What Israel Does to Your Mind, Parshat Shmot 2020

The Proper Diaspora Mindset, Parshat Vayechi 2020, Beyond The 4 Amot

The proper diaspora mindset is to yearn for redemption:

Make the 10th of Tevet Fast Meaningful

I hope that these words from Sefer Hasidim (ch. 226) will make your fast more meaningful:

Know and understand, even though the Sages said fasting for a (bad) dream (cancels it) like a fire (burns) fibers of flax, they only said this with regard to one who does teshuvah together with the fast...Since one is shown a bad dream in order that he will examine his actions, because the fast is in lieu of a sin offering. Just as a sacrifice is not effective without teshuvah, as it is written "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination..."(Proverbs 21:27), so it is that fasting for a bad dream is not effective without teshuvah.

Have a meaningful fast, together with sincere teshuvah, and may we merit to see the Holy Temple rebuilt!

Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi and Secular Jewess Join Forces to Fight Assimilation

It is nice to see that there are people who not only realize that there is a problem, but are actually doing something about it:

It is Friday afternoon in Hollywood, Florida. Dr. Neta Peleg-Oren, a secular psychotherapist, and Yehuda Kornfeld, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and educator, are sitting opposite me. Both are former Israelis and they are worried.

“This Won’t Happen to Me” is the name of the workshop they conduct together and it is also the title of their soon-to-be published book. “This won’t happen to me” is the sentence that almost every Israeli parent in America utters regarding the assimilation and intermarriage of his/her children, but it happens. There are more than half a million Israeli-Americans and a significant majority of their children marry non-Jews.

Read the rest.

Return to Israel the Moment It's Possible, Parshat Vayigash 2020, Beyond The 4 Amot