Hey there. It's me, Leel. This is usually the part where we say,

Welcome to an Orthodox, the universe's leading Jewish podcast, but not today.

Today is different. For one thing, there's a war raging on in

Israel on several fronts. We have a hundred and one innocent people still held

captive in Gaza, including elderly folks, women, toddlers and infants.

We have a ground operation that just begun in Lebanon,

and as I record this on a Tuesday evening, the day before Roshoshana,

I'm talking to my parents in Tel Aviv and receiving snapshots of explosions in the sky

caused by more than 180 missiles fired by the murderous Ayatollahs in Iran.

Miraculously, and really there's no other word for it.

The missiles appear to have claimed no lives and caused only minor damage to property.

But it made it all too clear that things are changing in the Middle East, that

paradigms that so many of us held to be true for decades are now proven to be not only

false but also dumb and dangerous and that assertions that this time last year

would have marked you as some lunatic not suited for polite company today are direly

desperately needed if we're going not only to survive this torrent of anti-Israel

and anti-Jewish violence but also emerge on the other side smarter, stronger and better equipped for all the many challenges that lie ahead.

This is why today we're bringing you a new show.

We're calling it ruthless with tongue somewhat in cheek for reasons I'll explain soon

But before I could tell you about this show and about the Israel conversation

We need to have urgently right now if we are to understand this war where it's going and what Israel ought to do.

I need to do something else first.

...