May HaShem bless all Am Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael with good health, peace and prosperity. And bless our brothers and sisters in the galut with the need, desire, courage and vitality to be free from foreign physical and spiritual bonds and come home to fulfill the most inclusive and challenging mitzva – yishuv Eretz Yisrael.

Israel has within it the greatest potential for sanctity. The land and the very air we breathe abound with kedusha, and yet there is a war waging over the soul of our nation.

A while back, I shared my thoughts regarding where HaShem is taking us at this juncture in our long and circuitous history. With the fighting resumed, it is even more imminent than before to discuss where it is leading.

Where in our parasha is the one pasuk, actually the one word, that embodies the essence of HaShem’s relationship with Am Yisrael as a distinct and independent entity unrelated to any other nation or race and what is its parallel in Megillat Esther?

How can we explain why the Medina exists and thrives within a sea of Amalek, in a veritable sea of war and hate?

Let’s get to the root of the Israeli failures that allowed for the sadistic and murderous onslaught perpetrated by Hamas and so-called “innocent Palestinian civilians” on October 7, 2023 against Jews in Israel.

Rabbi Meir states that tzitzit with techelet initiate a chain reaction of sight and thought leading up to the Holy Throne. Tzitzit are basically woolen fringes hanging from the four corners of a garment, but their exalted function is to raise man’s sight and perspective from the routine and mundane to the exalted presence of the Creator.

In our yeshiva we played a make-believe game centering around the question: if Israel and the US went to war against each other, on whose side would you be? Could it ever happen?

A wise rabbi once said: “Though we cannot understand why things happen to us, but at least we can prepare for their eventuality”.

Something big is happening now in our world; changes which are on a Biblical scale. Changes so sudden and extreme that political analysts, commentators, and rabbis preparing Shabbat drashot need to appraise events beyond the present and then wait for reality to set in.

What are the telltale signs of true love? The desire to be close to the person one loves; the need to communicate, to be understood and to understand each other; the desire to give more and more without expecting anything in return; and to see only the good and forgive that which is less than good.

On the 34th Yahrzeit (18th of Cheshvan) of my brother Ha’Rav Meir David Kahana Z.L.: Four Eulogies