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Yael Leibowitz

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Mar 25, 2026, 2:42 AM

The prophet at the door

'Elijah in the Desert,' by Washington Allston, in 1870. (public domain)

The biblical Elijah gave up on the Jews, but God knew better. He told him, sent him back, and made him witness to Jewish stamina and resolve forever (Passover)

Dec 11, 2025, 1:45 PM

Rain, Rain, Don’t Go Away…

A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven...A time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted; A time for slaying and a time for healing...A time for war and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes...

Aug 19, 2025, 7:01 PM

The Choice to Listen

September 30, 2023: A young woman with long, chestnut-brown hair and gleaming hazel eyes sits with her father on their porch. Shabbat morning is their favorite time together. He sips his black coffee, and she tells him all about the...

Oct 12, 2024, 11:21 PM

When the Patriarchs Pay a Visit

“Enter, exalted holy guests, enter, exalted holy Patriarchs, to be seated in the shade of the exalted faithfulness. Enter, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Aharon, David, Moses.” (Ushpizin) A mother sits in a tent in her backyard. Fans blow from all...

Jun 21, 2024, 5:38 PM

Please, look now

Family of Israeli solider Sergeant Yosef Dassa mourn during his funeral in Kiryat Ata, May 12, 2024 (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

The day You hid Your face from us, God, we found ourselves. Your children ran into fire, not away from it

Jan 10, 2024, 4:19 PM

Slaying the giant

Relatives and friends walk among portraits of people taken captive or killed by Hamas during the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, during a visit at the site near Kibbutz Re'im in southern Israel, on January 5, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Israelis don't want to fight, but they have no choice: They are the front line defending civilization against the onslaught of savagery

Jun 27, 2023, 12:22 AM

Israeli security forces argue with Israeli settlers at the entrance to the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya on the day that Jewish extremists set fire to homes and vehicles in the town, June 21, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

We Jews are here in the land to build something different from the pogroms and terror we've known, so we must remind our children of that ad nauseum, if need be

Mar 28, 2023, 12:21 AM

The hidden power of inconvenient truths

Nostalgia and humiliation. They are powerful, opposing sentiments. And they hide out in our childhood bedrooms. They sit there in the form of journal entries, yearbooks, and summer-camp photo albums. They wait patiently, sometimes for decades, as we morph...

Nov 3, 2022, 1:05 PM

A house divided, yet we must stand

Silhouette of people helping each other climb to the summit of a mountain. (iStock)

When we discover that we no longer share a narrative with the very people who share our history, we must deepen and expand our identity to protect our shared future

Oct 9, 2022, 10:19 AM

14 guests: Making Sukkot a time of heritage and wisdom

Ushpizin on our Sukkah wall (Aliza Lipkin)

With a key twist on traditional ushpizin, we enter our sukkahs to sit with the memories of our forebears, and apply the lessons of their experiences to our lives

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About Me

Yael's recent book, Ezra-Nehemiah: Retrograde Revolution (Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2025), is available at Amazon.