Category: Other

He was a leader of rebels. They lived in the mountains and they sought their independence. They would come down and fight against the Russian forces, and run back to the mountains to seek refuge.

One day, the Russians told Shamil that they…

I don’t remember her name. But I remember her Christmas tree.

She and I were both about ten, in the same class, and I happened to visit the day her family put up their tree. It was tall and green, lit with colorful lights and gleaming with…

In a world where Israel is so often misrepresented, reduced to headlines of conflict and accusation, there exists a profound, living truth that rarely receives the attention it deserves. It beats quietly, steadily, and compassionately inside…

When the famine that Yosef predicted came true, the Torah shifts its attention from Egypt, and turns to Canaan. Yakov and his family had to deal with this as well.
Initially, our commentators tell us that Yakov still had food, while others…

The term MENA—Middle East and North Africa—has become so ubiquitous in policy documents, investment presentations, and academic analysis that it now functions less as an analytical category than as a reflex. It is invoked to explain…

We have reached the end of Chanukah, kindled the last flame, said the last blessings for this year.  We’ve washed the wax from the menorah and put it away, perhaps wondering what the world will look like when we next light those…

Why Do the Wicked Prosper While the Righteous Suffer

The Psalms are the most powerful prayers ever created in the history of humanity. There are no prayers stronger than the Psalms—none exist. They were spoken and written more than two and…

In the two years since October 7th, something has been happening quietly and steadily, and everywhere I go I hear versions of the same story.

I hear it from secular Jews who never once lit Shabbat candles. From parents who never imagined…

I did not set out to raise my children as experts in danger. I wanted to teach them the ordinary things: how to tell the truth when it costs; how to be kind without being naïve; how to laugh at themselves; how to walk into the world with…