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Naftali Rothenberg

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Aug 28, 2025, 6:41 PM

In the Routine of War, We Must Talk About Peace

“I am all peace; but when I speak, they are for war.” (Psalms 120:7) It is nearly sunset. An armored Border Guard vehicle stops in front of the synagogue in the town where I live. Several fully armed soldiers get...

Aug 3, 2025, 3:58 PM

Mourning on Tisha B’Av amidst the reality of ongoing disaster

The calendar shows that we are in the days of "Bein HaMetzarim," the three weeks between the 17th of Tammuz and the ninth of Av, known as "Telat dePuranuta," an Aramaic expression meaning “three of calamity.” Many, or most, Israelis...

Jun 12, 2025, 2:30 PM

Will a Peace Movement Arise from the Yeshivas?

The crisis of conscription of yeshiva students into the IDF was born with the state, will accompany us for the foreseeable future and has no equitable and fair solution. The basic view of most Torah scholars of their generations...

Apr 25, 2024, 12:40 PM

Redemption without illusions: Our joy is not complete

People walk next to a seder table with pictures of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the terror group Hamas, in Jerusalem, April 22, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

In times of crisis, it is all too easy to realize that Passover is not quite the holiday of redemption, but that of preparing for future redemption

Aug 8, 2023, 10:29 PM

The clash of minorities

The only route to recovery from today's crisis is to lay the ground for a collective majority consciousness

Apr 5, 2023, 9:25 AM

‘Remember this day that you went out of Egypt’: Freedom, human rights and civil rights

Passover, "the time of our freedom" as it is called in the prayers. The meaning of the term 'freedom' has gained added value during the challenging time we are going through in Israel. Our society is divided between those...

Dec 2, 2022, 8:31 AM

A state of compassion and kindness

“There are three distinguishing marks of this nation: merciful, shamefaced, and they perform acts of kindness.” (BT 79A) The image of a state is the pattern of the landscape of its citizens, a reflection of the people living within it....

Nov 6, 2022, 4:01 PM

There is no ‘halachic state’ in Jewish law

Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, right, and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau attend a New Year’s ceremony of the Israel Police Command at the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem on September 7, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Theocracy is simply not a Jewish legal concept – the halachic legal system applies its authority only to those who accept it

Oct 19, 2022, 2:56 PM

Abortion is not murder. Sometimes it’s a mitzvah

Sweeping bans on pregnancy termination undermine rabbis' authority to provide religious guidance to observant women seeking their advice

Mar 17, 2022, 9:52 AM

Is the Scroll of Esther holy scripture?

Hamentashen and a megillah for Purim. (iStock)

The Jews undertook and accepted upon themselves… קִיְּמוּ וְקִבְּלוּ הַיְּהוּדִים עֲלֵיהֶם The Book of Esther is a court story. There is not a single spiritual expression let alone a religious expression from the beginning to its end. Do not look in...

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About Me

Rabbi Naftali Rothenberg is the rabbi of Har Adar township, Israel, and a senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute