Analysis

Tuesday, September 26th 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Amir Oren The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune, Dec. 2022 “The sins of the Agranat Commission became gradually evident as its bias and secrets were exposed and declassified.”   As Israel heads into the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, one issue from that momentous war is still debated in Israel. Who was to […]

Analysis

Tuesday, September 26th 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Edward Kunz Origins, Sept. 25, 2023 “The Nixon administration had to justify supporting Israel in the face of a global economic downturn. The OPEC nations demanded an “evenhanded” American mediation between Israel and its neighbors to end the embargo.”   On October 6, 1973, the Yom Kippur War erupted in the Middle East when Anwar Sadat’s Egypt […]

Analysis

Tuesday, September 26th 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Ofer Aderet Haaretz, Sept. 21, 2023 “Because of the intelligence failure, which essentially wasn’t a system-wide lapse but an individual failure by the Military Intelligence chief, the decision-makers didn’t receive the warning they expected and the IDF didn’t prepare for war in time.”  A quick glance at the output of Prof. Uri Bar-Joseph reveals that […]

Analysis

Tuesday, September 26th 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Herb Keinon Jerusalem Post, Sept. 23, 2023 “This was the trauma of going from such a high after the victory of 1967, to falling so low. It was the trauma of the surprise, and feeling let down by the military, in which people placed so much faith.” Israelis love to beat their chests in self-reproach, […]

Isranet Daily Briefing

Friday, September 22nd 2023 / Tuesday, October 31st 2023

SHABBAT READING   Crimson to White: Yom Kippur’s Miraculous Thread:  Dr. Rabbi Joshua Kulp, The Torah.com, Sept. 21, 2023 — Leviticus (ch. 16) describes a Yom Kippur ritual, known as the scapegoat, in which a goat is chosen by lottery to bear Israel’s iniquities, and is then sent into the wilderness as a way of […]

Analysis

Friday, September 22nd 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Baruch Sterman and Judy Taubes Sterman Jewish Review of Books, Fall 2023 “There are uncertainties that are by their very nature unknowable, and there are those that could in theory be known but are not known now. Some things are unknowable; others are merely unknown. In the first case, there is greater room for leniency […]

Analysis

Friday, September 22nd 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Herman Kieval Commentary Magazine, October 1968   “The psychoanalyst Theodor Reik contends that even Jews totally removed from any formal ties with Judaism are susceptible to Kol Nidre which, he believes, speaks to the collective Jewish unconscious of its deepest tribal memories.” All vows, renunciations, promises, obligations, oaths, taken from this Day of Atonement till […]

Analysis

Friday, September 22nd 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Mosaic Magazine, Sept. 21, 2023 “There is no lack of “Yom Kippur Jews” for whom the day means, if anything at all, going through the motions of soul-searching perfunctorily. If the God of Israel chooses to punish them for their unrepented sins in the year that follows, will they not also have had a yom kippur […]

Analysis

Friday, September 22nd 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Ruth R. Wisse WSJ, Sept. 21, 2023 “The Peretz-like skeptic who discredits supernatural belief is won over by the act of human kindness performed anonymously and in secret—by Judaism’s humanistic, humanitarian ethic.”   In the Hebrew calendar, the 10-day period beginning with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and ending with Yom Kippur, the year’s holiest […]

Analysis

Thursday, September 21st 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Jacob Sivak Jerusalem Post, June 28, 2023 “The layout can be described as a spiral, or a calligraphic solar system, with “idea units circulating like moons around a major planet.””   This year marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the worldwide Daf Yomi (“a page a day”) study of the Talmud, as well as the […]

Analysis

Thursday, September 21st 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

William Kremer BBC World Service, Nov. 8, 2013 “… with each daf yomi cycle, the Talmud gets more accessible.”   Step into the last carriage of the 07:53 train from Inwood to Penn Station in New York and you may be in for a surprise. The commuters here are not looking at their phones or […]

Analysis

Thursday, September 21st 2023 / Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Atar Hadari Mosaic Magazine, Mar. 25, 2020 “Even in the throes of revolutionary uprising, these rebels are aware of the social consequences of overturning the existing order.”   On January 5, the seven-year cycle of Talmud study known as the daf yomi (“daily page”) began once more. Two months later, it still seems an apt moment to […]