Rosner’s Torah Talk: Parshat Re’eh with Rabbi Michael Rothbaum

Judge Israel as you would judge any state: rigorously, truthfully and proportionately.

On Yom HaShoah, we speak of six million who were murdered. But I also remember the nine million who lived. Nine million Jews who got up every morning, took their children to school, and strove every day to survive, because they believed in life.

Gratitude is greatly emphasized in much of Jewish observance, from blessings before and after meals, the celebration of holidays such as Passover, a festival that celebrates liberation from slavery, and in the psalms.

The playground in Jerusalem didn’t stop antisemitism, and renovating playgrounds in New York City is not likely to stop it there, either — because antisemitism in America today is not rooted in a lack of slides or swings.

America’s national derangement poses myriad challenges to those not yet caught up in it. The anomie is daunting enough for the general public — if that term still makes sense in this fragmented age — and it is virtually insurmountable for the defenders of Israel.