Avraham ben Yaakov | Torah thoughts from the celestial city of Tz'fat
These letters are sent to you with love, offering Torah insights and paths of empowerment so that we may together make something better out of today’s troubled world.
Let us seek the Unity that underlies our diversity, and learn to respect one another and follow the ways of peace.
“For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of God to serve Him with one accord.” (Tzephaniah 3:9)
“Then they that fear God will speak to one another, and God will listen and hear, and a book of remembrance will be written before Him for those who fear God and think upon His Name.” (Malachi 3:16)
As I write these words (Oct 19, ’25), Israeli army forces in Gaza are pounding terrorist sites in response to a deadly attack on an Israeli army vehicle that constituted a serious breach of the “ceasefire”. This comes in the wake of Hamas’ dogged foot-dragging in returning all the bodies of Israeli hostages who died in their hands, despite their commitment to do so in the first stage of U.S...
I have just returned home to Safed after a four-week stay in Jerusalem for personal business and medical consultations (the outcome of which has been most encouraging) and for the festival of Shavuot. We stayed on after the festival because our granddaughter gave birth to a baby boy, and we waited for his circumcision, which took place in Bney Brak last Sunday. The surprise Israeli air attacks on...
These have been dramatic times in Israel as across the world, with many unexpected twists and turns. I am sorry I have been unable to offer commentary for several months as I have been quite poorly with a succession of health issues and, sad to say, a depression out of which only now, as we enter the season of our Redemption, do I feel I am starting to emerge. This bout of poor health began...
The festival of Chanukah was established as time to give thanks to the Almighty for miraculously saving His People from our enemies. This year we have especially much to be thankful for. It is little more than fourteen months since Israel was plunged into a multi-fronted war following the Hamas terror invasion from Gaza backed up by attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and from other Iranian proxies...
Shalom, dear friend! Thanks to HaShem, my wife and I have returned safely home to Safed after spending six weeks in Jerusalem for the festivals and some personal business. Back here in the north of Israel we found our children and their families all safe and well despite the stress they have endured in face of continuing daily rocket, missile and drone attacks from the terrorists in Lebanon...
A week ago we were led to believe that a severe attack on Israel by Iran and her proxies was imminent with the risk of a swift spiral into a full-scale Middle East war. Since then here in Israel it has certainly been a very tense time of waiting, not knowing how to prepare for the totally unpredictable, trying nonetheless to carry on normally. Yet through G-d’s mercy, to date there has been no...
Dear Friend I am presently staying in Jerusalem for a few weeks to attend to various business, but four of our children with their families remain in Safed in the north of Israel, where rockets and missiles from Lebanon and Syria continue to rain down daily. At this moment early Thursday evening August 1 / 26 Tammuz 5784, tension is at a peak not only in the north of Israel but throughout the...
Simcha (Hebrew: שִׂמְחָה śimḥāʰ; Hebrew pronunciation: [simˈχa], Yiddish pronunciation: [ˈsɪmχə]): a Hebrew word that means gladness, or joy A good friend who reads my messages has written to me saying he appreciates my commentaries on the direction of current events in Israel and worldwide, but he is frustrated because he feels unable to do anything practical about the situation. He therefore...
As a believing and practicing Jew, I am duty bound to await Mashiach daily, even if he delays. Yet I cannot help wondering, at this time when Jews in Israel and throughout the world are beleaguered by war, hatred and conflict, whether the present moment is really opportune for him to be revealed. Or does the intensity of our pain and suffering, coupled with our age-old yearning for Mashiach, make...
As I wrote in Part 1 of this message, Jews everywhere instinctively support “Israel” whenever we are under attack, and rightly so. But at the same time, to understand how and where to direct our support, I believe that we must also consider what we need to learn from the seemingly intractable situation in which we find ourselves. Culture clash The specter of medieval Islamic fundamentalism –...
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