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Jonathan Muskat

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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...

Jul 23, 2026, 10:38 PM

The Illusion of Victory: Titus, the Arch of Rome, and the Enduring Jewish Story

Zohran Mamdani recently declared that, if elected mayor of New York City, he would seek to have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he came to New York, relying on the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant. Whether he...

Jul 1, 2026, 8:01 AM

250 Years of America – and a Question American Jews Can No Longer Avoid

This July 4th, America celebrates its 250th birthday. As I think about that milestone, I find myself feeling two emotions at the same time. The first is gratitude. America has been extraordinarily good to the Jewish people. Few countries in Jewish history...

Jun 17, 2026, 8:13 AM

Message to our Graduates: The Story You Tell Yourself

Dear Graduates, Neil Gaiman, the British author, once described his experience of impostor syndrome in a story that has since become widely cited. He found himself at a gathering of artists, scientists, writers, and pioneers – people who had, in...

Jun 4, 2026, 10:45 PM

When We Decide the Law No Longer Applies

The disturbing attack this week on Justice Noam Sohlberg's home in Alon Shvut should concern every Israeli and every Jew, regardless of political or religious affiliation. Dozens of draft protesters gathered outside his home, shattered windows, broke flowerpots, smashed...

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About Me

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