Chaim Goldberg

Penning a column due to be published on America’s semi-quincentennial is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I better do a darn good job, right? As an American turned dual American-Israeli citizen, I see America’s 250th birthday as an opportunity to reflect on some of the values implanted within me growing up. One of those is dialogue across divides, or sharing friendship despite different communal, political or religious affiliations.

The first story we encounter in this week’s Torah portion of Shelach is the infamous, troubling narrative of the spies. They were sent to spy out the Land of Canaan in advance of the Israelite conquest. Ten of the 12 spies brought back a demoralizing report, saying that the Canaanites were too powerful for the Israelites to conquer. The most critical aspect of this Torah portion is our response to it — whether we learn from the spies’ mistakes and to what extent we incorporate the lessons into our own lives.

What to do on Yom HaZikaron (Israel Memorial Day)? Besides attending memorial ceremonies in the morning, we faced the task of finding appropriate activities for an entire afternoon with kids at home (school is dismissed at noon on Yom HaZikaron).

On the seder night, we have only two biblical commandments: eating matzah and retelling the story of our redemption from Egypt, sippur yetziat Egypt. Actually, in the nightly evening prayer (ma’ariv), we fulfill an oddly similar commandment: to remember the redemption, zechirat yetziat Egypt. This is an obligation we fulfill every day of the year when we recite the full Shema.

Two days before Purim is a thrilling day that Israeli kids mark off on their calendars long in advance: it is costume day! Everyone...