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Jonathan Muskat

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Oct 15, 2026, 7:58 PM

When Torah Challenges Our Moral Intuitions

A student recently wrote to me about something she had learned in class. She was studying Yehoshua’s conquest of Eretz Yisrael and was troubled by the Torah’s command to destroy the Canaanite nations, including women and children. When she...

Oct 10, 2026, 1:35 AM

Before We Answer the World

So many have already taken apart Zohran Mamdani’s October 7th remarks, point by point. I want to make a different point: We should not let him define the conversation. If we begin by debating whether Israel is guilty of genocide or...

Oct 7, 2026, 6:47 AM

There is a Time for Everything

Sometimes a story begins with one reaction and then develops into another. When news of the flydubai incident first broke, the reaction was simple: Baruch Hashem. People survived. Passengers acted with extraordinary courage. People ran toward danger to protect one another. There was...

Oct 1, 2026, 8:18 PM

When Life Suddenly Becomes Precious

Yesterday, I watched two videos I couldn't stop thinking about. In one, a group of Israelis was sitting on an airplane, singing: “And above all, not to be afraid at all.” In another, Israelis were singing: “Hashem yitbarach tamid ohev oti, v'yihyeh li rak tov.” “Hashem always...

Sep 25, 2026, 5:44 AM

Sukkot: What is Really Ours?

Every Jewish holiday has its own distinctive mitzvot and mitzvah objects. Rosh Hashanah has the shofar. Chanukah has the menorah. Purim has the Megillah. Shavuot has... cheesecake. Okay, we may need to work on that one. But Sukkot is different....

Sep 11, 2026, 12:29 AM

Remember. Be Free. Become

(My pre-Rosh Hashana pre-9/11 to Shulamith High School for Girls) Tomorrow is September 11. Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, 2001, almost 3,000 people went to work in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania and never came home. For my generation, September 11...

Sep 10, 2026, 10:07 PM

When the shofar speaks

The sound of the shofar is extraordinary. It does not speak in words, yet it communicates with a power that words often cannot match. Perhaps that is precisely why the Torah commands us to hear it on Rosh Hashanah. The...

Aug 26, 2026, 9:35 PM

The School Year Begins. So Does Our Teshuva

My youngest son is now studying at Yeshivat Hakotel in Israel for his gap year. A few weeks ago, while we were driving to pick up some last-minute things, he turned to me and said: “I wish I had learned...

Aug 19, 2026, 6:32 PM

What Is Elul Actually Asking of Me?

Can I tell you about a confession that didn't work? Picture doing everything right. You feel it, really feel it, not the performed version. You say the words. You mean them. "This happened because I drifted from God." Honest. Unflinching....

Jul 29, 2026, 12:22 AM

Beyond the Circle at the Kotel: From Ahavat Yisrael to Achdut

On Motzaei Tisha B’Av, I saw a picture circulating online. Jews of every imaginable background – religious and secular, from different communities and with different hashkafot – standing together at the Kotel, singing and dancing in a circle. It was...

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About Me

Jonathan Muskat is the Rabbi of the Young Israel of Oceanside.