A good friend in the States recently reached out and asked me the seemingly innocent question, “What’s up in Israel?” But, in the age of Corona, any inquiry about events in the Land often leads to contention. Politics, religion, Corona. The primary source of misgiving here is that, though everyone cares deeply about what’s going on, no one really knows. Depending on one’s sources of information, our new government and its health ministry claim that between only 40 and 52 percent of all Israelis are “completely vaccinated,” that is, have received all three available Pfizer shots. (The Pf ..read more

  2020 may have been the first year since the advent of modern Israel, perhaps since the days of Nehemiah, that Israeli Jews were not allowed to celebrate Sukkot as their hearts desired. “We cannot all be under the sukkah together this year,” blogged The Times of Israel’s David Baum in a post entitled, The Challenge of Being Joyful — Sukkot 2020, “but we can share the feelings of a joy that has built up over our years together.” A large sukkah in Jerusalem When permitted, the Feast of Sukkot is celebrated for seven days in Israel (eight, in the Diaspora), beginning on the 15th day of th ..read more

Early Sunday afternoon, the light streaming through the window beside my desk changed from a common, pale blue to an eerie golden glow. Coincidentally, or so I thought, my wife had received a snapshot on social media of a huge, stunning and oddly isolated cloud taken by a friend who lives about 5 miles west of our place. She had never seen such a thing. Neither had we. And it turns out that the golden glow that had invaded my office and the strange new cloud our friend had snapped were closely one and the same; the firstfruits of the soon to be famous Jerusalem Fire ’21, about to introduce its ..read more

  In Israel, it’s a good idea to get out of the house as least as often as we hold national elections. An opportunity to do so arose for my wife Marcia recently between outbreaks of COVID variants, and she went shopping with a friend. I won’t pretend to understand all of what “shopping,” in its deepest sense, may mean to women, but I know the activity always boosts Marcia’s spirits as well as strengthens the Israeli shekel. Early in the process of her latest mercantile adventure, Marcia ran into one of our former Ulpan teachers. Ulpan (אולפן), for those who may be unfamiliar with the term ..read more

  Shanah tovah! It’s time once again in Israel and the world to celebrate the birthday of the universe, the day that G-d created Adam and Eve and Rosh Hashanah, the “head” of the Jewish New Year. On the morning following sundown on the eve of Tishrei 1 (September 25), shofars will blow to announce the beginning of the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, which extend ten days to include Yom Kippur. It’s the advent of round challah with raisins, apple slices dipped in honey and innumerable sweet treats to set the tone for a similarly sweet year. Most importantly, the sounding trumpets are to re ..read more

Early Sunday afternoon, the light streaming through the window beside my desk changed from a common, pale blue to an eerie golden glow. Coincidentally, or so I thought, my wife had received a snapshot on social media of a huge, stunning and oddly isolated cloud taken by a friend who lives about 5 miles west of our place. She had never seen such a thing. Neither had we. And it turns out that the golden glow that had invaded my office and the strange new cloud our friend had snapped were closely one and the same; the firstfruits of the soon to be famous Jerusalem Fire ’21, about to introduce its ..read more

  A friend, call him Reuben, rang us up from Ashdod a few days ago. Ordinarily, receiving a phone call from 30 miles away would seem unexceptional, but Ashdod was under attack at the time. Hundreds of Hamas missiles had fallen in and around his hometown when Reuben called, at about the middle of the latest episode of Israel’s unending war with…almost everyone. Most but not all hostile missiles aimed at Ashdod (and elsewhere in Israel) had been blown out of the sky by Israel’s Iron Dome missiles. Two Ashkelon women (12 miles from Ashdod) had been killed by incoming at the time of Reuben’s ..read more

  There is faith and there is unshakeable faith. Renowned Bible teacher Derek Prince once said of scripture, “Every word of it is true.” The creation story, the flood, the prophet Elijah’s ascension to heaven in a flaming chariot and Zechariah’s apocalyptic vision of mountains of bronze… All literally true in Prince’s eyes, no hedging or reliance upon symbolism, allegory or figurative language. Throughout the centuries, there may be no Bible theme that has challenged men’s faith more than the Old Testament’s multiple and explicit promises of the restoration of Israel. “Thus says the Lord ..read more

  Marcia and I only recently began to reengage with ordinary life here in Israel, roughly two years after this country began its experiment with Covid-19, its new and highly-regarded therapies and its legion of mutated cousins, the bugs, you’ll remember, that were given Greek names. Our reassimilation into Jerusalem’s recovering commercial scene was, by necessity, lay-AHT, lay-AHT, as they like to say here, “slowly, slowly.” Government lockdowns and restrictions had knocked nearly everyone in the Land out of the habit of coming and going as they pleased. So it took a bit of effort to reca ..read more

Tourism along the Sinai Peninsula’s Gulf of Aqaba coastline has staged a post-COVID revival of sorts thanks in large part to hordes of Israeli Jews headed in the (historically) wrong direction. This Passover, for example, roughly 3,500 years after leaving en masse, thousands of Jews were expected to retrace their ancient steps back into the Sinai Peninsula. An article appearing in the April 13 Times of Israel anticipated that more Israelis would visit Sinai this Pesach than “since the Red Sea split.” The surge was to be aided by a new, direct flight from Tel Aviv to Sharm el Sheikh Internatio ..read more