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 […]
By Rabbi Dara Frimmer July 8, 2022 – ט׳ תַּמּוּז תשפ״ב My phone lights up with a What’s App call. “Eh, this is Liora. I’m calling about Madeline. She got a small scrape on her face.” And so it begins. The call from camp. (A lovely day camp in Jerusalem.) The assurance that the wound […]
July 8, 2022 – ט׳ תַּמּוּז תשפ״ב What do you believe? What do you really believe? And what are the principles that drive you – the principles about which you could never compromise? Judaism doesn’t really have a creed. To be Jewish you are not required to recite and adhere to a specific statement of […]
Friday July 1, 2022 – ב׳ תַּמּוּז תשפ״ב A friend suggested to me that the true mark of genuine political leaders is if they could achieve all their goals, implement all their initiatives, and advance all their causes but on the condition that their names would not be attached to their bills passed or initiatives […]
Friday, June 24, 2022 – כ״ה סִיוָן תשפ״ב As the sun set on Friday night, close to two thousand people sat under the clear sky feeling the salty breeze from the Mediterranean Sea, sing together welcoming in Shabbat. People swayed, danced in the aisles, and children ran barefoot in the grass as the prayers, blessings, […]
Friday June 24, 2022 – כ״ד סִיוָן תשפ״ב It’s like Déjà vu all over again. That was the feeling as we watched the press conference of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announce the inevitable. After a year in power, this unlikely motley crew of leaders will move forward to dissolve the coalition and the […]
