Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israel » Yoni Zierler

The power of dialogue: A farewell to Rabbi David Hartman

Yoni Zierler — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 07:37:39 +0000

The summer after my Bar Mitzvah, my family packed a month’s worth of clothing and flew to Israel. My father had received a rabbinic fellowship at the Hartman Institute, enabling us to spend three summers together in an apartment right off of Hillel Street, the heart of downtown Jerusalem. Those years would prove to be [...]

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My First Miluim

Yoni Zierler — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 19:28:39 +0000

Let me be honest with you- I am not having fun. Over the past couple of days I have searched the entire room, every centimeter and inch between the 19 beds we have crammed into the battalion clubhouse, looking for something inspirational to write about. Couldn’t find it. It has been six days since I [...]

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Gotta Grow a Mo’!

Yoni Zierler — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:56:40 +0000

This is an awkward conversation, but it’s got to happen. At some point in the years after the hairs have sprouted, voice dropped, and the various status changes have taken hold, fathers are wont to sit down with their sons and teach them about some of the more important male responsibilities. This one makes the [...]

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Flags, shirts, and independence

Yoni Zierler — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:43:40 +0000

Wednesdays are usually field-trip days in the tour guiding course I am attending, and for the past year, my Wednesday wardrobe of dry fit shirts, zip-off pants, floppy kovah tembel hat, and hiking boots reflected that fact. Over the summer months, a combination of the burning Mediterranean heat and a burning desire to save money has [...]

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Mt. Sinai through a beer glass

Yoni Zierler — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:05:13 +0000

בס”ד Midnight in a bar is a turning point. It is the twilight zone that blurs the lines between out of place and acceptable, idiocy and brilliancy. After midnight, everybody lets it all hang out. Alcohol and exhaustion mix in the bloodstream and the result is always interesting and varied. Simon (whose name has been [...]

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Spare the low-flying baby: A Hesder student responds

Yoni Zierler — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:54:31 +0000

In front of the white sea of present and former students gathered in the Otniel Yeshiva’s Beit Midrash (study hall), I closed my eyes and tried to connect. After another week of basic training, we were surprisingly sent home for the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. I rediscovered Yom Kippur — a day of [...]

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“Please don’t go, we’ll eat you up we love you so…”

Yoni Zierler — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:50:11 +0000

בס”ד On Monday night, I pulled a late shift at the Slow Moshe, the neighborhood Jerusalem bar that I have been working at for three months now. Four hours after closing time, I awoke to discover that Bibi Netanyahu had executed the political coup of a lifetime. With political upheavals and their possible ramifications on [...]

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