Having grown up in the USA, I can say that Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron) is very different than Memorial Day in the USA.
No doubt that it is a very serious day for some families in the USA, but for the most part it is a day off from work, a time for barbecues and family gatherings. It is the day that women start to wear their white shoes.
By contrast, in Israel the day is so intense and serious that you can feel it as you walk the streets.

If you don’t know Hebrew it is nearly impossible to really understand the Torah (The Hebrew Bible). There is a reason why it is called the Hebrew Bible!
So, let me let you in on a simple idea but it is quite powerful. Rosh Hashana, which is often translated as “The Jewish New Year” does not exactly mean that. The words literally mean the “The head of the year” and this makes all the difference.

So there I was minding my own business, listening to the various speakers at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Summit when I looked up and saw two familiar faces. Not any two faces. These were the two people responsible for so much in my life and they did not even know it. I was overwhelmed to see them.

Living in Israel carries with it very intense feelings and emotions.
Living in the land that God promised to the Jewish people makes life meaningful even if you do nothing at all. A friend of mine once said that even if he would just sit on the couch for the rest of his life, his life would have meaning.

During the pandemic, it was the first time in Jewish history, since the destruction of the temple, that there was no communal Jewish prayer. Synagogues were closed around the world; that has never really happened in Jewish history. We are treading a lot of new ground here with this coronavirus.