As we come to the end of the fast here in Israel, I wanted to share with you the tune I played on the Handpan to the eternal words of Isaiah (40): "Take comfort, take comfort, my people, says your G-d. Speak unto the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her..."🎶

If you follow Israeli accounts, you will see posts from a variety of religious hard-right-wingers today grieving the passing of Shefi Paz z"l. She was a prominent activist against the takeover of southern Tel Aviv by illegal immigrants. Oh, and she was gay. May her memory be a blessing.

"And Jacob came to *Shalem*, the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he returned from Paddan-Aram; and he encamped at the outskirts of the city" (Genesis 33:18) The new town of Shalem, near Elon Moreh and Shechem, was officially established today. 💪🇮🇱

Ancient Synagogues of Israel #7 The Deir Aziz synagogue, an archaeological site in the southern Golan Heights, dates to the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. A window bears the Greek inscription ΑΖΙΖΟ, possibly linking the ruin's Arabic name, Deir Aziz, to the ancient Talmudic village’s original name.

Timeline cleanse ✨️ 🇮🇱

Shavua tov, You know how you read a good book, and then you get to a part with a subject that you happen to know well, and the author is wildly inaccurate about it, and it puts into question the rest of the book? So that's what I've been thinking of: this video that circulated of "Hilltop Youth" singing an anti Zionist song at a wedding that ends with the words "we will break the Zionists' teeth". Many of the people abroad, and even many Israelis I've seen, react in surprise at finding out these guys are against the establishment and wouldn't really consider themselves zionists. But even more, the fact that some don't know how many small sects of ideologies come under the umbrella of "religious nationalists" and how different they are. But the peak is that many don't realize that these guys probably put the song on in a semi-humorous way; stealing a song from Neturei Karta doesn't mean they really agree with them, or that they want a civil war; rather, it means they are anti-establishment and would like to change the state fundamentally. Even though, to some people, I probably look identical to these guys. I don't agree at all with their ideology. People here have no idea of these nuances; why would they? This is a small group of a few hundred thousand Jews living in a land far away (New York, Europe, or Tel Aviv). Yet they think they are experts on "the conflict" or what the obstacles are to peace (i.e "settler violence").

⚠️ Terror attack in Judea. 5 injured, some critically. 2 terrorists eliminated. Please pray 🙏

Ancient Synagogues of Israel #6 Horvat Rimmon is an archaeological site in Israel's southern Judean Lowlands. Located on a low hill about 500 metres south of Lahav. It preserves the remains of a Jewish village occupied from the late Second Temple period into the early Islamic era. The site includes a large synagogue complex that underwent three main construction phases from the 3rd to the 7th century CE, along with a cemetery of rock-cut tombs, a subterranean hiding complex, a mikveh (ritual bath), domestic structures, and several late Roman and Byzantine coin hoards. Excavations have uncovered a synagogue paved with flagstones decorated with rosettes and a menorah. They also revealed a funerary inscription reading "Jacob son of Rabbi", as well as a ceramic amulet inscribed with a love charm whose formula and "magic signs" closely parallel medieval Jewish texts.

The tomb was already fixed and repainted last night by Yossi Dagan (head of the Shomron Regional Council) and the farmer from the nearby "Sons of Ahron" farm. We aren't going anywhere 🇮🇱