David Stav

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Jul 23, 2024, 1:16 PM

The lessons of destructions past

The destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, November 21, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The day the walls of ancient Jerusalem were breached was just one event in a process leading to Israel's great national tragedy

Dec 22, 2022, 1:51 PM

Did the Maccabees deserve their brutal end?

Detail from 'The Story of Hanukkah' by Ori Sherman. (via Facebook)

The Hanukkah story's heroes tried to use political force to impose 'spiritual' Jewish standards. That was doomed to fail then just as it is today

Sep 22, 2022, 10:15 PM

Pruzbul’s Relevance in Our Times

We have reached the end of the shemitah year, the seventh year in the shemitah cycle. The most prevalent commandment associated with this time period is a prohibition of cultivating agricultural lands for the entirety of the year, as...

Aug 9, 2022, 2:01 PM

We must eliminate the threat of our own self-destruction

Police inspect damage from a rocket strike in the southern city of Ashkelon, after barrage launched toward Israel by a Gaza terror group, August 6, 2022. (Israel Police)

How sad that it takes enemy fire to remind us of our own common ground. We need to stop reviling each other and find that strength of unity in times of peace

Apr 5, 2022, 7:17 PM

Why Diaspora Jewish leaders should support the conversion bill in Israel

(iStock)

Empowering local rabbis will actually strengthen the Chief Rabbinate, introduce transparency, and help stem a looming halachic and demographic catastrophe

Aug 31, 2021, 4:35 PM

Legal or not, synagogues must not meet indoors

Yes, we are all exhausted from this whole process but particularly now, we need to stay focused and the responsibility has to be shifted to us

Jun 22, 2021, 3:02 PM

A religious prime minister will showcase the beauty of Jewish practice

Naftali Bennett, in 2014, gives a speech holding his kippa to his head. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

How can Naftali Bennett observe the Sabbath while running the country? Must he refrain from shaving? Should he employ a shabbos goy? Halacha has the answers

Jun 1, 2021, 9:32 AM

In the face of hatred, we only grow stronger

Beit Knesset Dossa in Lod

In the book of Shmot (Exodus, 1, 12) as the Torah recalls the story of the Jews living under Egyptian slavery it’s written “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.” If there is one phrase...

Aug 15, 2019, 2:20 PM

To protect Jewish marriage, we must accept divorce

I'm a rabbi. I want Jews to keep Jewish law. That means ensuring a couple's legal recourse when love fails, independent of the will of either spouse (Tu B'Av)

May 1, 2019, 12:05 PM

The rabbinic silence on how to remember the Holocaust

People stand still on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem as a two-minute siren is sounded across Israel to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 12, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The halachic world has failed to offer guidance on memorializing the greatest evil ever wrought upon the Jewish people

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About Me

Rabbi David Stav is the Chief Rabbi of the City of Shoham, Founder & Chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Organization.