• Reflections on Kesher Israel

    A recent visitor in shul, looking slightly bemused, asked me, “Is Kesher an international organization?” I answered, “Yes and no.” We are a shul, but additionally we have “members” all over the world, many of whom have lived here and some who just attend a few times a year. All of these thousands of Kesherites…

  • Having Faith and Being Present

    This past week, I was in Israel at the Shalom Hartman Institute. In addition to extensive textual learning, which was our main focus, we heard from several Israeli speakers regarding life in Israel at this moment in time. One who has been involved in many years of high-level negotiations contended that though Israel is in…

  • 21st century Zionism

    Sara and I return to Washington this week after a very interesting and inspiring month in Israel. Witnessing Israel’s internal strength has been especially instructive. Though its divisions were pronounced and Israelis are not the type to politely agree, when it comes to the things that matter, they are unified.    For instance, a few nights ago…

  • Torah and the State of Israel

    Shalom from Israel, where I am learning for the month with other rabbis at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.    Sara and I spent this past Shabbat in Ranana with several close friends of ours. Just after Shabbat, we turned on our phones to read that a 20-year-old boy from Ranana, Yair Avitan, was killed fighting…

  • What Makes Israelis Unique: Reflections on a Trip to Israel During the Hamas – Israel War

    I spent the last week in Israel on a YU/RCA/Mizrachi trip for rabbis. Before I left, I was worried. I thought to myself, we are all feeling so much doom and anxiety and to fly to the heart of it will, no doubt, be deeply disturbing. But just the opposite was true. Instead of hopelessness…

  • One friendly greeting can inspire world peace

    This week I saw the movie Golda. The movie focuses on Golda Meir during the course of the Yom Kippur War. (For more on Golda Meir’s life, be sure to get the new book Golda Meir by our fellow congregant Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt.) I did not know a great deal about the Yom Kippur War,…

  • Why We Need Israel

    Moses, the paradigm of Jewish leadership, is singled out for one characteristic: humility. Humility in leadership is vital because it helps a leader to always remember that leadership is not about them but about the honor, welfare, and flourishing of those being led. This is especially crucial in political leadership which, due to all the “politics” involved,…

  • More on Rav Samet’s Yeshivah in Lod and the Creativity of Talmud Study

    January 15, 2010 There are several Torah scholars who derive creative philosophical, psychological, and quite modern thoughts from the Tanach and Midrash.  Among these authors is most notably Aviva Zorenberg, and I think she herself would argue, the Midrash itself.  There are also those commentaries that take the same approach to Agaditah, the narrative sections…