While we watched with bated breath, Israel's leadership decided to capitulate over the Temple Mount's security, relinquishing a golden opportunity to reassert authority and take control of a situation that has quickly spiraled out of control. For the first time in too long, Jews had been able to openly pray at the Temple Mount (Har… Continue reading Redemption
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. (Psalm 137:1) Despite what I've written on this blog so far, my experiences in Israel were not limited to terrorism. There is so much more to Israel than its worst times, though naturally we must contend with those as well. What I found… Continue reading Memories
I found a draft of a blog post I was beginning to write a couple of years ago, a few months after moving to Israel officially: "Since coming to Israel, I've received some mixed criticism and confusion from my non-Jewish friends who don't quite understand why I would come to such a dangerous and so… Continue reading Israel
Like a child running to hide behind her mother's skirt, I ran back to America. And like that child, I found that it did no good. It didn't erase the big, frightening world out there. In my case, Aliyah did not fail me. I failed myself. I gave up when we were on the brink… Continue reading Failure?
"So do Jews hate Jesus?" a coworker asked me the other week. The question itself wasn't particularly disturbing; I knew it was asked out of genuine curiosity and naivety. But the truly unsettling part was the remembrance that I was in exile. A stranger in a strange land. I had gone from living in Israel… Continue reading Exile
Let me sketch a picture for you. Women (and men) scream that it is a woman’s right to abort her baby – her body, her choice. These same people often weep at the near extinction of many species of animals – whether by natural or unnatural causes – and weep about the destruction of forest… Continue reading Hypocrisy
When Rosh Hashanah came around, I knew we were headed into a year of revelation. Of what, I wasn’t sure. But I knew… And sure enough, on Erev Rosh Hashanah, it began. You can say it began a long time ago; it’s true, it did. But this was the beginning of 778 terror attacks from… Continue reading Fire
In light of the Paris terror attacks, I would like to point out a few hypocrisies. While Israel has been facing terror attacks for nearly two months, nobody bats an eye. Obama (and his administration), possibly the worst president in the history of the United States, though a good representative of popular opinion, blames both sides,… Continue reading Paris
For quite a long time now, I’ve felt a wild fury growing in me. I’m not proud of it. I don’t live for anger. And yes, I know it’s unhealthy. But this anger is burning with such insistence that I cannot simply fold it up and put it away neatly into a little shelf in… Continue reading Rage
I believe that human nature gravitates to the truth by default. However, there are many ways that truth can be clouded and warped, particularly when popular opinion and truth no longer align. Mankind’s nature might be to gravitate to truth, but it simultaneously runs from it. It’s paradoxical, but so is human nature. But I… Continue reading Truth
