The latest round of fighting between Palestinians and Israel continues what has been a Hundred Years’ War and will in my opinion continue possibly for another hundred. The reason I say this is a conference I attended in Chatham House in London, twenty years ago. It included the UK Foreign Office, Anglo Jews, Anglo Palestinians, and representatives of both Fatah…
Shavuot, Torah, and Humanity
As rockets continue to rain down on our families in Israel, and a civil war rages with mobs of hooligans attacking peaceful citizens and neighbors, I pray for three things. That Israel will be strong, and regardless of world opinion, able to protect its citizens, its freedoms, way of life, and its State. That God will protect our soldiers entering…
Armenian Genocide
April 24th is the date of the annual memorial that Armenians observe to recall the horrific massacres carried out by the Turkish Government in 1915. It was part of their policy of ethnic cleansing to remove both Greeks and Armenians because they were regarded as a threat to Ottoman dominance. The Armenian genocide might not have had Gas Chambers and Extermination Camps,…
Meron
Today we celebrate Lag BaOmer, which is the thirty-third day of the Omer that I described two weeks ago. In Israel, thousands make the pilgrimage to the town of Meron in the Galil on Lag Ba’Omer every year to celebrate the anniversary of the death of Shimon Bar Yochai. They couldn’t last year because of Covid. But they will make up for it…
What’s Wrong With Us?
Israel’s 73rd Independence Day was an annual reminder of as close to a miracle as it gets. If for no other reason than it actually happened. So many Jews tried very hard to prevent it. It is all the more amazing if we consider that here we are, many years later, with Israeli society so fragmented and its politicians unable to…
What is an Omer?
No, not the town in the Negev! The Biblical Omer refers to the sheaf of barley that was brought to the Temple, the day after Pesach, to mark the beginning of the new agricultural year. The first crop was the start of the harvest season. The Torah commands counting seven weeks, forty-nine days, from the day after Pesah until the wheat and first fruit…