An Instant In An Eternity

The whole uproar over the Women of the Wall (WoW) continues in the media as each month they gather for the Rosh Chodesh morning service at The Kotel. Recently, in The Times of Israel there was an excellent piece by Hannah Katsman on Tolerance . Her point is just outstanding and articulates well what I have not been able to articulate for years. It's important and nuanced and needs to be internalized. I recommend reading her whole piece. But I'll attempt to extrapolate from it here a bit. Asking others to meet your stricter religious observance in fact is a level of intolerance. There has to be room at the table for everyone. The problem with the protests of the WoW is that they are being told that their presence and prayer are offensive to the most religious and that we must cater to the needs of the most religious to make space for everyone at The Kotel. But that ends up ONLY making space for the most religious and not leaving room for the less religious who find spiritu...

With the momentum I just created for myself with the last post, and given two huge issues at play in the Israeli media (and I suspect more broadly), I want to offer up an analysis. I get my news in a variety of ways: what I hear and understand on the radio when I happen to hear the 2-5 minute newscast in Hebrew at the top of the hour what my friends post to Facebook (which is really quite diverse, I have an amazing array of friends who read all manner of great news sources, thank you!) what I read in bits and pieces at The Times of Israel on my own what I read in bits and pieces at The New York Times also on my own By no means is my understanding of the current events comprehensive as I am usually interrupted mid-read by a small child or other matter requiring attention. I do my best. This is part of what has spurred me to start writing this blog - the explosion of news sources and the immediacy of the internet based news cycle can make news overwhelming and so quickly out d...