There is a practice during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to ask forgiveness. While getting ourselves spiritually ready for the new year and facing Hashem’s decrees for the year on Yom Kippur, we are also supposed to set things right with the people in our lives. It’s a beautiful idea, but… Read More Forgive Me, Dear Children
Recently, my oldest son finished his army service. I remember the piece that I wrote over seven years ago, the day that we got his Tzav Rishon, his first call to the army. I wrote, at that time, about the Zionist dream and the Zionist obligation; how we made aliyah to be part of the story… Read More From Soldier to Civilian
100 days. If you asked most Israelis how long we’ve been at war, they might say that it feels like a lifetime. Or they might say that it’s been one day, since we are all stuck forever on October 7, 2023. Or they might say the technical amount of days that it’s actually been –… Read More 100 Days
Another guest post from Josh Sussman: Checking back in with another update from a week of war; granted this week was not quite as dramatic as last week, but the sense is that this is the (relative) calm before the storm. Last Shabbat was calm and quiet. We reverted back to our small Corona minyan… Read More Simchat Torah War – Two Weeks In
The last time I saw him was at Har Herzl. We were there, at the military cemetery in Jerusalem, to pay our final respects to a member of an elite fighting unit who had fallen the day before. Shilo was there to pay his respects as well. It was July 2023, and we ran into… Read More Extinguished Light
On Fridays I usually don’t look at my phone much. So, when my soldier called about an hour before Shabbat, I was thrilled to talk to him about mundane things. He was staying on base for Shabbat, as planned the week before, and I had a normal conversation with him, asking about his week. Towards… Read More War, Again
These are my sons and my daughters. I look at the lot of them sitting around with their feet up and their heads tipped back. Some are smoking outside. Others are checking social media, checking out the news, checking in with Mom. I think about these kids. They could be in a dorm room hanging… Read More With Their Country On Their Backs
