Pinchas M. Orbach, at The Blogs

Apr 15, 2026, 8:08 PM

By sunrise on Simchat Torah, the skies over the Gaza envelope were streaked with smoke and the orange of distant fires. The sirens quieted, but the stillness that followed in Beeri and in Nahal Oz was not peace. It...

Mar 8, 2026, 4:41 PM

The Cracks Within

Long before the horror of October 7, Israel was already bleeding from wounds of its own making. These were not external blows alone. They were fractures within our society, our politics, and even our collective spirit. Left to fester,...

Feb 26, 2026, 3:03 PM

The Wall Falls

On Simchat Torah morning, October 7, 2023, a siren tore through a holy day meant for joy and song. In cities it cut across morning tefillah, and in the kibbutzim near Gaza it broke the quiet of family breakfasts....

Feb 18, 2026, 8:13 PM

The Morning Everything Changed

At dawn on October 7, 2023, when the unthinkable struck, I found myself not in the south, but just five miles from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon. Our family had gone north to celebrate Simchat Torah, a day meant...

Dec 1, 2025, 3:41 PM

The Israeli Magic Wand Theory of Technology

When your CEO thinks you're Gandalf with a keyboard. (Cartoon created with the assistance of ChatGPT.)

Executives love technology. Not the real stuff, the sweaty, cable-infested beast that lives in a room no one enters willingly. I’m talking about Technology™, the kind that appears in a keynote surrounded by fog machines and synth music, causing a...

Nov 12, 2025, 1:27 PM

When the Fires of Hate Burn, Jews Come Home

In a world where antisemitism once again walks boldly through city streets, this passage, an excerpt from my book Fire of Faith: What the October 7 War Taught Us About God and Israel by P. Mordechai, reminds us that...

Nov 4, 2025, 5:08 PM

A Returned Hostage and the Fire of Faith in Tel Aviv

Symbolic digital artwork depicting tefillin and a yellow ribbon, representing faith and hope for the hostages. (Generated with AI)

On a Friday morning beside the fountain at Hostages Square, Tel Aviv, the air felt charged with quiet expectations. Families of captives, soldiers on leave, and passersby from nearby cafés gathered before a low wooden platform where a thin...

Oct 23, 2025, 9:53 PM

When Allies Lecture Israel, What Faith Requires

When a foreign dignitary steps onto Israeli soil, we hear more than speeches. We hear echoes of alliances forged in fire, of dependence that unsettles, of friendship that both comforts and complicates. This week’s visit by U.S. Vice President J.D....

Oct 19, 2025, 3:23 PM

Hatov Vehametiv: Giving Thanks Even for the Burials

Last night, Israel brought two more of our sons home from Gaza. Not alive, but home. Their names joined a list that has grown agonizingly long, a list that stretches from border towns to kibbutzim, from army outposts to unmarked...

Oct 19, 2025, 6:06 AM

The Fire That Still Burns in Israel

It has been almost a decade since I last wrote here. Back then my focus was technology, startups, and the curious machinery that keeps this improbable country humming. I wrote about networks and systems, about the improvisation that passes...

About Me

Pinchas M. Orbach, writing as P. Mordechai, is an author and technology leader living with his family in Jerusalem. He previously served as CTO for VoiceofIsrael.com and as an Information Security Specialist for the United States government. An adjunct professor who has lectured at Queens College (CUNY) and Touro University, he now writes about faith, resilience, and the spiritual meaning of Israel’s modern journey. His latest book, Fire of Faith: What the October 7 War Taught Us About God and Israel, is available on Amazon and at FireOfFaithBook.com

Contact Me