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Oct 23, 2026, 2:47 PM

The Negev and Hebron

This week’s Torah portion – Lech Lecha – describes Avram’s maiden journey to eretz Canaan. His first stop is the Negev, before famines causes him and his wife to go down to Egypt. When they return to the Land,...

Oct 14, 2026, 8:22 PM

Part V: Postpone Until Purim

In answer to the question, “How goeth the battle?” an acceptable answer is impossible. Winning and losing have no meaning; not because “war is hell” and “no one is ever right or wrong” in war but because the answer...

Oct 12, 2026, 7:15 PM

Part IV: How Goeth the Battle?

During Sukkot, I spoke with two of my greatest October 6 friends, and asked them one of my most persistent questions, “How goeth the battle.” Those who are in the military differentiate between battle and war. I am a Diaspora...

Oct 10, 2026, 1:34 AM

Part III: Simchat Torah Points the Way for the Diaspora

As a rabbi, and one obsessed with Baruch Spinoza’s severance of the theological from the political, I found myself during the close of our Holiday Season desperately trying to understand the nature of, and difference between, Shemini Atzeret and...

Oct 8, 2026, 11:18 PM

Part II: From Trauma to Suppression and the Requirement of Being Prepared

The phrase “epigenetic trauma” is one that I started to employ at some point during the three years since 10/7. That event “united” us with the experiences we had - only - read about: massacres along the Rhine River...

Oct 7, 2026, 6:38 PM

Part I: The Meeting of the October 6 and October 8 Jews

(What follows is the first of a five-part series – a reflection upon the three year anniversary of 10/7.) A recent post here in ToI by a woman named Irina Zavina captures the phenomenon of the October 8 Jew. Of...

Jun 27, 2025, 12:23 AM

The General and the King

Oh, thee, the General and, thee, the King, we have not forgotten either. Our right hand has not withered since we keep and remember Jerusalem, too. As Iran moves from the foreground, two that were in the back can now...

Mar 27, 2025, 7:52 PM

If Ever You Were – Or Are Today – in Favor of a Two State Solution

April 16, October 4 1993 April 6, April 13, October 19, November 11, December 25 1994 July 25, August 21 1995 February 25 (two bombings in the same day), March 3, March 4 1996 March 21, July 30, September 4...

Nov 24, 2021, 9:52 PM

The Imperative of Reading Ruth

More than anything else, Ruth Wisse’s memoir, Free as a Jew, is a necessary book. In her person, Wisse holds two realities that some Jews have difficulty reconciling – pre and post-Holocaust reality. Born in 1936 in Romania, Wisse...

Sep 2, 2018, 5:03 AM

Daily consumers of news think they can understand the nature of the conflicts in which Israel is embedded when they keep up with the course of daily, weekly, and monthly events. The recent riot-protests accompanied by flaming kites along...

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About Me

Matt Abelson is a Conservative Rabbi living in the Greater Philadelphia area.