(Originally posted on June 7, 2017) Parshat Beha’alotkha 5777 Meir Sendor This week our Tal Orot meditation group from Zikhron Yaakov came to Tzfat for a two-day workshop. It was wonderful to get some of the Zikhron team together for a…
Peeking Through the Lattice
(Originally posted on May 31, 2017) Parashat Naso 5777 Rabbi Meir Sendor The spirit of the Land of Israel is direct. It’s not just the bright sun in a clear blue sky – you find that all over the Mediterranean…
Glory Us
(Originally posted on May 18) Parashat Behar-Bekhukotai Meir Sendor [This essay appears in an abbreviated form in the column “The People and the Book” of the Jerusalem Report for May 20, 2017.] Tacitus, Roman senator and historian, wasn’t such a…
Sefirat Ha-Omer Shiur
Sefirat ha-Omer is the mitzvah that frames the season we are in right now, between Pesach and Shavuot. While the action of the mitzvah is fairly straightforward – we count each day and week from the day after Pesach until…
To Number Our Days
Parashat Emor 5777 Meir Sendor As Lag BaOmer approaches an electricity builds up here in the Galil. This day signifies the end of the plague that decimated the students of Rabbi Akiva as related in the Gemara Yevamot 62b. Throughout…
The Great Blue and White Hope
Parashat Acharei Mot Kedoshim – After the Death of Holy Ones – 5777 Meir Sendor צִיּוֹן, הֲלֹא תִשְׁאֲלִי לִשְׁלוֹם אֲסִירַיִךְ, דּוֹרְשֵׁי שְׁלוֹמֵךְ וְהֵם יֶתֶר עֲדָרָיִךְ מִיָּם וּמִזְרָח וּמִצָּפוֹן וְתֵימָן שְׁלוֹם רָחוֹק וְקָרוֹב שְׂאִי מִכֹּל עֲבָרָיִךְ, וּשְׁלוֹם אֲסִיר תַּאֲוָה, נוֹתֵן דְּמָעָיו…
Continuing Education
Parashat Tazria-Metzora 5777 Meir Sendor This week we had a bunch of bureaucratic errands to get done. Israeli government agencies have earned a certain Kafka-esque reputation, but frankly, in our experience, especially in Tzfat, the people we have met are…
Fine China
Parashat Shemini 5777 Meir Sendor On Isru Chag we visited the Kotel with my father-in-law, who would be returning to the States shortly. As often happens when you’re out and about in Israel, we ran into friends of ours and…
Kamah Ma’alot Tovot
Hol HaMoed Pesach 5777 Meir Sendor Dedicated to the memory of those murdered in the terrorist attack in Ma’alot in May 1974 During Hol HaMoed Israelis hit the roads on family trips, and we followed suit with a trip to the northern…
