I just returned from the Gush Etzion cemetery having attended a very unusual Yom Hazikaron ceremony. It was a discouraging but also a triumphant experience. Let me explain. My family often refers to me as a crybaby¬-and they are right. When I witness an emotionally poignant situation, I find it difficult to suppress my tears.

The State of Israel, and Yom Ha’atzmaut, may need a lot of rethinking, and their relationship to Covid-19 demands careful reflection.  I’m writing these words with love, and I pray that is how you will receive them. A Short Story It was the winter of 2004, and I was feeling a need to add a

L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5780 Women’s Learning Seminar Sponsored in loving memory of Mrs. Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld a”h, מרת חיה סאשא בת ר’ יוסף הלל.

L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5780 Women’s Learning Seminar Sponsored in loving memory of Mrs. Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld a”h, מרת חיה סאשא בת ר’ יוסף הלל.

L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5780 Women’s Learning Seminar Sponsored in loving memory of Mrs. Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld a”h, מרת חיה סאשא בת ר’ יוסף הלל.

L’Ayla Rosh Chodesh Iyar 5780 Women’s Learning Seminar Sponsored in loving memory of Mrs. Linda Pruwer-Brachfeld a”h, מרת חיה סאשא בת ר’ יוסף הלל.

What better way to celebrate the 72nd birthday of the State of Israel than by attempting to make some iconic Israeli food in your own kitchen. Below please find how-to videos on making pita and chummus – courtesy of Israel21C:

The connection between the haftarah for Rosh Chodesh, Parshat Metzora, and the upcoming holiday of Yom Ha’atzmaut.

For the Sake of Jerusalem … These are remarkable days. These days between Pesach and Shavuot, these days between Yom Hazikaron and Yom Yerusholayim. What more appropriate time than with Parshat Emor—“say to the Kohanim’—and at the beginning of the month of Iyar, to focus and stir our hearts with a deeper appreciation for geula

Why, in Shemoneh Esrei, does the bracha of Kibbutz Galuyot immediately follow Barech Aleinu? Because as the Gemara says, there is no surer sign that Moshiach is coming than the land yielding it’s produce: “‘ואמר רבי אבא אין לך קץ מגולה מזה שנאמר (יחזקאל לו, ח) ‘ואתם הרי ישראל ענפכם תתנו ופריכם תשאו לעמי ישראל”