When you are up high on top of the mountain, it becomes much easier to see where you are going; everything seems so clear, and often the view is breathtaking. In the valley, on the other hand, the high walls of the mountains obscure where you really are, and it is much easier to get lost. more

I still remember the moment, 30 years later. Rav Aharon Lichtenstein zt”l, our rosh yeshiva at Har Etzion, was giving his advanced Talmud lecture to about 60 students. As he looked up from … more

Maxim Cohen was born in Morocco and made aliyah as child. He enlisted in the IDF, but left Israel with his parents after the Six-Day War to live in France. On Yom Kippur in … more

Cold; so cold it cuts through the rags that were once clothes, straight to the bone. There was a time this cold so occupied your very being, you could concentrate on nothing else. But that was long ago. Darkness; so dark it sometimes seems more than the mere absence of light; it seems almost tangible. You vaguely recall a time when you were obsessed with determining exactly where you were, pacing in the darkness to examine your environs. You figured out you were in some sort of a concrete cell, perhaps six feet square, but not much more than that. You used to wonder what color the walls were, never having been allowed to see them, but that curiosity has long ago been replaced with more basic needs. more

Aong with all the challenging events of this part summer including the terrible kidnapping and murder of Gilad, Eyal and Naftali, I heard an incredible story: A teacher in a resource room for … more

Raymond Smullyan, in his book “5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies,” posits the question of two identical twin brothers, one who always lies and the other who always tells the … more

I noticed the jeep in the distance almost immediately; it was impossible to miss. We were on maneuvers deep in the Negev desert, and there was nothing around but us. Sure enough, 20 minutes … more

Sunday is Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Any serious student of history will recognize that there are moments, all too rare, when a door stands open, waiting for a person, a people, or … more

What makes a leader? The question consumes countless books, seminars and leadership training programs in countless universities and business training models. But it’s worth noting that there … more

Three thousand years ago, King Solomon wrote in the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) that there is a time and a season for everything under the sun. “A time to sing, and a time to dance, a time to rejoice and a time to mourn, a time to reap and a time to sow.” And, like all things, there is a time to ask questions and a time to remain silent." In the Israeli army, there is a type of question known as a she’elat kitbag or kitbag question. more