Rabbi’s Blog: Rally in Japan
11/13/2023 02:02:04 PM
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Dear OZ family,
We all have a...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: “Advanced” Societies
11/12/2023 12:00:46 PM
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Dear OZ family,
Shavua...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: “Advanced” Societies
11/10/2023 01:45:26 PM
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Dear OZ family,
Historians, professors, and political scientists have long grappled with the...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Compare & Contrast
11/08/2023 02:13:03 PM
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Dear OZ family,
A few contrasts: A peaceful rally in...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Calls to Action...
11/06/2023 11:41:12 AM
Dear OZ family,
Our sages say that “Kol HaPosel, B’mumo Posel”, which means that those who invalidate others, pick on their own failures and project it upon others. Claims of Israeli...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: In Avraham's Footsteps...
11/03/2023 12:21:19 PM
Dear OZ family,
The chess match continues. Chamas released the most heinous images of its profound barbarism in order to assure an unambiguous Israeli response. Israel had a brief time...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Israel is Family
11/01/2023 02:18:04 PM
Dear OZ family,
Yesterday was a very hard day for our people. Every captive, every soldier, every Israeli that has to hide in a safe room as hundreds of rockets soar overhead (8,500 in the...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Israel - at Beit Elazraki
10/30/2023 04:31:19 PM
Dear OZ family,
I just heard from the children’s home that Alisa and I work with every summer, Beit Elazraki. They were able to move from being a red zone to being a green zone, after 2...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Remembering Rachel Imeinu z'l
10/26/2023 06:06:14 PM
Dear Friends,
Today is 11 Cheshvan, which according to tradition, is the Yahrzeit of our matriarch, Rachel. This is considered an auspicious day to pray for people in great need. Since her son Yosef was also...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog: Remembering Miriam Feig z’l
10/25/2023 04:48:47 PM
Dear OZ family,
Today would have been Miriam Feig’s 95thbirthday. Miriam’s life was characterized by significant upheaval. During the Holocaust she was hidden in a monastery and survived by living among Christians,...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Am Yisrael Chai!
10/24/2023 03:26:49 PM
Dear OZ family,
The first commentary of Rashi to the Torah demonstrates that he was a fervent Zionist who unapologetically believed in our Divine right to the land of Israel. Rashi...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Above Nature + NORPAC
10/23/2023 05:19:34 PM
Dear OZ family,
Israel has a unity government, there have been no protests in Israel the last two weeks, you cannot find a pair of tzitzis in Israel because there is a run on them for soldiers, and incredible acts of...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Compare & Contrast
10/20/2023 12:06:26 PM
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Dear OZ member,
Consider these...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Defying Logic
10/19/2023 03:22:28 PM
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Dear OZ family,
Just because we can explain something, doesn’t make it acceptable. The failure of Ivy League presidents to forcefully and unequivocally condemn the...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Moral Clarity
10/18/2023 10:58:44 AM
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Dear OZ family,
Simple moral clarity. Most of the people I come across on the way to shul every day, can identify evil. They hold up a hand or a fist to me and say “I’m with you bro”. The vacuous...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Thankfulness & Commitment
10/16/2023 11:55:28 AM
Dear OZ family,
I’m on the phone much of the day with Israel. As I write this, the entire Yerushalayim environs are in their safe rooms. I get red alerts on my phone, and they have been ringing non-stop. This not only affects population centers near Gaza, but major cities, like Yerushalayim and Tel Aviv. That...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: Shabbat Shalom - Shabbat of Peace
10/13/2023 11:55:28 AM
Dear OZ family,
Many children in Israel have still not gone back to school, and they have been told that zoom classes will begin next week. So many children have just gotten over their Covid lockdown traumas, and they feel they are living it all over again. Many of these families don’t have the quiet space for each child to learn properly, much less, the devices for each one to do so. In my son, Moshe’s case, he has...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: On Duty, On Guard
10/12/2023 11:57:07 AM
Dear OZ family,
Every Jew is in the Israel Defense Forces now. Some are going house to house to free hostages, some are freeing the world from Chamas’s deadly violence, some are guarding the border, and some are on reserve duty. Some are praying, some are saying Tehillim, some are raising money for army bases, some are volunteering to fill in for so many reservists. Some are dedicating chesed activities to the...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Israel: #AmYisraelChai
10/11/2023 11:58:09 AM
Dear OZ family,
The mornings feel like the days following 9/11, when we would wake up wondering if it was all a nightmare. It is very real and it is far from over. That is why we must exert the powerful resolve to do all we can to alleviate the suffering that continues, and to assure victory over the evil that was perpetrated against us. This includes thanking those who have come out in support for Israel, and to take...Read more...
Rabb's Blog - Remembering the Pentcho
08/16/2023 12:57:55 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
I was sent a picture of Ohab Zedek in 1927 (below) from a NYC digital street kiosk. Netanya has similar kiosks and I took a picture (below). It refers to this city as Israel’s Riviera. The Riviera is hot this week. There were rolling blackouts all over Netanya this past week. We had one in our neighborhood this past Shabbos and Alisa and I were just caught up in one at the...Read more...
Rabb's Blog - Names of Netanya
08/11/2023 12:10:57 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Today’s a real hot one. It gets down to about 37 degrees at night. Unfortunately that’s Celsius.
We took some grandchildren to a trampoline gym in Netanya. Outside of Kiryat Sanz, Netanya is not a particularly observant city, and the place has Shabbos hours. Yet the front door has a Mezuzah and the bathrooms have Netilat Yadayim cups.
We also went to the...Read more...
Rabb's Blog - My Big ... Wedding!
08/10/2023 10:56:28 AM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Greetings from Netanya,
Most of the children from Beit Elazraki have been settled someplace for the rest of the summer. That means that they have a place at a relative or a friend, or parents who are unable to care for their child make the effort to do so for a few weeks before the new school year begins.
There are about 30 kids though, who have no place...Read more...
Rabb's Blog - A Note from Netanya
08/09/2023 01:10:44 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Greetings from Netanya!
After a week in Netanya, we have seen a microcosm of this great city in the bustling nighttime activity of Independence Square, the phenomenally busy Ir Yamim mall the Mediterranean shore as well as the Sanz- Klausenberg complex. Every imaginable type of Israeli is here and they all get along swimmingly.
The beach is shared wonderfully without...Read more...
Rabb's Blog - Eikev: Eat, Pray, Love
08/04/2023 11:30:18 AM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Greetings from Netanya,
This week’s Torah reading contains two of our most common daily Mitzvot, to pray and to bless God after eating. The essence of prayer is to recognize God’s majesty and to acknowledge God as the source of the fulfillment of all our needs.
Benching after food is an expression of gratitude for what we just ate, as well as for everything we have. God certainly...Read more...
Rebbetzin's Blog - For August 4
08/04/2023 10:58:57 AM
FROM THE REBBETZIN'S DESK
Dear OZ Family,
Today's date, August 4th has great significance for me. It marks two years since I finished treatment for breast cancer. I am extremely grateful to Hashem for restoring me back to good health, and to the entire OZ community for your prayers, kindness and good wishes during that difficult time. I feel very blessed to be part of such a loving and supportive community.
To...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Greetings from Israel
08/01/2023 04:30:43 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Greetings from Ben Gurion airport. Our trip to Israel began with a 5 hour delay and we left at the ungodly hour of 4:30 am. As I showed my boarding pass at the gate, I was flagged and asked to wait on the side as others were being boarded. Alisa joined me and we felt like unruly students sent to the principal’s office as everyone was...Read more...
Rabbi’s Blog - Trip to Netanya
07/31/2023 05:48:47 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Alisa and I are leaving this evening for Israel. We’ll be staying at Beit Elazraki in Netanya, a place that always fills us with inspiration and joy. Beit Elazraki is an Emunah facility that has grown recently by leaps and bounds, and has over the years, helped thousands of disadvantaged youth not...Read more...
Rebbetzin’s Blog - The Annual 5K Shlep
07/24/2023 05:10:18 PM
FROM THE REBBETZIN'S DESK
Dear OZ Family,
By now many of you may have received an email from Rabin Medical Center asking you to participate in the NYC 5K Schlep 2023. This is a walk that the Rabbi and I have been participating in for over a decade. Two years ago, however, this event took on special significance to me because I had just finished treatment for...Read more...
Rabbi's Blog: 29 Tammuz - Rashi's Yahrzeit
07/18/2023 03:24:55 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
Today, Tammuz 29, is Rashi’s 918th Yahrzeit. He left this world, according to tradition, while writing the word, “Tahor”, “Pure” in a revised Talmud commentary. Rashi revolutionized the study of Talmud and Bible in his straightforward and P’shat...Read more...
Rabbi's Blog: The #98
07/17/2023 02:24:23 PM
FROM THE RABBI'S DESK
Dear OZ family,
A few words about the # 98. That number comes up in Jewish sources in exactly opposite contexts, in blessings and curses. There are altogether, 98 curses in the Tochecha of Parshat Ki Tavo (Devarim 28), and they are all offset in the first week of marriage in...Read more...
