News

The walls are closing in around Joe Biden as bombshell after bombshell hit him, his administration, and his family. In the last week, an impeachment inquiry was opened, his son was indicted, he capitulated to Iran, and he’s been worse than ever on the stump. His general election poll numbers have flatlined to the point that former President Donald Trump is ahead of him in the Real Clear Politics polling average. Will Democrats try to get Biden out and put someone else in?

I write this report from Yerushalayim where we spent a beautiful Sukkos holiday with our family. Beautiful until Shabbos Simchas Torah morning when news began to trickle out. The neighborhood we are in is all religious so no one was listening to the radio or checking their emails. So, the information was minimal, but enough to worry everyone. As the afternoon progressed, more news emerged. After havdalah, Motza'ei Shabbos/Yom Tov, we began to hear more detail, more horror, more deaths, more captives, more sorrow.

This Yom Kippur marked fifty years since the tragic war that broke out on Yom Kippur in 1973.  Fifty years is a significant time - half a century, to be exact. A jubilee according to the Jewish calendar.  A lot has changed since; however, many of the changes we are experiencing today started as a result of the Yom Kippur War.  This includes the disastrous Oslo Accords, or rather the Oslo Surrender, which took place exactly thirty years ago, and also the recent turmoil and waves of civil violence waged by a progressive minority that are bringing Israel on the cusp of civil war.   

I went to the synagogue last Friday night to dance with the Torah and celebrate Shmini Atzeret, the last day of the fall Jewish holidays. My wife and I were overjoyed from experiencing the Chagim in Israel. We had prayed, sang and danced in the synagogue on Rosh HaShanah, davened fervently for a healthy and peaceful year on Yom Kippur, gone on family tiyulim (day trips), and spent long hours with children and grandchildren in our children’s Succah. On Shabbat morning, reality and the vicissitudes of life struck home. We were awakened at 6:30 a.m. by sirens signaling a rocket attack on Rehovot. Little did we know that by nightfall on that day, life in Israel would be changed for the foreseeable future.  

Reality doesn’t care what political party you are a part of. Reality doesn’t have platitudes or talking points. Governor Kathy Hochul got hit with a dose of reality so hard that all the diatribes she gave when running for office fell flat on its face with the explosion of illegal migrants that is overwhelming New York.

Fifty years ago, I was learning at Kerem B’Yavneh, a hesder yeshivah where Israeli students divided their time between learning at the yeshivah and military service. On the morning of Yom Kippur, we heard planes flying over the yeshivah, a clear sign that something was very wrong. As the day went on, students began to discreetly leave the yeshivah. Many of the students were in the army that Yom Kippur morning, conducting the t’filos. One was taken as a POW by the Syrians. Twelve never returned to the yeshivah.