Shiloach (Silwan) – Arabs and Leftwing Radicals Are Trying to Once Again “Bury” the Yemenite Jews
Backed by impartial press coverage, and by left wing radical groups like Ir Amim and Peace Now, Arabs from the Shiloach (Silwan) are trying to rewrite history and once again “bury” the Yemenite Jews and their rich history in Jerusalem. The public has recently been flooded with pictures of Arabs protesting possible evictions, and interviews […]
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The Waters of Jerusalem
An observant Jew washes his or her hands many times throughout the day: upon waking up in the morning, before prayers, before eating bread, after using the bathroom, etc. The rabbinic term for this process is “netilat yadayim.” Despite the ubiquitous nature of this name, at first glance it does not seem to fit the […]
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Full Person Remembering
This week we will God willing fulfill the mitzvah of remembering Amalek. The source of this mitzvah is the verse: “Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt.” Intuitively, one would think that memory is a cognitive function and this mitzvah can be fulfilled through concentrating one’s thoughts on the […]
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Freeing Jerusalem
This week’s parsha is brimming with case studies in monetary law. The Torah discusses the laws of damages, deposits, loans and other such cases. At first glance these laws might appear as a dull follow up to the Giving of the Torah at Sinai and the Ten Commandments. There, God himself appeared to the Jewish […]
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Green Sovereignty Is Key To Jerusalem’s Future
Day to day life in Jerusalem’s cramped Old City is a mixture of spiritual highs and in many places, especially in many of the mixed Jewish and Arab neighborhoods is also tense with a degree of uncertainty. While much of the Old City is slowly returning to Jewish hands as it was before the pogroms […]
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What Begins In The Desert…Ends In Jerusalem
Parshat Yitro represents the beginning of God’s true covenant with the Jewish people. While He made promises to the forefathers and took the Jewish people out of Mitzrayim, the true relationship between God and the people themselves is cemented at Sinai when He gave them the Torah and they accepted to live by its tenets. […]
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A Festival and a Home For God
Two weeks before the Makat Bechorot, God taught the Jewish people the laws of the first Seder night. After detailing where they are supposed to be and what they are supposed to do, the Torah emphasizes that this celebration is to be an annual occurrence for all future generations: “This day shall be to you […]
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Jerusalem’s Security Barrier and the Loss of Jewish Sovereignty
When one stands on various areas of Jerusalem’s seam-line that runs roughly along 1948-49 armistice line, the unmistakable site in the distance of the security barrier, is both jarring and in many ways calming to the eye and the mind. The security barrier, which is actually a fence in most places, turns into a foreboding […]
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Dreaming of Jerusalem
When Moshe relays to the Jewish people God’s dramatic prophecy of the four stages of redemption, he was met with a rather unenthusiastic response: “And they did not listen to Moshe due to shortness of breath and the hard work.” The people were simply too overworked to take note of Moshe’s cosmically important message. The […]
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An Audience of One
Our parsha begins with a list of the names of the people who went down to Mitzrayim. While many of us are tempted to skip the names of the tribes and only begin to pay attention a few verses into the parsha, the Ba’al Shem Tov explains that the key to exile and redemption is […]
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