Haim Watzman “Fire! Fire! The Temple’s on fire!” I cry out, waking myself up. Ilana rolls over and glares at me. “Calm down,” she says. “Your freedoms do not include shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded Temple.” “Ohmigod,” I say. “I had the weirdest nightmare.” “It must be something you didn’t eat,” Ilana suggests. “I was [...]

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Haim Watzman It’s summer and the Jews are being perverse again. Instead of singing of sand and sea, next week we’ll spend a day fasting and lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. The lamentation lyrics get pretty sickening—blood flows, people get tortured and burned alive, famished women cook and eat their own children. Why do we [...]

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