Rabbi's Blog

Dear OZ family,

Our days here are so packed tight that I hardly have a moment to send out my thoughts for the day, so I’m sending my thoughts for the week just before Shabbos.

I am amazed at the plethora of July 4th sales that were taking place at the mall In Netanya. Israel appreciates the wisdom of America’s founding fathers, and the malls and restaurants are teeming with people who speak French, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, and English and Hebrew as well. People from all over the world want to be here as much as they want to get to the US.
Alisa and I also tuned in to our founding fathers and mothers this week with a trip to Kiryat Arba and Chevron, two places that have been significantly developed in recent years.

The children’s home where we are staying, Beit Elazraki, graduated it’s oldest grade, 12 teenagers who will be facing life with the confidence of a more welcoming world than the one they encountered when entering the home 8 years ago. Every one of them is either graduating to elite army units, sherut leumi (community service), or higher education. They are also from every race you can imagine, and they are a microcosm of the nation on the whole.

In Israel, we are reading Parshas Balak this Shabbos, and we know that the Bilaams and Balaks of the world will never acknowledge our blessedness of their own accord. But we truly are blessed and that begins with our recognition as such. No doubt there is much improvement needed here in politics, and social safety, and more, but from what it faces in its neighborhood, this country runs every day on the fuel of phenomenal Divine providence.

Many people traverse numerous countries in an attempt to find a better life in Israel. It sounds like America. There must be a reason for that. Perhaps it is also Divine Providence. May Israel continue to be blessed, and Alisa joins me in wishing everyone a blessed Shabbos.

Stay well and healthy.

Rabbi Allen Schwartz