As Israel launched its new Gaza operation, the question about the fate of the hostages became, once more, urgent. Does the government care, does it mix politics with policies when discussing the hostages? There is reality and there is perception. Perception: many Israelis are suspicious, as we’ve seen. Reality: it’s complicated, as actions cannot always reveal the motivation behind the policies.

Before Mrs. Tzeela Gez, the latest victim of Palestinian Arab terrorism, was even buried, the process of dehumanizing her was well underway… The official Palestinian Authority news agency, Wafa, did not report the murder of Mrs. Gez. It did quote an Israeli cabinet minister calling for a forceful response to the attack—but it did not explain what he was responding to. That’s one way to dehumanize a victim—pretend she does not exist.

The next time you find yourself feeling anxious, I urge you to say the following: “I know that what you’re doing is for the best, Hashem. Please give me the strength to get through it.”

Then release that worry and move on. Once you know that Hashem is there for you, that He wants you to thrive and succeed in life, then your anxiety won’t be able to consume you anymore.

For the 330 million Hindu gods said to be worshiped in India, and the many others besides, you’d think my family might have gone in for at least one.

All my friends had a dedicated sacred space in their homes: a puja room or altar where they could pray and lay out flowers for their favorite deities. My best friend even had photographs of what seemed to be a God on the wall. His name was Aga Khan. I remember asking my mother, “How come Maj’s God wears a suit and is alive?” The fact that God didn’t need to be dead blew my mind. God could be in the pots and pans, in a rock, the sky, the earth, even the polo field. Still, somehow, my family didn’t have one.

For the secular person of the modern age… nature has fallen silent. “The cosmos has become opaque, inert, mute,” Eliade observes, in Willard R. Trask’s translation; “it transmits no message, it holds no cipher.” What would it take for 21st-century humans to learn once again how to see the cosmos as alive, as a sentient being capable of speaking and bearing messages worthy of our listening?

The increase in loud egos has coincided with declines in well-being. The rate of depression in the United States has risen to its highest level on record. Behavioral science offers a compelling thesis that may explain what we’re seeing, as a result of what has been termed the “self-reflection paradox.” An intense focus on self is an evolved trait, scientists suggest, because it confers competitive advantages in mating and survival. But research has also shown that to be so focused on self can be a primary source of unhappiness and maladjustment.

For Nachmanides, known more popularly as Ramban (1194-1270) – one of the giants of Rabbinic history in the Middle Ages – the Torah was not simply commanding obedience to the Divine Words but expressing a remarkable covenant: a covenant between the Jewish people and the very land of Israel, a commitment with prophetic implications that have special relevance in our times. Fulfill your ethical obligations to the Law and the land will respond by blessing you in turn.

Last week we read about the mitzvah of counting Sefirat HaOmer, the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot (Vayikra 23:15-16), and this week in Behar-Bechukotai we read about the mitzvah to count the seven sabbatical years leading up to the Jubilee (Vayikra 25:8).

Although similar in nature, there is one significant difference between the two acts of counting, and it tends to be missed in translation.

How can one place a value on a human life? The key word seems to be yafli’—to make wondrous, beyond the natural ways of the world. To articulate such a vow is an extraordinary thing to do. Placing a shekel value on a soul/human life [nefesh] essentially reduces what is immeasurable. This is a “hard” or “difficult” thing, a pel’e, “a wonder”. To speak in this way is to encroach upon God’s jurisdiction.

Dan’s address expanded upon many of the topics we often discuss on Call Me Back, but it primarily focused on the challenges ahead for Diaspora Jewish communities in a post-10/07 world. Dan also laid out a first draft of an action plan for Jewish Peoplehood that is no longer prominent and weak but one that is instead Jewish and strong.

After publishing a fascinating, spanning history of Christianity, Paul Johnson grew ever more curious about Judaism, Christianity’s elder brother in faith. That fascination led, in 1987, to the publication of his A History of the Jews, which until now is perhaps the best paced, best written single-volume history of the Jewish idea in English. It was sometimes quipped that it was given as a gift to half the bar mitzvahs in America. Paul Johnson died at the age of ninety-four in January 2023.

In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, talk to Moshe Krakowski, a professor at Yeshiva University, about his work on Attrition and Connection in American Orthodox Judaism, the OU’s study on what we crassly call “OTD.”