Delivered at the OU Israel Center, Yom Haatzmaut 5768 (April 19, 2018)

Even when redemption is unclear and incomplete, we are still expected to believe that Hashem is somehow revealing the redemption slowly but surely. Rabbi Shalom Hammer’s Sleepless Sermon for Yom Haatzmaut 5769

Despite R’ Akiva’s losing 24,000 students, he did not give up hope and went and acquired 5 new students in order to reinvigorate the future of the Jewish people.

The miracles of the modern State of Israel’s successes in making land that was barren for thousands of years produce again. This is the fulfillment of the verse in Bechukotai which shows that the land only produces when settled by the Jews.

In Parshat Nitzavim God says that after he brings us back he will increase us and bless the land. The State of Israel is clearly a manifestation of this.

…but I will make you a light of nations, so that My salvation shall be until the end of the earth. – Isaiah 49:6 Haters gotta hate. Sadly, this dismissive shorthand for the cruelty of individuals and nations has weighed on Israel too heavily throughout our history.  Our tradition has incorporated it into its teaching.  […]

After the murder of Sarah Litman’s father and brother days before her wedding, she chose to marry after shiva – but this time, she invited the entire nation of Israel. In preparing the video, producers Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider and Jeremy Goldscheider met with Sarah Litman and Ariel Beigel, who are the main subjects of the […]

This video from Nefesh b’Nefesh celebrates Israel Independence Day with 66 Israeli heroes sharing a powerful message! Hear their stories. Live your dreams. Am Yisrael Chai! See the names below (in order of appearance): 0:22 Natan Sharansky — Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel 0:27 Rabbi Jerry Epstein — Former VP […]

With preparations for Israel’s 66th birthday running behind schedule, Prime Minister Netanyahu did what any good boss would do:

Every spring, a number of days of commemoration are observed. Yom HaShoah and Yom HaZikaron, established by the government of Israel, are days in which we honor the memory of the fallen – first for the victims of the Holocaust and then for those who gave their lives to create and defend the State of […]