Sometimes, you can’t change the world, and to make sure the world doesn’t change you, difficult and often painful decisions are necessary. In the Israeli army, there are certain rules and codes you learn quickly, that most soldiers instinctively understand. No normal soldier steals weapons and you don’t ever take personal belongings from anyone, especially from the guys in your own unit. more

On September 7, 2007, Israel bombed a compound of buildings in eastern Syria, which, as it later reported, was a nuclear reactor being built with the assistance of North Korea. In a 2012 article … more

If you would have collected a group of world-renowned military strategists on Yom Kippur in 1973 and asked them, at 4 pm Israel time, for a prognosis on the status of the events unfolding on the … more

There is war, and then there is madness. In war, one has to fight, but when madness sets in, sometimes has to run. Such was the question on a dark October afternoon in 1973, when the quiet beauty … more

Nineteen hundred and forty two years ago, this week, (on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz) the end finally began. After two and a half years of siege, the Roman Legions broke through the ancient walls of Jerusalem, and began their savage rampage of pillage and looting through the streets of Jerusalem. more

The small room wasn’t much to look at, with its old, tired-looking walls and cracked floor tiles. And yet, a man had died here in this room. They had been looking for him for quite some time, scouring the country and waking entire neighborhoods every time rumor had it that he was somewhere in the vicinity. To judge by the heavily armed troops that were smashing down doors in the middle of the night, he must have had a fire to him, to inspire such a determined manhunt. more

Ultimately, the fulfillment of a mitzvah is dependent upon the commission of an action, and not on the Kavanah, or intent, that is meant to accompany it. more

That we should love the stranger, the ger, is the fourth mitzvah in Maimonides’ Hilchot Deot (laws of ethical relationships). And as one is not meant to remind a person that he or she is a … more

There is a legend regarding Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the well-known German composer, who was far from being handsome (long with a rather short stature, he had a grotesque hunchback). One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Frumtje.Moses fell helplessly in love with her, but Frumtje was repulsed by his misshapen appearance. more

Along with all of his students, Rabbi Freedman, Rosh Yeshivat Orayta in Jerusalem’s Old City, attended the leviya on Tuesday for Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein z”tl. In place of a new column, … more