Blessed once again with copious rain in the Judean Desert this winter 2025/2026 - the flowers have once again been nothing short of miraculous by the shores of the northern Dead Sea.

Reseda boisseri רִכְפַּת בּוּאַסְיֶה like a meadow of candles.

Wildflowers blooming in the Judean Desert this winter near the shores of the Dead Sea. Only spent a few hours in the area one morning, but worth every minute to see this in person, just glorious.

Lunar awareness: If you follow the solar Gregorian calendar it may have slipped your attention that it is the new moon and those of us following lunar based calendars that means a new month, and for some a new year.

This week's new moon ushers in:

- the month of Adar for Jews - the month of silliness, joy and miracles centred around the holiday of Purim in the middle of the month.

- the month of Ramadan for Muslims - the month of fasting by day and celebrating with family by night culminating in the festival of Eid el Fitr at the end of the month.

- the east Asian/Chinese lunar new year spring festival

For all of us that follow a lunar based calendar the cycle of the moon remains closely tied to the rhythm of our daily lives, looking at the night sky still helps us to tell time and work out our schedules.

Maybe it's a small thing but to me there is always a thrill at being able to look up at the night sky and know when the next festival or fast is coming by the shape of the moon or when one the kids says "Look Imma, the moon is getting small again, it's almost Rosh Hodesh", or "Look at the moon, it's going to be my birthday soon".

I feel a frisson of connectedness with my heritage, with my ancestors, all the generations who looked up at that moon and did the same thing, all those who came before me and looked to the night sky to know whether it was time yet to celebrate the new month. That direct link to the eternal, the ever so distant moon by which generations of my people, and so many other ancient peoples, tell time.

A moment of breaking through the ever present electronic hum of modern hi-tech living to remember something more primal, one of the first mitzvot in the Torah, the blessing and honour of keeping alive this millennia old tradition.

Side point - both the Chinese and Jewish calendars are lunisolar, meaning that they are calculated according to both the moon and the sun.

In these times of intensifying anti-Semitism and open assaults on Jewish people around the world it can be challenging to find a child appropriate medium to help younger kids learn and have a framework within which to talk about these issues.

My dog loving 10 year-old and I have just finished reading this excellent book together. As DH says, as long as we have kids who enjoy being read to, we shall continue the "book at bedtime" tradition and read to them each night.

"The Lost War Dog" by Megan Rix tells the moving story of a Jewish girl and her beloved dachshund Wuffly living in Nazi Germany in 1938.

The persecution of Jews and those with disabilities (there are at least two prominent deaf characters) is told through the eyes of children living through these horrific times, the casual Jew hatred inculcated through teachers in the German education system, the growing isolation of Jews cast out of their jobs, homes and schools, the raw fear of simply existing day by day, including Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport.

The story is compelling, intense, and especially for a sensitive child, quite scary in places, but in a child appropriate way. The writer skillfully conveys the reign of terror under which German Jews were living without making the book too frightening for this age group.

While it's aimed at independent readers aged between 8-12, I highly recommend children read this book with a parent, teacher or other adult (or possibly older teen sibling) to help answer questions and provide background if necessary, though there is a glossary at the end of the book.

I found this story an excellent jumping off point both for teaching about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but also for discussing anti-Semitism, as well as mechanisms of persecution and demonisation of Jews and other persecuted groups throughout history and sadly of course in our own times.

Israelis never gave up on finding Ran Gvili and bringing him home, even our fallen who's bodies were kidnapped and held to ransom, checking cemeteries and morgues to bring home every one of our people.

I've had messages from abroad along the lines of, "well, that means it's all over now." If only, the hostages dead and alive are home, but those who are alive have a lifetime of therapy ahead of them, both to cure the physical damage of abuse, torture and starvation, and the psychological trauma of what was done to them. The dead can now all be buried, but they leave behind gaping holes in families shattered not only by their loss, but by the endless torture of the mind games Hamas put them through during their loved ones' captivity, were they dead or alive, would they ever see them, phone calls from Hamas and twisted videos.

That 250 hostages are now one way or another home doesn't change the evil of what Hamas did, or the way their supporters, including huge numbers in the West, have gloried in Hamas' atrocities, laughed at the hostages and their families and reveled in their suffering.

“וַיִּקַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת עַצְמוֹת יוֹסֵף עִמּוֹ, כִּי הַשְׁבֵּעַ הִשְׁבִּיעַ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר: פָּקֹד יִפְקֹד אֱלֹקים אֶתְכֶם וְהַעֲלִיתֶם אֶת עַצְמֹתַי מִזֶּה אִתְּכֶם”

כך מתחיל פרשת השבוע, פרשת בשלח, וכך קראו הבוקר בבתי כנסת בכל ישראל ובכל העולם.

ושבו בנים לגבולם.

 All over Israel people are praying for the safety, well being and success of the Iranian people in their fight for freedom.

Israel and Iran are the only countries in the Middle East where the ancient cultures have survived the 7th century Muslim Arab conquest of the region and where the native languages, Hebrew and Farsi, are the lingua franca, a direct link to the millennia old archaeological sites bearing witness to the historic civilisations dating to biblical times.

As such many Israelis and Iranians feel a connection, a shared history going back thousands of years. The bible records that it was Persian emperor Cyrus who famously permitted the Judean exiles to return home to Zion to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem that had been destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnetzer who's empire was absorbed by an ascendant Persia.

Persian-Israeli singer Liraz is a Farsi pop sensation with a following all over the Iranian diaspora as well as in Iran itself. She has made a point of recording with Iranian musicians in Istanbul and other neutral countries. Her album "Roya" featured Iranian women musicians who's fight for freedom she highlighted in songs on the album.

"Recorded in secrecy in Istanbul with her band from Tel Aviv and risk-defying Iranian musicians from Tehran. A musical portal to a place of peace, joy and unfettered freedom."

Liraz dedicated the album to the women of Iran:

"It’s finally happening. For years women's freedom has been my fight. I create my music inspired by their powerful life stories.

I always believed women would be the leaders of the revolution in Iran. I am watching these courageous women fighting right now for their freedom. Some of them collaborated with me last February inside an underground studio recording in Istanbul for this album.

Meeting and creating music together physically gave us the hope we would meet again soon and be free. Our ROYA / fantasy was our secret. Now we can shout it out to the world. They can shout it out to the world."

Mahsa_Amini MahsaAmini IranProtests2022

"Zan Zendegi Azadi" (Women, life, freedom) This poster is for a rally in Tel Aviv support of the Iranian people

 Jews and Kurds have a long history together, with Jewish communities in the region dating back to the forced exile of Israelites by the Assyrian King Sanherib, destroyer of the independent Israelite Kingdom about 2700 years ago. There is a large and proud Jewish Kurdish community in Israel which continues to celebrate Kurdish culture and support Kurdish independence aspirations. Many Israelis sympathise with the Kurdish opposition groups in Syria and have deep respect for the Kurdish fighters, especially the women, who did so much to defeat ISIS in the region, looking on with despair in recent days as the US and other Western governments seem to abandon their Kurish allies to be crushed by the nascent Syrian government with its dubious jihadi connections.