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The Times of Israel (Blogs)![]() |
It is easy to overlook the good people who exist in a world where abusers and con artists, gangs and cartels, terrorists and war lords, despots and...
First, what is history? History is the evolution of desires. It starts from the smallest and simplest desires, which every individual has—for...
Year 1967: On May 18, 1967, the United Arab Republic (then a union of Egypt and Syria) requested the United Nations to withdraw the UN forces from...
Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the ethical and legal concept of a מִצְוָה לְקַיֵּים דִּבְרֵי הַמֵּת It is a mitzvah...
The punitive system of the Torah is set up where a punishment only comes for the violation of one of the 365 commandments. There is no punishment...
I always love visiting my family. Having lived in Israel for 16 years, there’s so much to look forward to with a trip to the states. So when the...
In this episode Rabbi Yose comes to our hero in a dream. The Eternal Jew’s Tale Fifteenth Era, Part 2, ~1272 C.E., Herat Three nights sleepin’ in...
Dr. Lisa Kemmerer has made it her mission to help people to recognize that core religious teachings in every faith require that we rethink our diet...
In the previous week, after the last protest to save democracy in Israel (21), I heard in the media voices that said that perhaps it was ok to relax...
Do the names Erich Weisz, Natalie Herschlag, Bernice Frankel, and Chaim Witz ring a bell? You’ve read about them with great interest, but under...
Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse Miri* reached out to us regarding a drug addiction that had developed after years of avoiding the trauma resulting...
When Ariel Sharon — and later Benjamin Netanyahu — evacuated Homesh, it reflected a realization of the need to separate from the Palestinians in...
Parshat Naso begins with the commandment to take a census of the sons of Gershon, one of the families responsible for the service in the Mishkan....
Cautiously addressing a span of almost thirty-four centuries, I am fully aware of the analytic hiatus involved in trying to bridge between...
In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On Elections of the President of Ukraine” the next elections of the...
It is a rite of passage for some senior Israeli high school students. In brief trips to Poland designed to heighten their awareness of the...
Hebrew is full of onomatopoeias. Funny, expressive words that sound the same as the thing they describe or the sound associated with that thing....
Responding to last week’s murder of Meir Tamari, a young husband and father of two, in a terror shooting attack [“Victim of West Bank shooting...
When my daughter and I arrived in Israel in March this year, tens of thousands of protesters against Judicial reform were taking to the streets. At...
As in Hindi, ‘Har Ek Dost Zaruri Hota Hai‘ (each and every friend is important), in the same way, each and every mangrove plant is very...
After facing the toughest challenge of his political career to date, Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got re-elected to a third term....
Giuseppe Piccioni’s appealing Italian-language movie, The Shadow of the Day, unfolds in a small town in late-1930s fascist Italy against the...
There is an expression in Judaism, סוף הכבוד לבוא, that the honor will come in the end. We are meant to shy away from seeking honor, and...
Parashat Naso June 3, 2023 This week’s parasha contains the priestly blessing that we say twice a day when the hazzan recites the repetition of...
Protests in Israel against the government’s anti-democratic judicial overhaul have found an echo throughout the world. While demonstrators mass on...
As every student of anatomy knows, humans (and many animals) have two pipes in their neck that serve two different functions: The “windpipe”...
Watch the words. For honest people, they have meaning. But as soon as words are discovered to hide the opposite of what they claim, they will be...
The Russian aggression against Ukraine shows that we have not learned the lessons of history and are paying a high price for it. Future generations...
When we bless another human being, what are we doing? Are we simply wishing them well and hoping for the best? Do we have special powers? One of...
On August 17, 1987 Rudolf Hess, a convicted Nazi War Criminal, the sole inmate of Berlin’s Spandau Prison, was found dead. He had hanged himself....
The American people reach a consensus. Right and Left, worldwide, make peace. Wars stop. Rogue regimes fold. Economies stabilize. Climates calm....
I went on a bunch of really great day tours during my trip to Israel. And I wanted to share them with you because I felt like they could really...
I think it’s safe to say that everyone knows — or has at least heard of — the iconic song, “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2″(yes, that’s...
Cities in the second half of the 19th century ran on horsepower. Horses carried crops to market, brought raw materials for manufacturing, pulled...
I am an Israeli, living in New York for 25 years, and this year is the first time I plan to march in the Israel Day Parade. The parade will take...
Miriam is cursed with leprosy. In my second blog written a year ago, I wrote how I have been writing about Miriam for as long as I can remember. I...
Being tolerant or even loving or even an activist ally is not enough The death of a child, sibling, or dear friend is hard enough. And then,...
On the facade of the Zubov Palace in Šiauliai, Lithuania, there is a commemorative plaque which reads: “In 1941 during the days of the june...
For someone who knows how to speak very well to citizenry and media alike, it is disconcerting that PM Netanyahu almost never conducts a press...
In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers) there is a passage that reads: “Ben Zoma said: Who is strong? He who conquers his evil inclination, as it...
Recently, famed musician and former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters caused controversy by performing in Berlin while dressed in a costume...
The mail-order bride business in Israel is entertainingly portrayed by Michal Vinik in Valeria Is Getting Married, which will be screened at the...
Humbly Eternal (Behaalotcha) Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time....
In Parshas Naso, God delivers to Aaron the “Bircas Kohanim,” the Priestly Blessing through which he and his descendants would bless the nation...
People often talk of Occupation in black and white: Israel must “end the Occupation” tomorrow. It’s often unclear what that means logistically:...
Re: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” I devoured it. All five seasons. And then, just like that—specifically, for me, on evening of Wednesday, May...
When a friend of mine asked me for a few remarks at a gathering at the Italian senate on Sun Tzu’s Art of War, I was surprised. But I went back...
More than three years after burying the war hatchet, erstwhile Gulf rivals are moving in separate ways as they maneuver big power competition....
There is a conundrum whose origin is in the drama if not horror of the tenth plague meted out to the Egyptians, which we are reminded of again in...
Conceived from their outset as isolated single-use enclaves bearing little or no relation to their immediate physical and natural urban context,...
It is not unusual to find out that others are planning to join a tour to Dubai. Many of my friends have been there already, having prioritized it as...
Last Thursday, Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink announced that it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to...
“Why do we keep doing things that aren’t good for us?” Sandy recently asked over coffee. We were talking about self-inflicted harm. You know,...
I’m writing this article as I fly to the States. This presents me with a bit of a dilemma. When I left Ben Gurion Airport, the weekly Torah...
On May 23rd, The Final of the 9th “OHTC Cup” Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for Overseas Chinese in Israel was held in Tel...
This is my 21st consecutive blog post connecting the parasha to Israel’s pro-democracy protests. This week, in Be’ha’alotekha, the Israelites...
Martin Luther King’s great speeches had three sources. The Bible, and the Declaration of Independence, two great pillars of the third one, the...
Abdallah is bouncing on the balls of his feet making chicken soup. He ladels the golden broth into a cheerful blue and white bowl and plunks it...
‘Tis the season of the commencement speech. The season when politicians and celebrities big and small wax poetically about the future and its...
On Aug. 14, 15, 1947, Britain partitioned its colony of India into two independent states, India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan accepted the...
Dizengoff Street, located in Tel Aviv, is known for its incredible restaurants and fun environment. However, within the last year, numerous...
A week after the world shut down, our lives really changed. For months, I knew something was different about my newborn baby. At 2 months, I told...
Olivier Vandecasteele, the Belgian aid worker held for 455 days in Iran, has finally been released, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo...
My daughter Zoe was only 6 years old when her father’s terminal illness was discovered. She didn’t think there was anyone in the world who...
When I open the first section of the New York Times daily — yes, I still read the print edition — I’m often bombarded by awful news. Russia’s...
The holy Baal Shem Tov was teaching his students the concept of Divine Providence, explaining that everything, down to the smallest particle, is...
When a great man passes away, it should be a time for reflection. The passing of Rav Gershon Edelstein, of blessed memory, is one such...
Many college campuses in the United States and elsewhere have become hotbeds for anti-Semitism. The trend has been on the increase, and if history...
I recently heard a talk by a rabbi from an American yeshiva in Israel. The talk was given in a mainstream Orthodox community in the United States....
When we came on aliyah, my wife and I filled out forms and answered questions: Where will you live? Which kupat cholim will you join? And so on. ...
Nearly five years after murdering eleven Jewish congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in the deadliest antisemitic attack in...
Authentic Freedom Gittin 13 Authentic freedom is a complex concept that has been debated by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Authentic...
People who rail against critical race theory make me wonder about their stance on the Torah. Scripture is so filled with damaging images of the...
Of all the things that I imagined ever doing, overseeing a major New York City parade was never one of them. But this Sunday I will be doing just...
Stress can be debilitating. Let’s admit that. The intense political tension around the Israeli government’s proposed judicial overhaul has not...
I have often written here and elsewhere about music, musical events and my relationship with music. A recent trip to Italy, where I was unable to...
The Midrash analyses all of Jewish leadership by way of the elevated status of the Levites who worked in the Mishkan. What emerges is that in the...
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Israel, famously declared, “that which unites us is far greater than that which...
Misrad Hapnim is the Israeli Interior Ministry responsible for immigration, population registration, and other civil affairs. If you are planning...
President Biden should take off his blinders and see the most virulent antisemites in the world. These genocidal Jew haters are the PLO/Hamas who...
How did a Young Judaean develop an environmental powerhouse in the Middle East? The Arava Institute is a unique academic and research center for...
Tel Aviv is the city of Pride. Its Gay Pride parade is the biggest, most colorful celebration of diversity, inclusivity and freedom, rivaling San...
I’ve never once considered myself a spiritual woman. If anything, I’m a logistics maven specializing in wealth and succession planning and...
This coming Sunday, I will march with my school at the Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan. This is probably the world’s largest expression of...
It is becoming increasingly evident that the world is rapidly approaching a climate catastrophe and that there is little time to make the changes...
Alexander the Great conquered the world, but he was a terrible father, his son Alexander IV was executed at a young age; Nelson Mandela started a...
We will have no need for connection via the Internet in the future. It will be replaced with an internal sensory connection. At a certain stage of...
Recently, Hamas, the terror organization, has denounced the forthcoming Pride Parade in Jerusalem, calling in its statement for all Palestinians to...
The Orchot Tzaddikim has a little different approach in explaining the power of the tongue. There is an attempt to specifically show how speech can...
The completion of the work on the mishkan – the Tabernacle is marked in Parshat Naso, using language reminiscent of the language used for God’s...
Since arriving in Israel in September, I encountered a political slogan that I never heard on my North American university campus: not “Am Israel...
Today, we commemorate a pivotal date — 75th anniversary of the creation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This emblematic occasion marks a...
Anyone who has ever flown will be familiar with a key tenet of the pre-takeoff safety-drill which is as universal as Coca-Cola: “If it should be...
Last week, we celebrated chag Shavuot – a time when we come together as a community to celebrate Kabbalat Hatorah (the giving of the Torah at...
Background Both the first and second intifada had a clear beginning. Both met with surprise and denial. “Break their bones!” said Rabin, when a...
Rafi Nelson was a character par excellence, a legendary Israeli entrepreneur whose Red Sea beach resort was synonymous with a bohemian, hedonistic...
The spirit of Annelies Marie Frank prances onto the Berlin stage. A sold-out Mercedes Benz Stadium roars. A giant inflatable pink pig balloon...
On the face of it, everyone who holds the value of equality dear, and wishes to both bolster and enhance the Israeli model of compulsory military...
Every Orthodox woman knows what it’s like to sit behind a “mechitza” – the divider that separates the women’s section of a synagogue from...
How does a nation fall so fast? The Israelites were preparing to begin the last leg of the journey to Canaan. The voyage would take three days....