Friday August 5, 2022 – ח׳ אָב תשפ״ב (וְיֵשׁ־תִּקְוָ֥ה לְאַחֲרִיתֵ֖ךְ נְאֻם־יְהֹוָ֑ה וְשָׁ֥בוּ בָנִ֖ים לִגְבוּלָֽם׃ (ירמיהו לא:טז “And there is hope for your future —declares Adonai: Your children shall return to their country.” (Jeremiah 31:16) We Jews have a long memory. In the early 19th century, the French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte looked in on a synagogue […]

By Rabbi Haim Shalom Tisha B’Av is upon us once again. A day of mourning, of solemn commemoration. But should it be? Is it still healthy 2000 years later to be mourning a tragedy so long past? Given that this is one of four fast days in the Jewish calendar, which mark some kind of […]

July 29, 2022 – א׳ אָב תשפ״ב I can still remember the phone call late at night on July 31, 2002. There had been a bombing at the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University campus. A worker-turned-Hamas-terrorist had snuck in a suitcase packed with explosives, set it down on a chair during the lunchtime […]

July 22, 2022 – כ״ג תַּמּוּז תשפ״ב וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה קַ֚ח אֶת־כׇּל־רָאשֵׁ֣י הָעָ֔ם וְהוֹקַ֥ע אוֹתָ֛ם לַיהֹוָ֖ה נֶ֣גֶד הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ וְיָשֹׁ֛ב חֲר֥וֹן אַף־יְהֹוָ֖ה מִיִּשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (במדבר כה:ד) “יהוה said to Moses, ‘Take all the ringleaders and have them publicly impaled before יהוה, so that יהוה’s wrath may turn away from Israel.’ ”  (Numbers 25:4) The unique characteristic of […]

July 15, 2022 – ט״ז תַּמּוּז תשפ״ב “But do you love me?” asks Tevye of his wife Golde in the famous scene from “Fiddler on the Roof.” “What do you mean???” she retorts and lists all they did for each other for over 25 years. Of course, they love each other. All those things they […]