In our global village, national identities seem to be blurring. People can live almost anywhere they want, the culture is more or less the same culture everywhere, everyone admires the same mega popstars, the same multibillionaires dictate the global agenda,…
Over the past week, there has been much ado over the appointment of the first rabbi in the Bundeswehr (the unified armed forces of Germany) since World War II. The appointed rabbi, Zsolt Balla, one of Germany’s most prominent rabbis,…
While nations that had access to Covid-19 vaccines rushed to inoculate their citizens, others watched helpless as the virus wreaked havoc in their countries. In the meantime, as I said would happen (check my posts on the topic dating all…
There are countless tasks facing humanity: We have to offset our negative influence on the climate, make sure everyone has clean drinking water, minimal healthcare, and staple foods. We also have to tend to the millions, if not billions of…
One of my students told me that since the beginning of Operation Guardian of the Walls (the most recent military campaign against Hamas in Gaza), dozens of Israeli Arabs left positive messages on my Hebrew Facebook page. They didn’t relate…
Israel faces an identity crisis. Over the years we have followed without much thought the rules imposed by the British Mandate after the Ottoman period in the Land of Israel. It has been a natural precedent to carry on, an…
At the conclusion of the recent G7 summit in the UK, the participants pledged one billion Covid vaccine doses to poor countries as a “big step towards vaccinating the world,” according to the BBC. Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, whose…
Yesterday, a new government was sworn in, in Israel. A new government is always a chance to reflect on, and hope for a proper government, which functions the way a government that works for the people should. If, theoretically, we…
After a decade in Silicon Valley in the United States, Maya Greenberg returned for a short homeland visit to Israel. Maya is a longtime student and active in spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah, someone who helped me a lot in…
This week, fifty-four years ago, the Six-Day War broke out. Leading to it was a weeks-long period of stress and anxiety in Israel, knowing that a war was about to break out, and that the intent of the enemy armies…
Two things happened this week, which pertain to past wars: We commemorated the 54th anniversary of the Six-Day War in 1967, and new documents were released, which portray the hubris of decision makers leading to the Yom Kippur War (aka…
On May 10, 2021, Operation Guardian of the Walls began. For twelve straight days, rockets traumatized Israeli citizens. As the Arab-Israeli conflict was reignited, an uprising of Israeli Arabs planted fear in the hearts of Israeli Jews, antisemitism around the…