A Day Is Coming: One G-d, One World
Counting the Minutes: Turning To G-d
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
No Jew Left Behind
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For Israel: An Ode of Hope and Strength
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On The Wings of Eagles
Don't Be So Humble; You're Not That Great
The Rebbe Knew
Imagine Peace
This book is about the incredible Jewish homeland of Israel. As the prophet Isaiah states (11:12), "He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth." This work is a reflection of my deep love and yearning for our Promised Land. This book is anchored in G-d's Biblical promise to the Jewish people for this amazing land, the decades of persecution culminating in the Holocaust that the Jews have endured, our miraculous national resurrection and return, the blossoming of the deserts and metamorphosis into a scientific, technological and military world power, and the hope and prayer for all us to be able to make Aliyah and for the completion of the Redemption and the coming of the Mashiach.
Announcing my Second Book: For the Love of Israel
This book is about finding and connecting with G-d. As the prophet Jeremiah states (29:13), "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." This is my personal journey back to G-d and Judaism. It provides my life reflections, dreams, prayers, and hopes to strengthen my faith and trust in G-d by exploring a variety of the precious gems of Judaism and the Torah, reflecting on the diversity and strength of our people and culture, and longing for our nation and beautiful State of Israel and the completion of the final Redemption and bringing of the Mashiach. Please G-d, may it serve as inspiration for your journey as well.
Announcing My First Book: On Judaism and Life
There can be no doubt that the long-awaited completion of our redemption and the coming of the Mashiach by the Jewish year 6,000 (the beginning of the seventh millennium) is established no less than the Shabbat, which is the seventh day of every week for us. The Shabbat, in fact, is considered a covenant between G-d and the Jewish people, and so too, according to Maimonides’ “13 Principles of Faith,” we trust in the coming of Mashiach.
(Credit Photo: Minna Blumenthal)
7 & the Redemption
Tisha B'Av - Destruction of The Temple
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "The Irreligious Religious."
If some “religious” people do the wrong thing, disrespect their fellow Jews, hate on them, curse them, defile their prayers, that doesn’t mean they are really religious. Rather to the contrary — they are the irreligious religious!
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
The Irreligious Religious
Is This The Coming of Gog and Magog?
Calling On The Vatican
The contrast between me being Jewish and the environment that was as broad as the United Nations (actually only a few blocks away), helped me to find myself and to build my personal Jewish identity. So, I think that for those Jews that are afraid for their children to leave the confines of the home, their “shtetl” neighborhood, and the local yeshiva, because they are afraid of the “foreign” (goyish) influences, I think that while that may be right for some Jews possibly, it is definitely not right for all of us.In a sense, the redemption of the Jewish people and exodus was so much greater a miracle by Moshe becoming this great Jewish leader from within the fires of the Egyptian paganism at the time. Moshe’s rejectionism of Egyptian power and culture used for evil to enslave and hurt others was a powerful choice of good over evil and a message to Pharaoh and his household that despite all his wealth, strength, and influence, that Pharaoh and Egypt would fall before the hand of the true, Almighty G-d of Israel. Similarly, I think the message for us is that the final redemption for us and the world will come initially from “galut” (outside of Israel) from the cauldron of “Edom” (the Roman Empire and Western civilization) and all the materialist and pleasurable freedoms and allures thereof.
Finding Our Religion
What a difference 73 years of the State of Israel makes! While the anti-Semites and anti-Zionists out there like to call us occupiers, colonizers, and an Apartheid state, it couldn’t be any further from the truth. The Jews are indigenous to Israel for four thousand years, and it is the Promised Land by G-d to our forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moreover, Israel is a free and democratic nation driven to equality and progress, and with outstanding opportunity for all that are able to live peacefully together.From a historical perspective, it is absolutely clear that after the Jewish people had been forcibly expelled by the Romans in the year 134, Israel fell into a state of wasteland and utter desolation...Contrast what Mark Twain and the others saw for hundreds of years in terms of the ruin, decline, and depopulation of the so-called “Palestine” (as named by the Romans “Syria Palaestina” to delegitimize the Jews from their promised homeland) with what Israel is today, and it is nothing short of a truly miraculous transformation back to its essence as the Garden of Eden.
Israel: A Uniquely Jewish Miracle
Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Paradoxically Jewish."
While Israel and the Jews are filled with paradoxes from our forefather Abraham to the modern State of Israel, we are a people who try to wear these paradoxes well. We relish our commonalties even as we are proud of our differences and uniqueness. We argue and fight with each to try to get to “the truth of the matter,” and we negotiate, compromise, threaten and cajole to that sometimes elusive end. Paradox is just another word for our survival against all odds and our determination to overcome the blind hate, anti-Semitism, and scapegoating of Jews throughout history. We Jews are individually broken, but together, we are a beautiful, paradoxical mosaic—a little meshuggah (crazy) and with an unfortunate dose of PTSD, but fundamentally good in intent and deed—working to fulfill our optimism, hope, and mission to usher in the universality of G-d in the world and of betterment for humankind.(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
Paradoxically Jewish
