war

Writing from Jerusalem during the war years.

Purity of Conscience Is Not a Gift

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At the beginning, I supported the war, with many doubts and reservations, because despite the perceived downside, repercussions, and moral quandary, it seemed like the least wrong move to make in a situation that demanded action.

Now, I support the deal, with many doubts and reservations, because despite the perceived downside, repercussions, and moral quandary, it seems like the least wrong move to make in a situation that once again demands action.

Purity of conscience is not a gift of this world order. We have to be willing to make moves when the hour calls for it even if none of them seem ideal, and we have to be willing to change and adapt when the hour calls for it even if we’re not entirely sure of what the change means.

מעשה אבות סימן לבנים

I Resolved to Learn More Torah

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As I stood this morning, looking at the posters of hostages taped to the bus stop over a year into this miserable war with no rescue or exit in sight, I got so fed up with this criminally incompetent government of self-serving career politicians playing October 6th political games as usual while the country staggers from the economic, social, psychological, moral cost of the war, that I resolved to learn more Torah and do more מצוות.

I may have no direct control over the socio-political forces in my life but I can always choose to build a radically better alternative to this mess of a world we’re caught up in.

(And to vote for moderately better alternatives to the incompetent criminals in office.)

(And to keep reminding you my friends that now is the best time for elections.)

Hannukka in Captivity

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If the status quo continues, Hannukka will be the first of a new cycle of holidays which the hostages have now fully completed in the miserable captivity of Hamasniks, other militants, and crime families.

Hannukka was their first holiday spent in captivity – may it also be their last.

Scratch that. May it be their first holiday spent in newfound freedom, celebrating with the rest of their families.

You Can Run to Russia

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You can run to Russia… But you can’t hide.

May Assad face justice soon.

Meanwhile,

Congratulations to all the rebel factions, religious and secular, and especially to the Kurds, who have been kicking regime @$$ for years and aren’t getting any kudos now for some reason. 🧐

They’ve been dreaming of this moment for years. Many of us have. Assad was a cruel dictator who disregarded human rights with impunity, and as a loyal puppet of the Ruso-Iranian axis who was no friend of liberal democracy in general and of Israel in particular. It is a good thing that he is gone.

But he is gone and now the assorted members of the resistance in Syria all have to come together and fill the vacuum that Assad left behind him. Preferably with something that isn’t equally as terrible as the Assad regime. Even more preferably, with something that can rebuild Syria into a strong, liberal ally – and not another hot or cold war enemy – of Israel, their anxious neighbors of old sitting just south.

In the meantime, we’re watching what unfolds and praying for righteous – good – people to win out, seize the day, and lead Syria out of the civil war that has ravaged it, towards the brighter future Syrians (along with everyone else in the Levant) deserve.

“In that day, Israel shall be a third partner with Egypt and Assyria as a blessing on earth.”

Here’s to hoping.

May It Be Permanent

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It’s been a day. The ceasefire got off to a rocky start but looks like it’s holding.

May it be permanent.

May it spread.

May it give us a moment’s rest to catch up with our thoughts and our emotions.

May we seize the moment and bring in a new governing coalition. May we seize the opportunity and investigate everyone and everything responsible for Oct 7 and the year that followed. May we seize the hour and make the changes that need to be made, holding accountable those who need to be held accountable.

May we confront the Ruso-Iranian axis that seeks our destruction, with the help of the Highest and the Torah we were given. Not with strength, not with might, but with the spirit of the Lord.

May we prosper in peace and may we rebuild – ourselves, our land, and the homes we have destroyed in this war.

May this all be a sign of better days coming.

Israel’s ‘Warmongering’

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“Israel’s warmongering”

[sic]

🤢🙄🫠

Otherwise educated, intelligent, moral individuals really out here claiming that Israel is the aggressor.

On the Hebrew anniversary of Hamas’s invasion no less.

I Never Said Yizkor. Until This Year.

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Yizkor is a memorial prayer for the departed that the hassidé Ashkenaz established as a reaction to the brutal losses suffered by the Ashkenazic communities during the crusades.

It’s not my custom to say yizkor.

I don’t think yizkor is appropriate to Yom Tob.

I stepped out of the synagogue when they said yizkor.

But never have I felt the emotional impetus behind the establishing of yizkor as a minhag, as I did this year.

It’s astonishing to consider the loss of over 1,200 people in a single day, just one year later.

May their memory be a blessing and a revolution.

Sinwar Died Like a Rat

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Well now.

The murderer whose life was saved not once but twice by Israeli doctors – and who nevertheless then went on to risk the entire population of Gaza in a savage and bloody invasion of the southern cities and towns of Israel that left thousands dead and ultimately resulted in the abysmal destruction of the Gaza Strip – has finally met his judgement. Certainly an occasion to sing the Lord’s praises…

It seems that Sinwar was hit in an operation that wasn’t specifically targeting him – a unit just spotted “three combatants” in an area they were clearing and neutralized them. Divine providence at work even when we’re asleep at the wheel?

According to YNet, Sinwar’s corpse was first visually spotted (I won’t post the photo here but yeah it looks like him) and then identified based on dental records. He had on his person thousands of Israeli sheqels and (forged) ID/travel documents. While many expected Sinwar to die a martyr’s death surrounded by hostages and devotees, he apparently died like a rat on the run amidst the rubble of the city he ran into the ground.

And there you have it, folks.

May the joy of your holiday be enhanced by the open revelation of divine justice…

Last Year We Were a Mess

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A meditation and a prayer.

Last year, we were truly a mess on Yom haKippurim. Publicly fighting over how and where to sit during services, with acrimony and venom and self-righteousness and hatred. On the day when we should have been most united in love for each other and for our Creator, we showed our worst selves.

Then came October 7th. On the day we should have been celebrating the Torah together, we were in hiding. Savagery and devastation swept the south while rockets rained across the entire land, leaving hundreds in captivity and an entire nation traumatized. In the wake of such a morbidly potent reminder of who we actually are to our actual enemies – and their supporters worldwide – we came together and mobilized waves of support for the survivors, the families, the homeless, and the soldiers. We showed our best selves.

It’s true that a year later, the war frustratingly still continues while the captives inexplicably still remain imprisoned. It’s true that hundreds of thousands of people are still refugees from the north, the south, and the Gaza Strip. It’s true that waves of missiles still target our homes and masses of rioters still call for our collective death. And it’s painfully true that after so much seemed to change so quickly that morning one year ago, so much in our country and our world still seems to remain the same.

But this year, we met October 7th before Yom haKippurim. This wasn’t just a day of remembering the fallen and the lost – truthfully their memory has not left us a single day of the past three hundred and sixty five and is always before our eyes, in our feeds and groups and Shabbat newsletters. This was a day of remembering how we came together and supported one another in the wake of the worst horror since Auschwitz, an ongoing nightmare for countless families, a doom against which we have collectively, consciously chosen to offer hope and light.

This year, as we make our way across the narrow bridge between Rosh haShana and Yom haKippurim, we pause and remember who we have shown ourselves to be over the past year. People who step up and who volunteer and who care and who fight for each other. People who choose hope and light, even as many in the world choose darkness. May we bring that hope and that light in our return to the Holy of Holies on Yom haKippurim this year, and may we merit to see the day when all creations are united in the sacred peace of knowing our Creator.

After the Holiday Dinner

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Imagine having a holiday dinner with your family and enjoying a cup of coffee in the autumn night air afterwards and going to sleep with grateful thoughts of how blessed you are, and then you’re woken up by gunfire and shouts and gunmen storming into your home and they literally capture you and you starve in captivity for an entire year.

For. An. Entire. Year.