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Tisha B'Av post from 2015

http://evolvingjew.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-lesson-of-tisha-bav.html A separate thought - the loss of the Beit Hamikdash is very abstract. We mourn, but many of us who mourn struggle to feel it personally. But in this year of mourning for my father, I suddenly understand what loss is on a new level. 

My Father, Yitzchak Staum

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I just got up from sitting Shiva this morning. I will write more about my father when I have had time to process things more. But I want to share a picture of me and my father some years ago (before my beard grayed to match his). I miss you, Abba. May the neshama of Yitzchak ben Avraham Yosef Halevi have an aliyah.

Israeli Democracy in Crisis

What's going on in Israel is extremely alarming. The fact that they could have a constitutional crisis where the judiciary and the Knesset are staring each other down is unprecedented, with the judiciary threatening to strike down the law that's intended to neuter the judiciary. Mass protests, members of the government calling for the arrest of opposition leaders? Democracy there has never been more at risk. Of course it's easy for me to blame Bibi, and I do, for cozying up and elevating extreme elements. But honestly, one can blame the center opposition parties as well. Was it worth rejecting Netanyahu so utterly that you end up with a coalition like this? The only stable coalition that would govern from a normal center-right place, that would preserve democracy, is a national unity government with Likud, Yesh Atid, and a few others. That would be stable, would still lean to the right, as Likud voters obviously wished for. And you wouldn't have this moment of crisis. L