Tikkun Olam

My last post was long (and probably long-winded as well), so I am now posting a considerably shorter one. I wrote previously about Israel needing to be strong and unafraid. Thank G-d I am not a "lone voice in the wilderness." Here is Tovia Singer (my hero!) with a synopsis: This will be My Foreign Policy (...if elected as PM...or President...or...) ( כמו שכולם עם שכל כבר יודעים, כהנא צדק)

( This post is rather long, but bear with it-there's a movie at the end, children !) Pesach is just around the corner. It was my most favorite chag as a child; different dishes, utensils and pots and pans; different tablecloths, kiddush cups and beautiful embroidered matzah covers instead of challah boards. Even different bedspreads on the beds; a scrubbed and polished apartment: I was entering a new universe, olam habah on this earth. My new and shiny surroundings set the stage for the important message of that holiday: That the Jewish People were delivered from slavery to freedom, to form a nation under the one G-d, who chose us for a higher purpose, to be a higher civilization; perhaps to give the world The Law, the Torah that Hashem gave us-to set the standard for ourselves and to raise the world to that standard as well. But I think we Jews have lost our way. Two thousand plus years in galut , and we are still having growing pains and identity crises. These were not so pre

כשכתבתי את הכותרת "חתונות ויריות," לא צפיתי לרצח שיקרה בישיבת מרכז הרב בירושלים...באותו לילה של חתונת בני Thank G-d, the wedding was wonderful. Many of our friends from our town in the States who had made aliyah over various years, attended the wedding: it was a kind of 'reunion.' It was a very happy evening, celebrating the marriage of our son to a wonderful person with old and new friends and family. The one terrible event which marred it was the heinous, cowardly murder of eight young boys in the Mercaz Ha-Rav Yeshiva in Jerusalem; we found out something had happened, right after the chuppah ended. We were wending our way to the main hall for the dancing and dinner, when one of the kallah's (bride's) brothers went running in the opposite direction while looking at his cell phone. I asked him what happened; he said 'there was an attack in Jerusalem.' That is all we knew at the time. As the evening wore on, I saw a very close friend who lives in Jeru

זה היום הגדול. הערב, הבן הגדול שלי מתחתן לבחורה נפלאה ממשפחה נהדרת. אנו בינתיים נשארים אצל האמא של הכלה. כתוב בפרקי אבות: "בן זומא אומר..." איזהו מכובד המכבד את הבריות..." וזה בדיוק מתאר את משפחתו החדשה של בני. אני מודה לרבונו של עולם שהוא מצא את בת זוגו,ממשפחה כזאת. I had to write in Hebrew. It fits, and acknowledges my new family in our ancient, beautiful language. I thank my parents (may their memory be a blessing) for speaking to me in Hebrew as a very young child, so that I would internalize it and it would be my second mother tongue. But not to worry, my non-Hebrew speaking friends: I will now loosely translate: Today is the 'big day.' This evening my older son is getting married to a wonderful girl, from a fine family. We are currently staying with the kallah' s* mother, at her house in Ashdod. As is written in Ethics of the Fathers, "Ben Zoma says...who is respected? He who respects others..." I thank G-d that my son found the love of his l