‘Hear O You Deaf and Look O You Blind!’
We live a short walk from the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem. Over the holidays, the hotel was packed with Diaspora Jews from all over the world, but now that the holidays are over, the lobby is pretty deserted. I can’t understand how a self-respecting Jew can leave the Land of Israel and go back to the Lilliputian Jewish life of Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Melbourne, or Brooklyn after being in the Land of our Forefathers.
Shabbat Lovers To Take To The Street
On Shabbat Parshat Bo, we call upon everyone throughout the Land to demonstrate their love for our day of holiness and rest.
Who’s Afraid of David Dukes’ Dukes?
We don’t want to rule over the goyim. We are to be their teachers, that’s all.
Oscar Who?
My friends, if you want to save your souls, don’t watch the Oscars. If you want to be a holy Jew, you have to work on it.
“Why Should I Live in Israel? America Has Everything I Need”
One of the questions a person is asked when he reaches his Heavenly rest is, "Did you yearn for Salvation?" If a Jew does not long for the Redemption, for Salvation from the exile, then something is wrong. If he is happy in the Diaspora, then his Judaism is out of focus, and he is out of touch with his soul's deepest yearnings. As The Kuzari poignantly declares, his prayers for Jerusalem and Zion are like the chatterings of a nightingale, melodious but empty of meaning.
Letter to Our Son, the Soldier
In a world that lives by the sword, Israel must take up the sword too, not sit and pray for miracles
The Israel Defense Forces is a Mitzvah from the Torah!!
When Moshe led the war against Amalek, he didn’t just pray on the mountain – he sent Yehoshua to lead the soldiers of the Molech Israelite Army to fight down below on the battlefield. Yehoshua didn’t merely blow shofars in conquering the Land, he cut off the heads of the enemy. And who was a greater scholar than Rabbi Akiva? To defend the Land of Israel from the Romans, he closed his Gemorah, rushed to the battlefield, and accompanied Bar Kochba into battle!!
Next Year In Israel-Part II
Just as the Jewish People are not complete without the Torah, a Jew cannot be complete without living in Eretz Yisrael.
In Memory of Cherna
Cherna Moskowitz remained faithful to her husband’s mission, his lifelong helper, during their marriage and long afterwards, a true woman of valor and builder of Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, and the Torah
Three Rabbis Respond To President Rivlin’s Comments
Jewish values do not come from man. They come from the G-d of perfection and compassion.
Hellenism is Alive and Well in America
The modern day Hellenists are the Jews of the Diaspora who have the ability to move to Israel, but prefer to identify with a foreign country and foreign culture.
Who Thinks about Jerusalem During the Seventh Inning Stretch?
This blog is not coming to reject, or condemn, any practice of Judaism which is based on a sincere fear of Heaven, nor to reject or condemn any Jew, or Jewish community, God forbid. The blogs we write come to reject only the misunderstanding of Judaism which negates the centrality of the Land of Israel to the Torah and to the vitality of Jewish life.
Report: Shabak Steps Up Efforts To Recruit Settler Spies
I left the station with the feeling that he had played a game of pinball in my brain.
Jerusalem in the Twilight Zone
Here I was, just out of New York, not knowing what the Torah was really about, surrounded by tens of thousands of ecstatic davening Jews, with the choruses of “Amen, yihe shamai rabbahs” ringing in my ears like the blasts of the shofar on Mount Sinai. What can I tell you? New York and Hollywood were blown out of my brain, like a dream that never happened, just like the Psalm says: “When the Lord brings back the captives of Zion, we were like those who dream.”
Over 1,000,000 Jews in New York and God Weeps!
During the night, the Holy One Blessed Be He sits and roars like a lion, saying, “Woe to the children who I have exiled among the nations of the world” (Berachot 3A). It’s like a King who builds a beautiful palace for his children, but they don’t want to live there. They prefer to hang out with the harlots.
We Are Seeing Moshiach in Action!
The “Amud HaAnan” Operation which Tzahal has now undertaken is intended to protect our beleaguered citizens in the south. But it is much more than that.
An Artist In Love… With The Land Of Israel
When Rav Kook became the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, he visited the Bezalel Academy of Art, and encouraged the students to use their talents to paint landscapes of Eretz Yisrael to arouse a yearning for the Land in the hearts of everyone who viewed the paintings.
Graveyard USA
Even before the Beit HaMikdash is rebuilt, the return to the Land and Nation rebuilding, even in its outwardly secular stages, revives the dry bones of the Jewish People
6,000 Volunteers Responding To 600,000 Emergencies
Eli Beer: Of our more than 6,000 volunteers, only 200 or so contracted the disease since the beginning of March, and most of them caught it from family members, co-workers, or their children’s school, not while not responding to medical emergencies.
Professor Slammed For Saying Yigal Amir Didn’t Kill Rabin
The evidence for a conspiracy is too glaring to ignore.
Zionism is T’shuva Too!
To rectify the blemish caused by galut, the Diaspora Jew has to stop being in exile and join the ingathered. He has to actualize the words of his daily prayers, “And gather us together from the four corners of the earth” by getting on a plane.
How to Understand the Right-Wing Religious Zionists Parties
Before Bibi gets through with Bennett and Sa'ar, they are going to be hanging on to one another like punch-drunk boxers in the center of the ring.
The T’shuva Train
Rabbi Kook explains that t’shuva comes about in two distinct formats, either suddenly, or in a gradual, slowly developing fashion. Both of these pathways to t’shuva are readily found in the baal t’shuva world. Some people will tell you how their lives suddenly changed overnight. Others describe their experience as a long, challenging process which unfolded over years. Many factors influence the way in which t’shuva appears.
Dear Not a Jew -> Jew
Some people will tell you that if you put on tefillin in Brooklyn, you’ve reached the pinnacle of the Jewish journey, but it isn’t true. Other people will tell you we have to stay in exile until Mashiach arrives. But that isn’t true either. Hashem isn’t waiting for Mashiach. Before our very eyes, Hashem has brought millions of Jews back to Israel on His own, without waiting for Mashiach to do all the work.
Defiant Settlers Rebuild Their Homes
Several days later, when the police left the area, the families began to rebuild their homes, but the police returned and knocked down walls the settlers had erected. Now the homes are standing once again.
An Etrog Tree Doesn’t Grow in Brooklyn
If it did it would die. Just the way the Diaspora is destined to die. The etrog tree doesn’t belong in Brooklyn. The climate isn’t right for it. It’s the same with the lulav, hadasim, and aravot. The four species which we are commanded to take for ourselves on the Festival of Sukkot are indigenous to Eretz Yisrael, just as the Torah is indigenous to Eretz Yisrael, and the Jewish People are indigenous to Eretz Yisrael. We belong in Eretz Yisrael. All of the holidays are intrinsically connected to Eretz Yisrael. The Torah was designed and fashioned by the Almighty to be observed in Eretz Yisrael.
Don’t Worry! Be Happy!
Even if you haven’t yet atoned for all of your sins, Don’t worry! Be Happy! As long as you are sincerely trying, this is what really counts.
Thanks to The Jewish Press!
I was going to start out this blog by saying that I am happy to be back at The Jewish Press. But, in truth, I have mixed feelings. After all, I’ve been living in Israel now for 28 years, yet The Jewish Press is still in Brooklyn, along with its myriads of faithful readers.
Absolute Joy
There is a special mitzvah on Sukkot to be “ach samaoch.” Only joyous. It is a happiness not dependent on anything external, beyond definition and words. Just to be absolutely joyous in one’s love and worship of G-d. Rabbi Kook describes the sukkah as a whirlpool of joyous energy which is constantly changing each second, reaching ever-higher levels of joy and attachment to G-d.
Palestinians, Progressives, Peace Now, Must Unite to Ban Chanukah
“It wasn’t the Greeks whom the Israelis conquered. They were Palestine refugees from Syria."
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