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The Antidote to Anxiety

A nation cannot claim to welcome Jews while criminalising one of the oldest and most fundamental commandments of Judaism

by Ram ben Ze’ev The Price of Misalignment: Memory, War, and the Illusion of Strength Today, Israel stands still. At the sound of the siren, the nation pauses in collective remembrance for those who were killed—soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces whose lives ended in battle. The numbers are heavy: 25,644 since 1860, leaving behind tens of thousands of bereaved families. Yet numbers, as vast as they are, do not capture truth. Words do. We say “fallen soldiers,” as though they stumbled. But...

by Ram ben Ze’ev Tzedakah: Justice, Not Performance There is a profound difference between what the world calls “charity” and what the Torah calls צדקה (tzedakah – righteousness, justice). The difference is not semantic; it is foundational. One is rooted in ego. The other in truth. The nations speak of charity as an act of kindness. It is optional, generous, even admirable. A person gives because he chooses to give, because he feels compassion, or, increasingly in our age, because he wishes...

by Ram ben Ze’ev The Lamb, The Stars, and the Illusion of Power The Torah in שמות (Shemot) commands something extraordinary on the eve of redemption: each household was to take a lamb on the tenth of Nissan, keep it for several days, and then slaughter it on the fourteenth, placing its blood upon the doorposts. This was not a quiet act. It was deliberate, visible, and defiant. To understand this moment, we must understand the world in which it occurred. Egypt was not merely a political...

by Ram ben Ze’ev The United Nations and the Politics of Historical Guilt The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade to be the “gravest crime against humanity.” While the horrors of slavery are undeniable and no moral person today would defend such a practice, the resolution itself reveals more about the modern political agenda of the United Nations than it does about historical reality. Before the vote, the United States...

by Ram ben Ze'ev The Problem with the Term “Orthodox” in Judaism The term “Orthodox,” so commonly used today to describe traditional Jews, is not a Hebrew word and does not originate from Jewish sources. Rather, it comes from the Ancient Greek word orthodoxos , meaning “correct belief” or “right opinion.” The word itself is formed from two Greek roots: orthos , meaning “straight,” “right,” or “true,” and doxa , meaning “opinion,” “belief,” or “praise.” From a Jewish standpoint, this already...

by Ram ben Ze'ev When a Man Believes He Answers to No One A curious phenomenon of the modern age is the man who proudly declares that he believes in nothing higher than himself, and yet expects to be trusted with everything that matters most in life. I saw a profile description on a social media account for a Jewish man in Israel who tells the world that he is a husband and a father. These are not small titles. In the Torah understanding of life, they are among the most serious...

by Ram ben Ze'ev This War Was Chosen As a Jew, an American, and a fervent supporter of Israel, I write this without apology: I shed no tears for Iran. The regime in Tehran has spent decades threatening Israel, funding terror, and building a regional network dedicated to Jewish bloodshed. If Iran were to launch an unprovoked attack on Israel, I would support the destruction of its military capacity without hesitation. But that is not what this is. What I object to, strongly and without...

by Ram ben Ze'ev When a Nation Forgets Its Covenant Throughout our long history, the Jewish people have faced enemies in every generation. Empires have risen against us, armies have marched against us, and rulers have sought to erase us from the earth. Yet the Torah teaches something that history repeatedly confirms: our greatest danger has never been the nations alone, but what happens when we forget who we are . From the beginning, the Jewish people were not created simply as another...

by Ram ben Ze’ev The Nobel Delusion and the Price of Blood For years, President Donald Trump nursed a grievance. The Nobel Committee refused to crown him as the architect of peace he so eagerly proclaimed himself to be. Throughout his first term, during the 2020 campaign, throughout 2024, and right up until the Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado—who symbolically handed it to him—he spoke incessantly of the wars he stopped and the...

by Ram ben Ze'ev The Obligation to Read the Megillah: Night and Day When the month of אדר (Adar – joy-filled month) arrives, our service of G-D reaches its crescendo in the reading of the מגילה (Megillah – Scroll of Esther). This is not a custom, nor a sentimental commemoration. It is a binding obligation upon every member of כלל ישראל (Klal Yisrael – the Jewish nation): men and women alike must hear the Megillah twice — once at night and once again by day. The source of this dual reading is...