The Ansche Chesed blog is a place where you can find enriching material to read about God, Torah and the Jewish People.
The Jewish people are good at remembering important dates. We left Egypt on the 15th of Nissan. Moses smashed the Ten Commandments on the 17th of Tammuz. The Babylonians destroyed the Temple on the 9th of Av. Fifty years ago today – Yom Kippur, 1973 – was one of the worst days in our long… Read more »
When my oldest son commenced his mature political engagement with Israel, about 10 years ago, in times that seemed complicated then but comparatively innocent now, he used to ask me: What is your red line? When does Israel do something so outrageous that you stop supporting it? I would invariably reply: nothing. Nothing could shake… Read more »
In the last week, the nation state of the Jewish people came to an extraordinary political crossroads that should terrify and repel everyone who, like me, continues to believe in Zionism and Judaism. As widely reported, in order to maximize the number of right-wing seats in the next Knesset (to be elected April 9), Prime… Read more »
Can we not admit that we must fight terrorists, and must not lose our reverence for our enemies’ human lives? Can we defend ourselves, love our people and love our homeland without lurching into dehumanizing our neighbors? Can only one people thrive in this little land?
The difficult things I saw complicated but did not diminish my joy in Israel.
When Shabbat ends, I will set out on my favorite earthly journey, represented by six of the best letters in our alphabet: JFK-TLV. New York to Israel. (Hope I get a window seat.) This trip will be like many of my others, yet different from them all. It will be similar, including Shabbat in the… Read more »
