Israeli legal scholar Amnon Rubinstein passed away Thursday at the age of 92.
https://guidetotheperplexed.blogspot.com/2007/06/29-junehttpwww.html
I met him in the summer of 2007, when I was working for a left-wing Israeli civil rights organization and questioning just about everything I believed.
I traveled from Jerusalem to Herzliya to meet him at the Interdisciplinary Center, where he had an office inside a prefab building on the campus, which was once a kibbutz.
Rubinstein was a peacenik and civil rights activist who became aware, early on, that the radical left was using civil rights to push crazy things that would ultimately undermine everyone's freedom, starting with Israel and the Jews.
He wrote several articles at the time in which he sounded the warning -- and while not everyone may have heard it, I was listening.
I'm sad that he has passed away, but more than that, I'm glad he lived and did what he did.
I continue to fall in love with the people of Israel -- so beautiful, so resilient, so maddeningly complex and yet so simple.
I should have noted in my message about the weekly Torah portion that this week is Shabbat Chazon, the Sabbath of Vision. We are about to mourn -- but see through that pain to something better that lies beyond, on the other side.
Wishing you the best vision -- and an incredible reality to follow. It happens!
We begin the final speech of Moses to the people of Israel before they enter the Promised Land. He relates the ups and downs of the years of wandering in the desert, before, finally, the people have the merit to enter the land itself.
This Sabbath always precedes Tisha B'Av, the Ninth of Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. It is the anniversary of the destruction of both of the Holy Temples, and a catch-all for many calamities that befell the Jewish people.
A word on Tisha B'Av. This year I am leaving for an overseas trip during the afternoon of the holiday -- in the middle of a fast day. Not idea, but there was no other choice. But my flight is in the afternoon, which is significant.
We relax some of the harsh, mournful customs of the day in the afternoon. We start to pray normally; we sit on regular chairs; we start to have hope again in the redemption that will, one day, lead us all back from exile to our home.
I'll be taking a trip to a land where an important part of ...
President Trump is in Scotland, playing golf and making big trade deals -- a major deal with the EU, in fact. Meanwhile, there is a global outcry about humanitarian aid to Palestinians (not about the Israeli hostages, mind you).
On top of that, Democrats are at their lowest polling numbers ever -- so they are trying to win control of the House by redistricting in the middle of a 10-year Census cycle. Oh, economic optimism is up, so they have a tough road.
And Tulsi Gabbard's revelations about the Russia collusion investigation make it clear that Obama's lieutenants lied to Congress. How deeply was he himself involved? The media continue to ignore the evidence, but we certainly won't.
Special guests:
Nick Gilbertson - Breitbart News White House correspondent, on EU deal
Frances Martel - Breitbart News foreign editor, on Trump abroad and Russia
John Spencer - urban warfare expert, on humanitarian aid and war in Gaza
Bradley Jaye - Breitbart News congressional correspondent, on the ...
