself exactly the way someone else would see him, without any of the ego’s self-serving bribery.

 

Becoming The Desert

No one will ever again be as humble as Moshe. But theoretically, if someone could make himself as humble as Moshe, he would be able to receive the Torah in its entirety, just like Moshe.

 

Changing To Stay The Same

A Jew is not allowed to dress like a non-Jew. But what is Jewish attire?

 

Sticks And Stones

The old children's rhyme isn't true. Words can destroy just as effectively as sticks and stones.

 

Pesach - The Sentinel

Every Pesach, we see ourselves as though we are leaving Egypt once again. How can we relate to this idea in the modern world in which we live?

 

Cover Up

What was special about the korban olah - the elevation or burnt offering - that it required special care and alacrity?

 

What A Wonderful World

Show someone how beautiful the world is and you will lift their eyes to G-d.

 

Bringing Out The Best In Others

Criticism is the worst way to get people to improve. Here's a guaranteed recipe for success.

 

The Aleph Beit Of Creation

God created the Universe with the letters of the Aleph Beit. The Mishkan, the Tent of Meeting was a microcosm of the Universe and thus if you had eyes to see all it contained were infinite permutations of the Hebrew alphabet.

 

Throw Away Your Mask! It's PURIM!

The Purim tradition is to wear masks. But it was Esther's decision to 'un-mask' herself that saved the Jewish People.

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