In the climax of the ten plagues visited upon Egypt, Hashem commands Moses to tell the Israelites to sacrifice the Paschal lamb and smear its blood on the doorposts of their houses, in order to save themselves from Makkat Bechorot,…
The zionist imperative of Passover
This week we celebrate the festival of Passover. If asked on the spot what the point of the holiday is, you would probably respond “to commemorate the redemption from Egyptian bondage.” This interaction is reenacted on the Seder night: The…
Taste of Torah: Purposeful Meandering
Written by Rabbi Aaron Lerner, senior Jewish educator of Hillel at UCLA Most Americans strive for efficiency. The popular Israeli-invented app Waze, for instance, provides many of us with a significantly reduced commuting time. In fact, just yesterday, it directed…
Genocide of the soul: the new Jewish face of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is still the greatest threat to the Jewish people, but the threat comes from within the Jewish state. I was dismayed to read the news last week about the new Egyptian government’s cancellation of a screening of a…
Morsi, Obama and Bibi: which of these is not like the others?
Please Note: The individual opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Ha’Am Newsmagazine as a whole. An exciting trifecta of recent events: the American presidential inauguration was a few weeks ago, Israeli elections just…
“Pharaoh” Morsi and Israeli foreign relations: is the broker for peace broke?
What do false goatees, megalomania, and President Mohamed Morsi have in common? Pharaonic rulership, according to a number of disgruntled Egyptians, quoted by The Guardian as believing their country to have acquired a “Mubarak with a beard” after Morsi declared presidential “immunity” from judicial oversight and the ability to pass laws as he pleases. The engineer-come-dark-horse-politician has…