Ami Avraham, CPA

You hear the word “accountability” all the time in sports. When it’s demanded by a manager, it often leads to a big payoff. Remember a game between the Mets and Brewers at Citi Field in late August? Cooper Pratt, two months into his major league career was pulled from the game by Pat Murphy because, having failed to execute a sacrifice bunt earlier in the game, Pratt did not run hard out of the box on a pop up near the right field line that fell between three Mets fielders. Pratt should have been at second base, but his lack of hustle forced him to hold on at first. Murphy would not tolerate that mistake, especially from a rookie. Well, look at Pratt and the Brewers now. That’s how you establish a winning culture, whether running hard out of the batter’s box is someone’s “cup of tea” or not.

Trump on the NFL playing in France this weekend: "It's looking like tomorrow is going to be a bad day in France, so you worry about it. I would've said the NFL could've probably postponed that match... France is really in trouble. That's what happens when you go LEFT."

I’ve noticed that our musical Hallel on Chol Hamoed Sukkos is being discussed on social media. Many were inspired by it. Others criticized it as being some sort of “reformation” of our Avodas Hashem. The specific, technical question is not a new one. There is room for legitimate debate in the realm of halacha and minhag. But something else has crept into this conversation, and I think it needs to be called out. Musical Hallel is suddenly being dismissed by some as “a Modox invention.” As a “Zionist” phenomenon. As something that belongs to a supposedly “less serious” stream of Orthodox Judaism. And that is not a Torah argument. There is an enormous difference between a halachic debate and saying, “Of course those kinds of Jews would do something like this.” The first is a machlokes. The second is using Torah language as cover for contempt toward other frum Jews. And we should be intellectually honest enough to know the difference. You are completely entitled to believe that another Torah community is mistaken. Torah Judaism has never had full uniformity of minhag, hashkafah, or practice. But disagreement in this realm demands enough respect for another Torah community to actually engage its position. And no - labels are not arguments. “Modox” is not a mareh makom. “Zionist” is not a legitimate rebuttal. Our mesorah contains fierce machlokes. Beis Hillel and Beis Shammai were not engaged in a campaign of “let’s all get along.” They believed that matters of Torah were worth arguing about. But they argued about Torah. That distinction matters. Because there is something deeply unhealthy about reaching for Torah language when what you really want to say is that you do not respect the religious world of the Yidden standing across from you. We can argue more seriously. We can insist that Torah ideas be defended with Torah substance rather than sociological cudgels. If there’s one thing that we can learn on this 3rd anniversary of October 7th, it is perhaps that we need to recover more honest machlokes. The art of holy disagreement while still loving and respecting our brothers and sisters who might not agree with every one of our opinions.

This day is profoundly painful for so many New Yorkers. It marks three years since the horrific war crimes of October 7. On that day, Hamas killed more than 1,100 Israelis and abducted 251 others. We grieve alongside our many friends and neighbors who still carry that unthinkable loss. The suffering did not begin nor end that day. It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza, in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians—including more than 21,000 children. Even since the so-called ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed. That suffering has intensified with every Israeli bomb dropped on ambulances waiting outside hospitals, every drone strike targeting a residential building or journalist, and every shipment of food aid turned away at a border crossing. Many New Yorkers are reckoning with this unbearable grief, and we mourn alongside them – all while knowing that our tax dollars fund these war crimes. Three years later, we must refuse to accept a world in which occupation and apartheid continue, where war crimes are met with impunity, and our federal government continues its complicity with every arms shipment. To honor the dead, we must fight for a world in which every person can live with freedom, safety, and dignity.

As you can see, the U.S. is trying to make peace and stopped Israel, yet Iran is still attacking civilians in the Middle East. YES It wasn’t Israel. It was Iran. The Islamic regime attacked Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Strait of Hormuz, threatening Muslim countries and global energy. So why the silence? The problem is Iran’s regime, not Israel or America. Where are the Muslim MPs in the British Parliament? Why aren't they condemning Iran's aggression against a Muslim country? I thought they cared about Muslims. Or is it only when Muslim Brotherhood terrorists are involved in Gaza that they come to defend them. Are they acting as Iran’s proxies in the West?

Yesterday, during Friday prayers at the Muslim Center of New York in Queens, a man reached for his pocket and congregants saw what looked like a firearm, creating a terrifying situation for Muslim New Yorkers who had gathered to worship. I’m immensely grateful and relieved that an MTA employee, a cab driver and an NYPD officer acted quickly to help ensure no one was hurt. Every New Yorker should be able to observe their religion without fear or intimidation.

We’re both proud Jewish New Yorkers. But there are sharp & clear differences between us on Israel/Palestine. For example, Dan Goldman marched alongside war criminal Bezalel Smotrich yesterday, who called it “just & moral” to starve Gaza. I did not.

Three months ago today, a war began that no one voted for — and the cost has been paid by people who had no say in it. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives. Thirteen U.S. servicemembers will never come home to their families. Americans across this country and our city have watched prices rise at the pump and the grocery store, their budgets strained by a conflict launched without a single vote of Congress. Every life lost abroad and every dollar squeezed from a working family here is part of the same reckless bill, handed to the people who could least afford it by those who will never pay it themselves. I opposed this war from the first day. I oppose it still. It must end.