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The Times of Israel (Blogs)

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The Best of People

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...

latest 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Andy Blumenthal

Where Will History Lead Us?

First, what is history? History is the evolution of desires. It starts from the smallest and simplest desires, which every individual has—for...

latest 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Michael Laitman

Time to move on: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine

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...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Jaime Kardontchik

Dying to Be Heard Gittin 15 The Ups and Downs of Exile Gittin 16 and 17

Our Gemara on Amud Beis discusses the ethical and legal concept of a מִצְוָה לְקַיֵּים דִּבְרֵי הַמֵּת It is a mitzvah...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Simcha Feuerman

No Second Chance

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...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kenneth Cohen

How far have we come?

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...

latest 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hayim Leiter

The Eternal Jew’s Tale, #95, Ghost Walkers

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...

latest 4

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Stephen Berer

Religion, Ethics, Animals, and Choosing Vegan

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...

latest 4

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Richard H. Schwartz

Shabbat 22: The Crisis Should Open Our Eyes

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...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Orna Raz

Antisemitism: It’s a Name Changer

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...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Tami Lehman-Wilzig

Escaping the Pain‏‏

Trigger Warning: Sexual Abuse Miri* reached out to us regarding a drug addiction that had developed after years of avoiding the trauma resulting...

latest 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Zvi Gluck

Homesh: Cornerstone of an ever-conflicted One State

When Ariel Sharon — and later Benjamin Netanyahu — evacuated Homesh, it reflected a realization of the need to separate from the Palestinians in...

latest 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Arie Pellman

Term Limits & Age Limits

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....

latest 9

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Steven Zvi Gleiberman

Hypothesis of the Divine Regulation of Jewish Population

Cautiously addressing a span of almost thirty-four centuries, I am fully aware of the analytic hiatus involved in trying to bridge between...

latest 9

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Alexander Branover

Ukraine before the elections. Ideological factor

In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On Elections of the President of Ukraine” the next elections of the...

latest 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kirill Solod

The Delegation

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...

latest 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sheldon Kirshner

Words that ring, resemble, reverberate

Hebrew is full of onomatopoeias. Funny, expressive words that sound the same as the thing they describe or the sound associated with that thing....

latest 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Jona Van Der Schelde

The Sbarro bomber is free as a lark thanks to Netanyahu

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...

latest 0

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Frimet Roth

The Enduring Legacies of Wallenberg and Sugihara

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...

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kinue Tokudome

Each And Every Mangrove Plant Is Important

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...

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kapilkumar Nivutti Ingle

Erdogan Won But Turkiye Will Lose

After facing the toughest challenge of his political career to date, Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got re-elected to a third term....

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Manish Rai

The Shadow Of The Day

Giuseppe Piccioni’s appealing Italian-language movie, The Shadow of the Day, unfolds in a small town in late-1930s fascist Italy against the...

yesterday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sheldon Kirshner

Honor Comes in the End

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...

yesterday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kenneth Cohen

Parashat Naso and West Side Story

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...

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Daniel D. Stuhlman

Strength’n Unity

Protests in Israel against the government’s anti-democratic judicial overhaul have found an echo throughout the world. While demonstrators mass on...

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Offir Gutelzon

Gargoyle Throats

As every student of anatomy knows, humans (and many animals) have two pipes in their neck that serve two different functions: The “windpipe”...

yesterday 8

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Reuven Chaim Klein

Jews Against Soros (JAS) or against all Jews?

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...

yesterday 5

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Moshe-Mordechai Van Zuiden

The Enduring Cost of War

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...

yesterday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Cesar Chelala

Naso: Becoming a Blessing

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...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Frederick L. Klein

B’nai B’rith report confronts European antisemitism

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....

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Paul Schneider

What If

The American people reach a consensus. Right and Left, worldwide, make peace. Wars stop. Rogue regimes fold. Economies stabilize. Climates calm....

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Yoseph Janowski

Great day tours to go on while in Israel

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...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Andrea Karshan

Roger Waters’ self-fulfilling prophecy

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...

previous day 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Chana Pinto

The trouble with visionaries

Cities in the second half of the 19th century ran on horsepower. Horses carried crops to market, brought raw materials for manufacturing, pulled...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

David Sedley

An Israeli in NY for 25 years, it’s my first march in the Israel Day Parade

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...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Esther Sperber

Parshat Behaalotcha: Miriam, The Discredited Prophet

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...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Naomi Graetz

Understanding and preventing suicides by well-loved Jewish Queers

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,...

previous day 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Moshe-Mordechai Van Zuiden

A flaccid uprising

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...

previous day 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Grant Arthur Gochin

A Letter to the Overseas Media: How to Interview PM Netanyahu

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...

previous day 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sam Lehman-Wilzig

Strength

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...

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Mordechai Weiss

Call it what it is – Holocaust Celebration

Recently, famed musician and former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters caused controversy by performing in Berlin while dressed in a costume...

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Rony Yedidia Clein

Valeria Is Getting Married

The mail-order bride business in Israel is entertainingly portrayed by Michal Vinik in Valeria Is Getting Married, which will be screened at the...

previous day 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sheldon Kirshner

Humbly Eternal (Behaalotcha)

Humbly Eternal (Behaalotcha) Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time....

previous day 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ben-Tzion Spitz

God’s Face Revealed: The Secret of the Priestly Blessing

In Parshas Naso, God delivers to Aaron the “Bircas Kohanim,” the Priestly Blessing through which he and his descendants would bless the nation...

previous day 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Pinny Arnon

Steps to Minimize the Occupation Right Now

People often talk of Occupation in black and white: Israel must “end the Occupation” tomorrow. It’s often unclear what that means logistically:...

previous day 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Shayna Abramson

Mourning Mrs. Maisel

Re: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” I devoured it. All five seasons. And then, just like that—specifically, for me, on evening of Wednesday, May...

previous day 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Jennifer Moses

Only by deception thou shalt win wars: Sun Tzu

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...

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Vas Shenoy

Gulf states test the boundaries of their agency

More than three years after burying the war hatchet, erstwhile Gulf rivals are moving in separate ways as they maneuver big power competition....

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

James M. Dorsey

Walk Like an Egyptian…?

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...

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Shalom Orzach

Make technology parks part of our cities

Conceived from their outset as isolated single-use enclaves bearing little or no relation to their immediate physical and natural urban context,...

previous day 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gerard Heumann

Why Dubai is not on my ‘bucket list!’

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...

previous day 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Barbara Diamond

Will Chips in Our Brain Make Us Healthier or Zombier?

Last Thursday, Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink announced that it has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to...

previous day 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Michael Laitman

Subtle but not Timid

“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,...

previous day 6

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

William Hamilton

Sibling Strife

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...

thursday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

David Walk

The 9th “OHTC Cup” Global Innovation Competition held in Tel Aviv

On May 23rd, The Final of the 9th “OHTC Cup” Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for Overseas Chinese in Israel was held in Tel...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Yael Hsu

Common Ground — In the Parasha and at the Protests (21)

This is my 21st consecutive blog post connecting the parasha to Israel’s pro-democracy protests. This week, in Be’ha’alotekha, the Israelites...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Diana Lipton

The Pillars of Martin Luther King’s American Dream

Martin Luther King’s great speeches had three sources. The Bible, and the Declaration of Independence, two great pillars of the third one, the...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

“Trust no one, and don’t spill the soup!”

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...

thursday 40

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sarah Tuttle-Singer

Greatness, Nihilism and Feety Pajamas

‘Tis the season of the commencement speech. The season when politicians and celebrities big and small wax poetically about the future and its...

thursday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Mordechai Soskil

Release Bank Accounts to Nullify Refugee Status

On Aug. 14, 15, 1947, Britain partitioned its colony of India into two independent states, India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan accepted the...

thursday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ted Sheskin

A Never Ending Cycle that Must Come to an End

Dizengoff Street, located in Tel Aviv, is known for its incredible restaurants and fun environment. However, within the last year, numerous...

thursday 4

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Alexandra Malamud

A discovery that rocked our world

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...

thursday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Libi Michelson

Belgium’s shameful, dangerous deal with Iran

Olivier Vandecasteele, the Belgian aid worker held for 455 days in Iran, has finally been released, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo...

thursday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ely Karmon

Zoe’s Story

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...

thursday 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Pamela Becker

A Nation of the Book?

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...

thursday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Joseph C. Kaplan

Divine Providence. Finding Favor in God’s eyes

The holy Baal Shem Tov was teaching his students the concept of Divine Providence, explaining that everything, down to the smallest particle, is...

thursday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Shlomo Ezagui

Judaism and Sensitivity

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...

thursday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kenneth Cohen

Diversity in Philadelphia, New York, and Petach Tikva

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...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kenneth Ryesky

Damaging Messages Accompany the Torah Thoughts

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....

thursday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Susan Hornstein

Sectorizing

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. ...

thursday 4

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Avi Rockoff

Pittsburgh Killer Must Pay The Ultimate Price

Nearly five years after murdering eleven Jewish congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in the deadliest antisemitic attack in...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sheldon Kirshner

Authentic Freedom Gittin 13 Intuitive Truth Vs. Logical Truth Gittin 14 

Authentic Freedom Gittin 13 Authentic freedom is a complex concept that has been debated by philosophers and theologians for centuries. Authentic...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Simcha Feuerman

Critical Race Theory vs. Torah

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...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Marc Kornblatt

A cacophonous gathering on Fifth Avenue

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...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gideon Taylor

How my YouTube play responds to the judicial overhaul

Stress can be debilitating. Let’s admit that. The intense political tension around the Israeli government’s proposed judicial overhaul has not...

thursday 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

James Inverne

Music in my Life

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...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

Even the Temple gates could not tolerate falsehood

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...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Yoni Mozeson

A Torah for Tova

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazic chief rabbi of Israel, famously declared, “that which unites us is far greater than that which...

thursday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Michael Feldstein

4 Tips for Going to Misrad Hapnim in Israel

Misrad Hapnim is the Israeli Interior Ministry responsible for immigration, population registration, and other civil affairs. If you are planning...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Claude Lee Massey

Biden Views Killing Jews in Israel Not Antisemitic

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...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Mel Alexenberg

Judaeans Greening Israel: The Arava Institute

How did a Young Judaean develop an environmental powerhouse in the Middle East? The Arava Institute is a unique academic and research center for...

thursday 5

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Hannah Lane

Jerusalem is precisely the place for a Gay Pride parade

Tel Aviv is the city of Pride. Its Gay Pride parade is the biggest, most colorful celebration of diversity, inclusivity and freedom, rivaling San...

thursday 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Judy Halper

Saving a Lost Generation

I’ve never once considered myself a spiritual woman. If anything, I’m a logistics maven specializing in wealth and succession planning and...

thursday 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Miriam Levy Turner

The Value of the Celebrate Israel Parade – Good Vibes!

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...

thursday 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Jonathan Muskat

Applying Jewish Values To Help Avert a Climate Catastrophe

It is becoming increasingly evident that the world is rapidly approaching a climate catastrophe and that there is little time to make the changes...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Richard H. Schwartz

‘Maybe a double is also enough’

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...

thursday 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Avi Baumol

What Is the Future of the Internet?

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...

thursday 5

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Michael Laitman

No Pride [Parade] in the Red-Green Alliance?

Recently, Hamas, the terror organization, has denounced the forthcoming Pride Parade in Jerusalem, calling in its statement for all Palestinians to...

thursday 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Lev Topor

Power of the Tongue

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...

31.05.2023 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Kenneth Cohen

We Need But Try

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...

31.05.2023 3

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Mordechai Silverstein

Breaking the other silence

Since arriving in Israel in September, I encountered a political slogan that I never heard on my North American university campus: not “Am Israel...

31.05.2023 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sam Shepherd

IDF A Journey of Courage and Determination

Today, we commemorate a pivotal date — 75th anniversary of the creation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). This emblematic occasion marks a...

31.05.2023 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

David Elmescany

Naso: Effective leadership

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...

31.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Chaim Ingram

Let’s Stop the Anger, Hatred and Acrimony – Its Time for Civility !

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...

31.05.2023 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Chaim Y. Botwinick

I-3. The third intifada is here. Wake up.

Background Both the first and second intifada had a clear beginning. Both met with surprise and denial. “Break their bones!” said Rabin, when a...

31.05.2023 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Jonathan Zausmer

Nelson’s Last Stand

Rafi Nelson was a character par excellence, a legendary Israeli entrepreneur whose Red Sea beach resort was synonymous with a bohemian, hedonistic...

31.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Sheldon Kirshner

Another Brick in the Wall

The spirit of Annelies Marie Frank prances onto the Berlin stage. A sold-out Mercedes Benz Stadium roars. A giant inflatable pink pig balloon...

31.05.2023 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Mort Laitner

The IDF ‘Israel Service’ plan is complicated and costly

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...

31.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Asaf Malchi

A view from the women’s section

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...

31.05.2023 2

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Shira Pasternak Beeri

Moses vs. Madison Avenue

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....

31.05.2023 1

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Steve Rodan

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