- With Peace talks, boundaries and land swaps in the headlines again, take a look at my previous (2011) post on parshat Bahar: We are all Settlers where I explore Biblical concepts of land ownership.
- My friend Amichai Lau-Lavie in his weekly WORD blog makes a similar argument this week.. YOUR LAND IS NOT YOUR LAND: WORD #30
- Since returning from a trip to Eastern Europe I am struck by the vibrant lack of homogeneity of past and present Jewish communities. If one were to view Roman Vishniac’s iconic photo book: A Vanished World, one would think that all Jews in Eastern Europe were of the Orthodox variety. In fact an exhibit at the International Center of Photography entitled Roman Vishniac Rediscovered shows a more diverse picture made up of Zionists (labor/revisionist), socialists, Bundists and everyone in between. Maybe its time to rediscover our own links and definitions of being Jewish….
- Here’s a fascinating post from Hirhurim about a little known book written by a Hungarian Rabbi who perished during the last days of the Holocaust and who was known as a vehement anti-Zionist. He wrote the book to admit that he and histeachers were wrong about Zionism He retracts his previous anti-Zionist statements, and criticizes, albeit respectfully, his mentor the Minchas Elazar, and others, for their anti-Zionist views. A Rare Book
Maybe its time to re-evaluate those positions we hold to be a Law given to Moses as Sinai… after all the parsha is call BeHar.. at the mountain.
