Over the past week, we have seen anti-Israel college takeovers with protestors openly declaring their desire to kill Jews and to render Israel—from the river to the sea—Juden Rein. The brazen tactics and bullying have left many Jewish students and faculty members afraid to venture onto campus. As we approach …
Read the full story »Living is Giving
Living is giving is one of the themes of this week’s Torah portion. Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt because of his ability to interpret Pharoh’s dreams. He accurately predicted a seven-year period of plenty when all harvests would be bountiful. The Middle East would enter a phase of incalculable …
Chanukah: One Battle at A Time
The Maccabees won the war one battle at a time. The odds they took on were impossible, but they never thought about the future escalations. Their only concern was with the battle in front of them.
Their first military skirmish was against a minor garrison of soldiers. It was not difficult …
Antisemitism Rears Its Ugly Head
Antisemitism has reared its ugly head again. It is no surprise. Antisemitism never really went away. Our sages taught that antisemitism is an unchanging, intractable scourge. Esau will always hate Jacob.[1] The only question is how close to the surface it lies.
The story of Esau and Jacob appears in the …
Vayetze: A Time of Strength, Not Darkness
Jacob traveled from Beer Sheva to Haran. Beer Sheva, Hebrew for the well of the oath, was named after the oath of friendship taken by Abraham and the Philistine king, Abimelech. Haran was named after the Hebrew word haron, which means anger. The people of Haran, chief among them Laban, …
The Jewish Core Emerges
The Jewish core has emerged stronger than ever these past few weeks. The monstrous massacre, compounded by the public blaming Jews for it, was a murderous double stab to the collective Jewish heart. The fact that some of our decades-long friends and neighbors have turned on us so suddenly left …
I Love You
“Creator of the world. Please, I love you. I’m in love with you. Please don’t disappoint me. I love you.”
These loving, pleading words came from Margalit Megidish as she prayed for her daughter, Ori, whom Hamas took hostage. Ori Megidish is a soldier who served on a base near Gaza …
The Power of Unity
The power of unity is palpable across the holy land these days. It is an incredible shift from how things were less than a month ago. For many months, Jews were screaming at each other in support and in protest of the government’s planned judicial overhaul. The invectives hurled were …
On the Question of Human Shields
The question of human shields has been in the news a lot these past few weeks. As Israel responds to the heinous massacre of innocent civilians, men, women, and children, perpetrated by the sub-human Hamas terrorists, it is being accused of targeting innocent civilians.
Some of these accusers are the very …
Parsha Insights »
B’har: To Be Happy
Happy is the farmer who learns to trust in G-d. When Jewish farmers in Israel let their fields lie fallow on the Sabbatical year, they leave their fate to G-d. How do they feed their families if they don’t plant all year? G-d instructs us not to worry about that …
Yearly Cycle »
New Year Greeting 5766: Emotional Disengagement
As we enter the new year the catchword in the Jewish world is the word “disengagement.” Some are in favor, others opposed but everyone is talking about it. Should Jews voluntarily disengage from portions of the holy-land or are our ties to our country too deep to easily disengage? It is interesting …
Concepts »
Vayechi: The Crybaby Generation
The Natives
In our quest to put an end to bullying we introduced laws that ban abuse and enforce punishment for bullying behavior. But as is often the case, when we nip and tuck in one area, we cause unintended consequences in another. In this case I feel that we are …
Rabbi’s Desk »
What Can We Do?
These past two days have been the most difficult for our people in the last fifty years. It was Simchat Torah, a time for rejoicing, yet it was a time of horror. Nearly a thousand members of our family were brutally murdered, more than a hundred were taken hostage, and …
