Like Clay in the Hands of the Potter
One of the most compelling piyyutim poems in the Yom Kippur prayers (piyyut here) compares the relationship between Man and God through metaphors centering around…
Path and Passion
As we come up to Easter week, the Old City of Jerusalem becomes more and more crowded. Many of the Catholic Christian pilgrims remember Jesus's…
Canine Archaeologist
Dogs and archaeologists have one thing in common - they both like to dig. Many teams of archaeologists came in the 19th century searching for…
How Broad is the Broad Wall?
Today we marked the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Tevet with a fast. According to tradition, on this day the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar…
A Great Miracle Happened (W)here? – Beit Zecharia
FAILURE AND LOSS The fifth battle, the Battle of Beit Zecharia, is one that Judah Maccabeus does not win. It took place between Beit Tzur…
Continue reading → A Great Miracle Happened (W)here? – Beit Zecharia
Solid Foundation
The Foundation Stone captures our curiosity. Centered under the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock, this stone has many traditions surrounding it. Moslems…
Beer Sheva to Jerusalem
Last week on October 31st, Beer Sheva celebrated 100 years since the capture of the city by the British and ANZAC forces in 1917. And…
Jonah and the Whale
Yom Kippur is one of the central holidays of the Jewish people and during that day the book of Jonah is read in its entirety. …
Ideal Family
One of my favorite families in the history of the land of Israel in the early 1900s is the Bentwich family. Herbert and Susanna, their…
Hole in the Wall
The gates of Jerusalem's Old City are not only ways to get inside the city. Each one is a site with a history of its…
