Rockets’ red glare, bombs bursting in air: Passover 2024
As we approach the seder, the night of many questions, I am struck by the one question that has haunted the last six months. It has choked us for air, narrowed the passage of the esophagus, magnified...
View ArticleLast Seder in Trochenbrod
Eighty-two years ago, in the spring of 1942, the Jews of Trochenbrod celebrated their last seder. I use the word “celebrated” carefully because they chose to celebrate it as if it were their last. For...
View ArticleCelebrating Freedom while we’re under Fire?!
A Spiritual Approach to Our Sorrows Pesach this year was a night different from all other nights. Instead of the academic, historical context in which the Haggadah discusses how “in every generation,...
View ArticleJudaism’s unique proposition
Always particularly inspired by the Torah readings at this time of the year, it reminds me that Judaism has a very distinct view of the world, a very distinct view about what being Jewish means, and...
View ArticleEarthquakes Destroyed Masjid al-Aqsa on the Temple Mount
Unless you are part of the bizarre new wave of historical denialism that has tragically swept so much of the Muslim world (which fantasizes that there was never a historical Kingdom of Israel and...
View ArticleThe Temple Stomping Grounds
In the Haftarah customarily read the Shabbat before Tisha B’Av, the prophet Isaiah expresses Hashem’s dissatisfaction with the Jews’ sinful ways and how He is no longer interested in their ritual...
View ArticleWhat kind of world would we want to see?
Many of these thoughts were written before 7 October 2023. I’m not sure I would change anything. They’re even more relevant now. The Shabbat before Tisha B’Av is called Shabbat Chazon — Vision/ to...
View Article‘After This, Nothing Happened’
How Rabbi Yohanan Ben Zakkai and Chief Plenty Coups Make Tisha B’Av Meaningful – guest post by Tirza Leibowitz In 1932, the Native American chief of the Crow nation died. Late in his life, after his...
View ArticleBen-Gvir and Temple Mount Tensions
The recent visit of Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av has reignited a long-standing debate over the site’s status and the broader implications of Jewish prayer...
View ArticleWho May Ascend the Mountain?
As you gaze over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, it’s easy to feel shivers run through your body. There’s something mystical and holy about this place, something majestic, and yet, something extremely...
View ArticleThe Temple Mount – Halacha and Fearmongering
There are two types of halachic rulings (rulings by rabbis about what is, or is not permissible according to Jewish law): those based only on the sources and those which are policy statements in spite...
View ArticleCry, the once-beloved country
We always knew that no matter how we voted, Israel would bring her captives home. That was before this coalition of lunacy came to power
View ArticleWhat is the problem with the Ashera tree?
The Book of Dvarim emphasizes that B’nai Yisrael are supposed to uproot and destroy idol worship from the Land of Israel. In Parshat Shoftim, Dvarim 16:21, we read: Do not plant an Ashera (idolatrous...
View ArticleGod’s 99 names and YHVH for Jews and Allah for Muslims
The Hebrew Prophet Malachi (2:5 New International translation) states: “My covenant was with him (each Messenger Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David), a covenant of life and peace, and I gave them (the...
View ArticleTawhid Monotheism Is a Miracle
Allah has the power to send down miracles, signs, and wonders, but He did not choose to do so for Prophet Muhammad, and thus almost all the Arabs in Makka wondered: “Why has no sign been sent down upon...
View ArticleUmrah may someday include Jewish Jerusalem
Umrah can be performed at any time of the year, except the five days when Hajj takes place. Most Umrah pilgrims go during the holy month of Ramadan, or in the two Islamic lunar months of Rajab and...
View ArticleQur’an/Torah on Gog/Magog and Global Warming
The Qur’an states: “You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of behavior) for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day and who engages much in praise of Allah. (33:21) So...
View ArticleProphet Muhammad and Reform Judaism
Ibn Ishaq, the earliest biographer of Prophet Muhammad, relates an amazing story about Rabbi Mukhayriq, a wealthy and learned leader of the tribe of Tha’labah, a Jewish tribe allied with one of the...
View ArticleWater! Water!
Anyone who has ever done Israeli folk dancing or simcha dancing at a wedding or a bar or bat mitzvah is familiar with the Mayim Mayim (Water Water) circle dance. The words from the song come from...
View ArticleThe Racist Reason Why Translators Hide the Quran’s Warnings to Arabs
What the Muslim holy book describes as “Islam,” is quite simply, a verbal activity. Along with the higher grade of “faith” (iman), this verb is described as a general action engaged in by existing...
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