Tuesday night, May 31, the 28th of Iyar on the Jewish calendar, we mark Yom Yerushalayim, “Jerusalem Day,” the day (on the Jewish calendar) when Jerusalem was reunited in 1967. Last year I wrote about some of the ambivalence I feel for this holiday. I wrote: On the one hand, ‘when I watch...
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This d’var Torah was written for and first published on the Rabbis for Human Rights web site. “And the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai” …Numbers 1:1 Open? Or closed? Gather more information? Or is your mind made up already? Heart of stone? Or heart of flesh? This week we begin...
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Last Thursday (May 19), US President Barack Obama gave a very pro-Israel speech (the full text of his speech is available online here). In his speech Obama: Acknowledged Israel’s proper concerns about terrorist attacks Said Palestinians had walked away from talks Said Palestinian efforts to delegitimize Israel or unilaterally declare a state would not...
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If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them…I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will remove evil beasts from the land, nor shall the sword go through your land. …Leviticus 26:3, 6 Are the blessings...
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Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruit; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the Lord; you shall not sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. …Leviticus 25:3-4 And you shall hallow...
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Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron) is a very different experience in Israel than in America. In America, Memorial Day is a time to remember soldiers who died thousands of miles away, defending “liberty” or “America’s strategic interests.” The photo at left is of a memorial I passed on my morning run today; it is dedicated to...
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