He toured Israel and the West Bank, talking to Jews and Arabs.  This changed his mind.  He concluded that Jimmy Carter and the BDS movement are wrong: Israel is not an apartheid state.  In fact, today’s Israel and apartheid South Africa are vastly different.  For his article, click here. Read more

Doug Mainwaring tried to be a woman and is now a married man with children, and an active orthodox Christian.  His story is fascinating.  He says that we orthodox need to stop being afraid to discuss man-woman marriage in public.  Our society desperately needs us to speak up.  For more, click here. Read more

The journal Providence is running my article today on last week’s American betrayal of Israel at the United Nations.  This is an adaptation of what I wrote last week in this space, but I have added a comment on John Kerry’s defense of the abstention yesterday, and three points at the end answering the question, Why should we care? For the new article, click here. Read more

For the first time in the history of the United States, we have failed to condemn an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations. Today we abstained, rather than opposed (as all previous presidential administrations have done), an anti-Israel resolution that condemned its West Bank settlements (even in East Jerusalem, where expansions to long-existing Jewish communities have not been criticized by past Palestinian leaders ) as illegal. I must repeat what I have said previously at this space: West Bank settlements on the... Read more

Did you know that Jesus said the Shema was the most important part of the Old Testament? (more…) Read more

 וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם עַל־מְזוּזֹ֥ת בֵּיתֶ֖ךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ ס9 And write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Have you ever seen a mezuzah on a doorpost of a Jewish home?  It is a little rectangular container, usually silver or gold, containing parchment on which is written either the Shema or some other Torah passage.  Its purpose is to remind the disciple of God’s words as he enters or leaves his house. (more…) Read more

 וּקְשַׁרְתָּ֥ם לְא֖וֹת עַל־יָדֶ֑ךָ וְהָי֥וּ לְטֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֶֽיךָ׃8 You should bind them as a sign on your hand. And let them be as frontlets between your eyes. The idea here is that it is not enough to talk to your kids about God’s words.  We need to put them into flesh in material ways in our lives and homes. (more…) Read more

You may have noticed that I have not posted for a week. That’s because we have suffered deep pain.  We have lost our newest grandbaby, Florence Cynthia. (more…) Read more

 וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣7  בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשָׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ׃ and you should inculcate them in your sons and talk about them when you are sitting  around in your house and when you are walking on the road and when you are going to bed and when you get up in the morning. This is the answer to the question of how to get our kids to love God.  Talk to them, teach them.  Do it throughout our daily lives. ... Read more

This is the third in a series on The Shema (Deut 6.4-9)  וְהָי֞וּ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֙ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ׃ 6 And let these words which I am commanding you today be on your heart [sing]. So the answer to our problem of not being able to love God sufficiently is meditation on the Word. First we have to go to these words of Scripture—not just these in the Pentateuch but all of Scripture—and then meditate on them (keep them on... Read more