2025

All Posts, Eliyahu Berkowitz

Prayer for a Small God

Dear God, Please excuse me if I sound a little out of it, but I’m feeling kind of small today. I’m hungry and thirsty, and my feet hurt from standing. I have my good days, when I’m glowingly transcendent and strive towards the infinite, stretching myself to go further. Today isn’t one of those days, […]

All Posts, Eliyahu Berkowitz

A Different Kind of Hero

Unlike most of my other stories, this is not based on real events. I wrote it when my in-laws were hosting my family at a hotel in Tiberias. The kids spent their days in the pool, and the hotel had an open bar, though I am mostly sure that had nothing to do with this

All Posts, Eliyahu Berkowitz

Wrestling the Angel

I originally named my site “Wrestling the Angel” because some Jewish sources explain that Jacob, the patriarch of the Jews, wrestled the angel of Esau, described by the sages as the patriarch of Rome and Western culture. I have spent many years dialoguing with Christians. I have encountered many amazing Souls, but at the same

All Posts, Eliyahu Berkowitz

101

Yes, this is a “true story,” but I only witnessed the beginning, the scene being set, the cast of characters lining up off stage. Nothing will be clear at first, but by the end, you will understand. I will explain at the end, but don’t peek. Wait. I hope it is worth the wait. The

Tefillah Is Not “Prayer.” It Is Self-Judgement Before the King
All Posts, Yosef Eitan

Tefillah Is Not “Prayer.” It Is Self-Judgement Before the King

The verb we use three times daily is לְהִתְפַּלֵּל, lehitpallēl. Its root is פ־ל־ל, p-l-l, which in every appearance in Tanakh means to judge, to assess, to differentiate, to execute decisive judgement. Shemot 21:22: וְנָתְנוּ בִּפְלִלִים, venātenū bi-pelīlīm (according to the judgement of the judges). Ruth 1:20: כִּי הֵמַר פָּלַל לִי שַׁדַּי, kī hēmar pālal

All Posts, Eliyahu Berkowitz

Dolphins on the Moon

Dolphins on the Moon I hadn’t been to the Danny Bar in a long time, but it bothered me that I didn’t find the entrance right away. Danny Bar was a hidden gem among serious blues enthusiasts and had once been an essential part of my life. Located in one of the more disreputable parts

Fake Jews? Meet Abraham.
All Posts, Yosef Eitan

Fake Jews? Meet Abraham.

The Tanakh demolishes the “fake Jews” claim by showing that the covenant people were founded, expanded, and sustained by outsiders who chose faithfulness to Hashem and His Torah. Today’s detractors would brand these figures “fake Jews” with laughable absurdity. Avram was a Chaldean idol-worshiper from Ur (Josh 24:2), a total foreigner with no Jewish blood.

No Father, No King
All Posts, Yosef Eitan

No Father, No King

Washington Square, 2025: skull-capped activists scream “NO KINGS!” at a drone-camera sky. Fast-cut to Ziph, 1040 BCE: the Ziphites sprint to Saul’s camp. “David is hiding among us on the hill of Hachilah!” (1 Sam 23:19). Same impulse, 3,000 years apart: impatience with God’s king. One leaks coordinates to a tyrant; the other leaks theology

Every Jew Brought the Daily Tamid Offering
All Posts, Yosef Eitan

Every Jew Brought the Daily Tamid Offering

Just as the first shaft of sunlight rising over the mount of olives pierced the open Nicanor Gate and struck the 2nd bronze ring in the slaughter area (Mishnah Tamid 3:3), a clock set by Hashem the time arrived, the Court of Israel already filled with hundreds of men, arranged by their district, silently stood

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