Category: Other

I know, I know. You’ve heard it all before. Most Jews can finish that sentence as soon as the first two words are spoken. Trust me, I would much rather be writing about something else. But here we are. Still.

The identity of the speaker is not…

I was robbed at knifepoint earlier this week in my own home in Kibbutz Hannaton in the pastoral Galilee – three houses away from Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Shikli, who was surrounded by armed security guards paid for with my tax…

The recurring fear of a distracted age

Each generation seems convinced it is living through an unprecedented crisis of distraction. Attention spans are shrinking, focus is dissolving, and the noise of modern life feels overwhelming. In recent…

Shabbat Table Talk for February 6-7, 2026 • 20 Shevat 5786 • Yithro (Exod 18-20).

This should be an easy question for your table:

Can you name the 10 Commandments?

Bonus: In correct order?

It’s interesting but no random accident…

Someone recently sent me a video entitled “Real Yidden.” It’s a sharp, almost satirical critique of what the creators see as a neo-Chassidic wave sweeping parts of Orthodoxy. The song pokes fun at a culture of religious performance:…

I recently attended a parlor meeting for a group that seeks to foster respectful discourse among people with different points of view.  And indeed, it was my first in-person conversation with someone who spoke with great passion about the…

(Note: This topic is so important, and fast-moving, that I decided to return to, and significantly update, it here — two and half years after I last addressed it: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/is-it-still-worth-going-to-college/)

Is it…

The present uproar over the Trump administration’s alleged attempt to “weaponize” denaturalization rests on historical illiteracy. Denaturalization is not a modern invention. It exists because the United States once granted citizenship…

There. I said it. I cry for animals, not for people. When a dog dies in a movie my throat tightens and my eyes burn. When humans die on screen I mostly feel numb. That is not because I am heartless. It is because I have watched humanity long…

I happen to be exceptionally lucky.

I have had essentially 23 years of excellent Jewish education from Gan Rina Nursery School through the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies.

I grew up in a home in which my curiosity was not only…