Israel
This week’s Torah portion, Sh’lach L’cha (Go forth), triggered my imagination about similarities between the Israelite spies and honeybees. Just as the Israelite spies, who explore what it will take to make Canaan – the land God had promised them – their new home, honeybee “scouts” also explore the best place for a new colony to “swarm,” the process by which the bees generate a new home. In the parashah, we learn about the Israelites, who, after their liberation from slavery in Egypt, were making their way to the land of Canaan. When they were near Canaan, God directed Moses to send 12... Read More
In his best-selling new book, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, American-born Israeli writer Yossi Klein Halevi explores the challenges of self-transformation and the quest for peace, themes central in his earlier books: Memoirs of a Jewish Extremist: The Story of a Transformation, At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, and Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation. Halevi is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he lives with his wife,... Read More
Israel may be a small country, but there are so many sites to see and issues about which to learn. You could spend months touring the country and still feel like you need more time. If you’re visiting for only a week or two, consider adding some of these 18 cultural, religious, historical, and natural sites to your itinerary. The Western Wall (the Kotel) is considered by many to be the most sacred place in Jewish tradition. People from around the world come to pray at this holy site, often placing handwritten notes in crevices in the ancient stones. Recently, the Western Wall has... Read More
Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them staying together, for their possessions were so great that they could not remain together. And there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and those of Lot’s cattle. - Genesis 13:5-7 On Independence Day, unwilling to face hours in traffic driving to a nature reserve; the crowds packing the trails and picnic areas; and the mounds of garbage; Tami and I opted for a local hike, on Mt. Gilon, which overlooks our home in Shorashim. There is a three-hour trail that... Read More
On a bus-stop bench in my Jerusalem neighborhood this morning, a couple in Muslim garb spoke softly to each other. On the same bench, an ultra-Orthodox man sat studying Talmud. Signs of hope for peace, for coexistence, are abundant in this city. They’ve been overwhelmed by images and emotions from actions at the Gaza border fence. What do we say to God in these moments of anguish? We cry in pain, we beseech heaven with our lamentations, and we beseech each other with our wailing. We ask, isn’t there a better way? Crafted to avoid politics or accusation, it’s for everyone who has hardened... Read More
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