I’ve been in Jerusalem for the past two months, since August 4.
War has become the backdrop to daily life. Since October 7, 2023, now more than 700 days, the rhythm of the country has been reshaped by it. I saw how quickly people stepped forward to fill the gaps: volunteers cooking meals for soldiers in the field, neighbours delivering food to families whose breadwinners have been called up to serve in the citizen army, and communities rallying around children and parents who have lost loved ones. Others take on the work that might otherwise go unnoticed but is no less essential, plowing fields, picking crops, and doing the countless small things that keep a country going in the midst of war.
It is, without question, a brutal conflict. Each day brings new dangers, with explosives, attacks, and schemes meant to cause harm. That sense of constant threat hovers in the air, never entirely out of sight.
Another thing impossible to miss is the presence of guns. They are everywhere: in supermarkets, synagogues, buses, and trains. Soldiers carry them wherever they go, whether they’re in the field or sitting at home. The sight is so ordinary here that you stop noticing after a while. And yet it serves as a reminder that it isn’t the guns themselves that bring terror and destruction, but the people who choose to use them.
The Weather
The weather shapes much of life. In Israel, it is very different from that in North America. Summers are bone dry; for about six months, no rain falls at all, and in some years even the winter rains are scarce. Yet the sun shines almost daily, and blooming trees in shades of blue, pink, purple, and yellow brighten the streets. Towering trees provide shade and comfort, even in dense urban neighbourhoods.
The coastal plain can be hot and humid, while the desert is hot and dry. Jerusalem, perched in the mountains at the edge of the desert, enjoys cooler evenings year-round. The altitude means that even after scorching days, nights often bring a welcome breeze.
Everyday Life
The streets of Jerusalem reveal the rhythm of daily life. Synagogues are everywhere, each one reflecting the traditions and languages of its community — English, French, Farsi, Russian, and more.
Playgrounds are tucked into nearly every corner, filled with children at all hours of the day and week. It’s a child-centred society, with parents, siblings, and grandparents all hands-on. Large families, with children close in age, are common among both religious and secular communities.
Cafés are just as abundant. More than places to grab a coffee, they are social hubs where you can linger for hours, working on a laptop or catching up with friends. Montreal has its cafés too, of course, but here they feel more like community living rooms.
People often ask what I do in Jerusalem, since I divide my time between here and Montreal. The truth is, I do much the same as I do back home. I take part in my Jewish community, listen to CBC Radio One and follow the news along with my favourite commentators online, attend Lockdown University lectures on Zoom, and work on projects like this monthly newsletter. I’m also writing my memoir, and this October, my documentary film Yiddish: A Tale of Survival will be screened virtually and free of charge by the Montreal Holocaust Museum (registration required; details in the footnotes). Altogether, it keeps me busy!
I listen to CBC Radio One faithfully, along with other news channels, to see how Israel’s struggle is being reported. In my last newsletter, I wrote about my concerns with the CBC. Now, a new book takes up the same questions: CBC: How Canada’s Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice and How to Get It Back by David Cayley, a veteran producer and broadcaster.
Learning with Lockdown University
Lockdown University (LU) was started in 2020 by Wendy Fisher, with support from the Kirsch Foundation. It’s a free online community that brings people together through webinars on just about everything: history, culture, geopolitics, Jewish life and thought, current events, art history, literature, design, psychology, religion, philosophy, and more. The idea is simple and powerful: to share learning, build an engaged and diverse community, and create real connections.
I have been following and participating in LU since the COVID pandemic. It was COVID that prompted Wendy Fisher to create this remarkable enterprise because she worried her parents in South Africa would be bored!
This past year, I was blown away by Professor Tzvi Ben Dor Benite, who gave 34 weekly lectures between January and September on the history, philosophy, and culture of the Chinese and Mongol Empires. He also delivered two lectures on Charismatic Books from Jerusalem to Beijing and three lectures on Islam and Judaism.
A Shabbat Diary, September 7, 2025
Routines and online learning carry me through the week, but on Shabbat the rhythm shifts, bringing its own lessons and encounters. At Shabbat morning services, I met a group of young women from the Hartman Institute Gap Year program. They were “synagogue-hopping,” checking places off a list. I invited them outside to chat and shared that I, too, first came to Israel at 18 to study at Hebrew University.
Not long after, a young father arrived with a baby girl in a stroller. He told me that he and his wife had just immigrated to Israel. He had grown up in a Hasidic yeshiva in Queens but had a difficult experience there. Later, he was diagnosed with manic depression, which he is still learning to manage. Now he works as a caretaker for the elderly, a job he feels well-suited for because, as he put it, “I have patience.”
We ended up talking about faith, the Messiah, and life after death. He also told me about a group he started for young men to share openly and connect, welcoming people of all backgrounds. When we went back inside, he joined the men’s section, while his daughter played quietly at his feet.
After services, at Kiddush, I met a couple from Chicago. Their daughter was getting married the next day to a lone soldier who had been wounded in service. She had stood by him through his recovery, and now they were ready to begin a new life together.
The bride’s father shared an image from his dawn prayer at the Kotel: first the stars faded one by one, then Venus, the brightest, lingered until it too was outshone by the sun. He compared it to Jewish history, with stars rising and falling, but the sun ultimately bringing enduring light to the world.
Later, one of my teachers connected this imagery to prayer. We recite the Shema at night to remember exile, and again in the morning to affirm renewal and redemption. It reminds me of Tehillim (Psalms) 30:6, attributed to King David: “In the evening one lies down weeping, but in the morning — joy!”
Jewish commentators such as Rashi and Radak explain that King David is describing both his personal life and the broader condition of the Jewish people: exile and hardship may endure, but they are temporary; joy and redemption are assured. This embodies the Jewish spirit that continues to sustain us today.
The Ocean of Knowledge
Just as Jewish history teaches resilience, so too does Torah study, opening pathways to the wisdom that has carried our people through the generations. Some say it is the greatest mitzvah¹, and I pray daily for the ability to learn and to teach.
Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers 5:22) teaches: Hafoch bo, v’hafoch bo, d’kulei bo, “Turn it over and turn it over again, for everything is in it.” To me, the Torah is like an inexhaustible ocean of knowledge, a timeless resource that invites endless exploration. Today, many people turn to technology, even tools like ChatGPT, for answers, but the Torah reaches far deeper.
This image of depth is echoed in the Zohar, which compares the Torah to waters both shallow and deep: some truths rest on the surface, while others remain hidden far below. Isaiah (11:9) looks ahead to a future when “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Here in Jerusalem, the opportunities to “dip into” this ocean are everywhere. I often attend classes at the OU (Orthodox Union)² and at Shevach³, each offering a different window into learning.
The OU, best known for kosher certification, also sponsors lectures and outreach programs. Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider teaches a regular course on Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (Rav Kook), and all of his classes are recorded and available on the OU YouTube channel. I recently attended one titled Rav Kook: Midot HaRaya, Love For All (September 10, 2025)⁴.
Rav Kook once said, “When my time will come to be judged in heaven, I would prefer to be faulted for having loved too much than for having loved too little.” His life embodied that belief. He spoke of love not only for all Jews, whether religious or secular, but also for non-Jews, for they too are God’s children, as well as for every creature, great and small. Once, while walking through the fields near Jerusalem with another rabbi, he watched his companion pluck a wildflower. Rav Kook was taken aback and said, “I try never to pluck anything that I think still has the potential to grow and develop.”
Learning at the OU also includes courses with Dr. Deborah Polster, professor of Jewish history. Last year, she covered the first millennium of the Common Era; this year, she is exploring the second. She began with the Crusades, then devoted two sessions to the Rambam (Maimonides). She quoted Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who remarked: “If one did not know Rambam was the name of a man, one might think it was the name of a university.” Because of the breadth of Rambam’s works, she needed two sessions to do him justice.
At Shevach, the experience takes a different shape. Classes bring Torah to life through art, music, and movement, and each visit reminds me how the sacred can intertwine with creativity.
Even in our age of AI and digital classrooms, there is nothing quite like face-to-face learning with a live teacher. In Jerusalem, Torah study is alive not just as tradition, but as a daily practice that continues to shape how people think and live.
Living the Miracle
In Jerusalem, the extraordinary often hides in the ordinary: a cooling breeze, a playground, a café conversation, a Shabbat encounter, or a Torah class.
Every day I see tourists and pilgrims from around the world, from China and Japan to Europe and the Americas, drawn here by history, faith, and curiosity. I feel that pull as well: the miracle of the Jewish people’s return to the land of their forefathers, and the miracle of a sovereign Jewish state rebuilt in our ancient homeland, something generations before us could only dream of.
Over the past century, Israel has flourished in the arts, the sciences, agriculture, and military strength. Living here now, I sense that the miracle is not only in the history books. It is alive in daily life, in the way people continue building, continue gathering, and continue weaving the sacred into the everyday.
For me, living here means noticing the small moments, the ordinary ones that turn out to be anything but. That is where the miracle lives.
Footnotes
- Mitzvah (plural: mitzvot). The word mitzvah literally means “commandment.” In Jewish tradition, it can refer to several categories:
- Biblical commandments. The 613 mitzvot in the Torah include both positive ones (things to do, such as honouring parents or keeping Shabbat) and negative ones (things to avoid, such as not stealing or eating pork).
- Rabbinic commandments. Later practices established by the Rabbis including lighting Hanukkah candles or reading the Megillah on Purim.
- Everyday usage. In casual speech, “doing a mitzvah” often simply means doing a good deed or act of kindness.
- OU in Jerusalem. The Orthodox Union (OU), founded in 1898, is a non-profit organization devoted to inspiring, engaging, and strengthening the Orthodox Jewish community. Its Jerusalem branch, OU Israel, runs programs, outreach, and learning opportunities for the local community (“OU Israel”).
- Shevach. At Shevach, Yeshiva for Women in Jerusalem, Torah text study is combined with music, movement, and art (“Shevach Torah”).
- Rabbi Goldscheider’s classes. All of Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider’s courses are recorded and made available on the OU YouTube channel. For example, see Rav Kook: Midot HaRaya – Love For All (10 Sept. 2025). Watch here.
- Yiddish: A Tale of Survival. Directed by Abigail Hirsch. Virtual screening presented by the Montreal Holocaust Museum, in partnership with the Segal Centre for Performing Arts and the Jewish Public Library, 14–23 Oct. 2025. Virtual discussion with Abigail Hirsch and Dr. Adi Mahalel, 20 Oct. 2025, 12:00 p.m. EST. Musée de l’Holocauste Montréal, museeholocauste.ca.