Timing is everything. This is true in financial matters, personal choices, national decisions, as well as in historical events. Nevertheless, we are able to see that the present is not necessarily the past and that options and opinions that are currently relevant and popular once held no sway. Our ancestors the Hasmoneans engaged in the same type of struggles, physical as well as spiritual, that... READ MORE →
The Torah completed its annual cycle of weekly readings this past week with the parsha of V’Zot Habracha. It begins our new yearly reading of the Torah this Shabat with the reading of parshat Bereshith. Rashi points out to us that when Moshe came to bless the tribes of Israel before departing this world he purposely connected his blessings to the past blessings of Yaakov to his children... READ MORE →
הסרט "שמים מבשרי רע 1930-1939" שהופק על ידי קרן דסטני כחלק מסדרת ה"גורל ואמונה" המספרת את סיפורו של העם היהודי במאה ה-20, מוצג כעת בכמה מקומות בעולם. נכחתי ונאמתי בכמה מן המקומות האלה, וגיליתי שיהודים מודאגים מאוד שואלים אותי... READ MORE →
Summer here in Israel is the time for Saturday night demonstrations. Most of the time the demonstrations are gatherings looking for a cause rather than a cause inspiring demonstrations. It is just the thing to do on the warm Saturday nights in Tel Aviv. For many years the demonstrations concentrated on the peace process with the Palestinians. However it has become clear to the vast... READ MORE →
This month of June commemorates the forty-fifth anniversary of the Six Day War, an event that changed Israeli and Jewish in myriad ways. Those of us who lived through those fateful and fearsome days, we recall the foreboding and mental and emotional depression that gripped the Jewish world for the three weeks leading up to the war itself. The Arabs proclaimed that they would end the State... READ MORE →
