Chaim Goldberg

Flydubai Flight #1073. Miracles within miracles within miracles: • The good pilot, the captain, manages to unlock the cockpit door despite suffering stab wounds to...

“She will never meet a survivor of Auschwitz.” On a recent visit to Denver with my one-year old daughter, I hoped to bring her to meet Cantor Zachary Kutner. A few months back, his son advised me to be in touch upon arriving in Denver. When I did so, he responded, “Dad has taken ill recently and unfortunately, we can’t have visitors now. Please G-d we will schedule with you next time.”

This place must be what protects the entire nation of Israel!” exclaimed the chasid from Ramat Bet Shemesh. We were seated for kiddush on Shabbat morning in Moshav Amirim, a secular community in the Upper Galilee, having just concluded the Shabbat prayers surrounded by every type of Jew — secular, religious, traditional, haredi and chasidic.

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.