News Blog

Yossi Cohen, the former head of the Mossad, describes in his new book the mindset of an agent going out on their first mission. He writes about the angst, the assumed identity and storyline they must live by, the emergency communication methods they may have to resort to, and the subconscious fear that at any second there could be a knock at the door stating "it's the police".

Yet even as the risks are great and one could go for weeks or months without being in touch with their loved ones and one wrong misstep and the damage can be huge, there is also a deep awareness of the importance of the mission and each individual element of the process, which have ramifications far beyond the agent, as i… Read More »

The cries of the newborn babies and their desperate mothers versus the terrible decrees that ordered the death of those babies, were what weighed against the hearts of the Jewish midwives in Egypt. Compounded with that was the potential capital punishment that hung over the heads of the Jewish midwives should they choose to refuse orders.

Yet even as the midwives faced these two options, it would seem it was never much of a moral quandary for them as to what they were going to do.  The Torah tells us that G-d's mandate of morality was more supreme to them, than that of Pharaoh, and thus they found a way to keep the babies alive and refuse Pharaoh's orders.

The midwives, Shifra and Puah, are just one element of … Read More »

Caracas, Venezuela 1999

Dear Friends,

I walked into his room as he lay there in pain on a hospital bed hooked up to many wires, and we started to chat. 

I would visit the hospitals the San Bernadino section of Caracas at least once a week and visit patients, and this was seemingly just another one of those visits.

After a nice visit and good conversation, I asked the gentleman's wife if it would be okay for me to offer him to wrap Tefillin together and say the Shema. She told me that there is no way that he will do that but I can certainly make him the offer.

I offered... and he said "sure, why not".

We wrapped the Tefillin and started saying the Shema together.

Suddenly, he began to sob and cry.... and co… Read More »

Earlier this week, I found myself in a car speeding down a road and yet there was no one in the driver seat. The steering wheel was turning when we got to a turn, the blinkers went on when we turned corners, the car was stopping at the stop signs, yet, there was no one in the driver seat, navigating this journey.

Or so it seemed...

I was in a Waymo, for the first time in my life...

It felt like a loss of control and it was a little nerve wracking, yet it took a belief that some entity and technology was safe enough to make this work and to be willing to give it a try.

Here and there, I saw someone wave a thank you to this driverless car, as they thanked some AI chip somewhere out there.

Is this the way of the future, I don… Read More »