Rabbi Binny Freedman
452 results total, viewing 381 - 390
Once again, Israel, which so longs for peace, is being forced to ready her children for war.... As missiles fall on the South and parts of the coastal region, and leaves are cancelled, there will be many families whose tefillot (prayers) will have special meaning and urgency this Shabbat. more
If you would have asked me what Abir would end up doing with his life, I would have imagined him as a bouncer.... Abir, an ex-paratrooper, is one of the unsung heroes of the battle of the Chinese chicken farm, when a battalion of paratroopers in the Yom Kippur war had to take a crucial Egyptian position by running up 300 yards of open ground; most of the battalion never made it out of there. I could easily have imagined him grabbing one of the first planes out after the war, maybe to New York or Los Angeles. more
Do we have the right to test G-d? Can we sit back and wait for G-d to give us a sign as to what we are meant to do? Or perhaps we are meant to live in somewhat of a fog, so as to preserve intact our freedom to choose and make decisions in this world? This week’s portion, Chayei Sarah, contains a fascinating story on this topic: Avraham is getting on in years, his beloved wife Sarah is now gone and buried, and it is apparently time for Yitzchak to find a wife. So he calls in his trusted servant, Eliezer, and sends him on a mission to find a suitable mate for his son. 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
He looked like a teenager, until he began to tell his story, and then his face took on a sadness that aged him…. Avi (not his real name) had only recently finished his regular army stint in the IDF, and was due to fly to South Africa as part of a very special educational mission to work with less-affiliated Jewish teens in South Africa. more
Dedicated to the blessed memory of Natan Yosef Chaim (J.J.) z”l, Ben Rav Yitzchak Ve’Blumah’ Greenberg. On the tenth anniversary of his untimely passing. more
One of the great challenges in life, is knowing when to lead and when to follow. In the Israeli army, commanders are trained to lead by example. Many attribute this concept to the battle for Latrun in 1948. more
I hadn’t planned on stopping to watch, but something about him caught my attention. Maybe it was his eyes, which was where his smile began; before it spread to the rest of his face; you could see it coming in the twinkle in his eyes. Or maybe it was the fact that, knowing his history as a Holocaust survivor, it seemed so powerful that on a day such as this, he could tell his story, with such a smile. more
I remember the first Mishnah I ever learned, and it wasn’t in a classroom. (The Mishnah is the basic text of the oral tradition, as codified and edited by rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi circa 200 C.E.) The synagogue we attended when I was five years old had a strict decorum, and I recall the challenges this presented to my parents; vague images of my red-faced and embarrassed father carrying me out of synagogue kicking and screaming come to mind. more
It was the height of the Intifada, and we were in the midst of a months’ worth of reserve duty....It is so easy to demonize the ‘enemy,’ but life isn’t always quite so simple. Deep in the heart of Hebron was an Israeli lookout position, meant to spot trouble on the road below and protect Israeli civilians driving through. more
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