History is cruel to antisemites: for three thousand years, they have failed to destroy those they hate. Every attempt has always ended up producing the opposite effect, as the three-millennia-long history of Israel demonstrates. The pharaohs, who…
Category: Other
-
Antisemites: Israel’s Benefactors?
-
Understanding Jewish and Palestinian Equality in Israel — Part XI
Building Shared Society — The Civic Infrastructure of Peace Series Preface Understanding Jewish and Palestinian Equality in Israel explores how law, belonging, dignity, and justice shape life between the river and the sea. Written from my…
Continue Reading
-
The Media Are Not the Massage: Reducing Israel’s Post-Oct. 7 PTSD Problem
As I wrote here last week (https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/oct-7-forever-an-epigenetic-disaster/), the post-war PTSD problem involves soldiers and also civilians – and not only for the current generation but for at least the next two…
Continue Reading
-
Thankful memories: Turkey Days spent with my mother
Mom, who was raised in Buffalo in a family of Orthodox emigrants from Eastern Europe but strayed from strict observance when she left home, and became more traditional as she aged, religiously commemorated Thanksgiving. Her parents, unfamiliar…
Continue Reading
-
Living in a rough hood
Let’s assume that most of us – on any side of the border – mostly want to live in peace and security. Let’s assume many of us, understanding that we live in a rough neighborhood, whether we’re Jews in New York or Palestinians in the…
Continue Reading
-
Israel Won’t Wait to Be Destroyed
When the World Hesitates, Israel Does Not For decades, Israel has lived at the intersection of two conflicting global realities: a world that debates, delays, and dithers and a nation that does not have that luxury. When threats rise, Israel does…
Continue Reading
-
A Story of Two Inner Paths
Parashah Toldot – A Story of Two Inner Paths Connection with the previous parashah (Chayei Sarah) Chayei Sarah closed with Avraham’s house ordered: Sarah buried in Machpelah, the land anchored through a conscious kinyan, Rivkah entering her…
Continue Reading
-
The Spiritual Forces behind Giving Advice
Giving advice to friends feels simple. Someone shares a problem, we want to help. But the moment we step into the role of guide or advisor, we are pulled into a quiet struggle between giving, restraint, and discernment. Most of the damage we…
Continue Reading
-
Abraham Stands. Joseph Keeps Standing
I love the story of Joseph because it teaches great truth that applies to daily life. If Abraham is the moment someone stands, Joseph is what it looks like to keep standing when the ground keeps shifting. Before Pharaoh ever dreams anything,…
Continue Reading
-
Jacob’s Wells, And The “Philistines” Who Try To Plug Them
One of Isaac’s primary occupations, we learn in parshas Toldos, was excavation. He dug wells. The parsha tells us of several of the wells – Esek, Sitnah, Rechovos – that Isaac and his servants dug and then redug. On the simple level, Isaac was…
Continue Reading