VAYELECH
Moshe
TWO RALLIES
Last Saturday night two different gatherings took place in my Jerusalem neighborhood. One was a rally for "peace" sponsored by the Geneva initiative and led by Yossi Beilin. This group met outside of the house of Prime Minister, barely two blocks from my residence. The Prime Minister was not home since he was busy meeting with his Security Cabinet, planning a response to the barrage of Kassam...
NITZAVIM
There is a cynical but unfortunately accurate statement rife in the ranks of diplomats that treaties are made to be broken. We here in Israel have plenty of experience with that viewpoint and assessment of international life. However, in this week
SELICHOT POETRY
The Ashkenazic Jewish world begins its recitation of selichot - the penitential prayers of the season of the High Holy Days this coming Saturday night. Our Sephardic brethren have already been reciting their version of selichot for some weeks already, since the onset of the month of Elul. All of these prayers center about the continued recitation of the thirteen attributes of the Almighty as...
KI TAVO
This week's parsha deals with the frighteningly accurate prediction of the awful fate of the Jewish people over its long exile. The tochacha chillingly forecasts the horrors of the Holocaust and of all of the previous destructions, persecutions, pogroms and disasters that have befallen the Jews over the long centuries of dispersion. The Torah itself in a forthcoming parsha asks the obvious...
ABANDONED EMPTY SYNAGOGUES
The current discussion and division of judicial and governmental opinion regarding the abandoned synagogues of Gush Katif is a painful reminder of the fate of other synagogue buildings the world over. It should be obvious to all, that for synagogue buildings to serve their intended purpose, there must be living Jews present in them to use the facility. Otherwise the synagogue building remains...
KI TEITZEH
The Torah discusses the problems of war in this week
NATURAL DISASTERS
I was in the United States when the disaster of Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and its southeast Gulf Coast. It seems that natural disasters are regular events in the lives of millions of human beings. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and hurricanes are all regular visitors, if not permanent residents on our planet. The overwhelming forces of nature make mockery of humankind's...
SHOFTIM
A lawless society is the worst of all curses. The rabbis in Avot cautioned us to pray for the welfare of government for without the presence of its restraints and police powers,
OPPORTUNITIES
The distressing events of the past two weeks here in Israel have left us all in a state of sadness and depression. No matter what one's opinion is regarding the government's policies, the events and pictures of the evictions from Gaza are burned into our minds in a tragic manner. Yet, in a perverse and perplexing sense, I believe these events present the religious community here in Israel, if not...
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