YOU’LL BE AHEAD OF ME ON THIS ONE. By the time you read this, it’s possible that Israel will have hit back in response to the ballistic missiles that Iran fired on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities last Tuesday. As I write, the world is bracing itself for that expected Israeli retaliation and what threatens to be an all-out regional war, pitting the Middle East’s dominant powers against each other.
The reason for that gap between us is that I am writing these words before the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which began at sunset last Wednesday. By tradition, Jews are supposed to refrain from all work for the 48 hours that follow, work defined to include not only updating newspaper columns but watching the news on TV or checking your phone. I suspect I will not be the only Jew who will have struggled to comply with that stricture this year.
But you