View from the Jerusalem Hills

I made a terrible mistake. Since I won’t be there with them on their first day of school, in my desire to try to be part of this milestone in absentia, I wanted to leave my neighbors’ elementary school age boys a little first day of school package and cards.

The world’s greatest decoy is before our very eyes, and many in the world are falling for it. Asleep at the wheel. Israel the terrible! Israel the evil! Israel the monster! In reality, real savages butchered civilians en masse, even perversely and proudly filming it. But then, in classic projection when people are actually describing themselves, they flip the narrative.

This week a tragic entanglement of two brothers lives told the story that many are still carrying. One brother’s joyous wedding night as he married his bride, the other brother, Bar Ashraf, present and participating in the festivities, warmly hugging his family. Only to disappear afterwards. Within the frantic search for her brother’s whereabouts, three days after the wedding, his sister’s feet led her to Liron Barda’s grave.

When I come back home I’m back in the days and times of “yore” — when I was growing up. It’s always fun to come back and see old friends. One of these people is Pete Moutzouris, known simply as “Pete” of Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables, at the corner of Holly and Cedar Sts., right across from my shul — EDOS.

“Nachamu Nachamu Ami” comes Isaiah’s cry for comforting the nation of Israel, after so much sorrow and national mourning. In these days of the calendar, we lament the anguish of past exile, but also experience the deepening feeling of hostility and alienation in our present exile.

It stopped me in my tracks. A yahrzeit candle perched on a stone plaque right by the Danube River. At the edge of a quiet, tiny town. A pit stop kind of a place, as you’re weaving through bigger cities. I’m not...

Two hundred and fifty years. This July 4th carries an additional dimension of momentousness: a landmark birthday, officially called America’s semiquincentennial celebration. It’s been exactly a quarter of a millennium since the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Although I like to believe that last week’s signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is not the end of the story, but rather roughly equivalent to the Book of Esther’s chapter 3, when Haman’s power seemed elevated and formalized as he became the recipient of the king’s signatory ring. The story of the Megilla still has multiple chapters waiting to unfold before Haman’s downfall is final. The tension and uncertainty still weigh heavily.

It’s called a ceasefire, yet these past few “ceasefire” weeks have been devastating. More young beautiful soldiers with their whole lives ahead of them, serving in Lebanon, fighting Iran- sponsored Hezbollah terrorists, in order to secure Israel, now dead.

As spring melts into the onset of summer, the vivid and colorful landscape around us deepens. Pinks, greens, blues, golds. The colors of flowers and fruits — blushing peaches, apricots and plums. Flowering peonies, dahlias and poppies. Amidst these, there’s the fleeting season of pink rhubarb stalks.