Libi BaMizrach

The recent elections in Israel have resulted, Baruch Hashem , in an overwhelming victory for the political Right. Between the Likud and the Religious parties, there is a comfortable majority of 64 out of 120 seats likely to form the next government. Now 64 out of 120 might not seem like such a landslide win. But the victory for the Right is, in fact, far greater than that.  The parties headed by Avigdor Liberman, Benny Gantz, Gideon Saar, Ayelet Shaked, and even Yair Lapid also lean primarily toward the political right. They no longer believe in the “Peace Process,” see no current prospect of a “Two State Solution,” and largely recognize that the Oslo accords were a disastrous pipe dream. However, they are in opposition mainly due to personal animosity to Bibi Netanyahu (much like anti-Trump Republicans) and/or the Haredim. If you add them to the mix, there are really only 14 seats out of 120 that are either the Arab parties or the hard Left (the far-left Meretz party did not even...

We stand before the great holiday of Shavuot – זמן מתו תורתינו – the day we finish preparing to receive the Torah. 1 The Torah is the central repository of our values. כִּי הֵם חַיֵּינוּ וְאֹרֶךְ יָמֵינוּ It is our very life and the length of our days While the Torah is infinite, the most significant characteristic that we use to describe it is Toras Emes , “the Torah of Truth.” Receiving the Torah could not come at a better time, as we live in a world that is dominated by Sheker (falsehood). Of course, the world outside of Torah has always contained elements of Sheker, but I don’t remember a time in my sixty-plus years that we have been bombarded by it on such a constant basis. Here are a few of the more well-known and egregious examples: 1. Violence in Society – There is much handwringing, and many angry accusations were made over the terrible school shooting in Uvalde, TX. Many are convinced that the root of the problem is too much access to guns, others vociferously protest...

In my current occupation as a licensed tour guide in Israel (now that COVID seems to have finally ended), it is my privilege to greet many of my brothers and sisters who can visit our Holy Land again. They are excited to be visiting  Eretz Yisrael after being denied that opportunity for the past two years.  I highlighted the term  visiting , as, unfortunately, most of them have no intention of realistically considering the possibility of Aliyah and are content to remain living in the Diaspora for the time being. There certainly are some very legitimate reasons for remaining in the Diaspora for now – I had the privilege of Aliyah only some five years ago – and each person must judge what is best for their family. I only want to look at one of the reasons that I often hear, considering  Parshat Bechukosai . The argument that I am speaking of is that “ We are still in Golus because Mashiach has not yet come . Medinat Yisrael (the State of Israel) has little or no reli...

  All kinds of people got upset this week when actress, comedienne, and television personality Whoopi Goldberg declared that "the Holocaust was not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about". When her co-host said the genocide was "about white supremacy ... and going after Jews and gypsies and Roma," Goldberg responded that it was "two white groups of people," and thus not about race.  The media went into a tizzy about this, with many lecturing Whoopi about the Holocaust, which was clearly predicated on Nazi views about the master race and the "sub-human" Jewish race. ABC went so far as to suspend her for two weeks to reflect on her views. (I will not speculate what they would have done had a white person claimed that much of the tensions between police and black people had nothing to do with race…).  It certainly is interesting to observe how Whoopi — the former Caryn Elaine Johnson — feels about...