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August 2, 2026 / 19 Av 5786
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Israeli flags being held aloft (Yehoshua Halevi, Shutterstock.com)
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Shalom -, Please enjoy today's Daily Inspiration from Israel.
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Who is so blind as My servant, So deaf as the messenger I send? Who is so blind as the chosen one, So blind as GOD’s servant?
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מִי עִוֵּר כִּי אִם־עַבְדִּי וְחֵרֵשׁ כְּמַלְאָכִי אֶשְׁלָח מִי עִוֵּר כִּמְשֻׁלָּם וְעִוֵּר כְּעֶבֶד יְהֹוָה
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MEE i-VAYR KEE im av-DEE, v'-khay-RAYSH k'-mal-a-KHEE esh-LAKH, MEE i-VAYR kim-shu-LAM, v'-i-VAYR k'-E-ved a-do-NAI
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The Righteous Man Who Could Not See
By Rabbi Elie Mischel
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I am slowly reading J.R.R. Tolkien's magisterial The Lord of the Rings to my son at bedtime, and a few nights ago we reached a passage that made me pause.
Frodo the hobbit has just discovered that the Shire, his beautiful green and sleepy homeland, is not what he thought it was. Terrifying and mysterious riders on black horses are hunting him on the very roads he walked as a child, leaving him not only shaken but disoriented.
He meets a friendly elf named Gildor, and pours out his shock:
"’I knew that danger lay ahead, of course; but I did not expect to meet it in our own Shire. Can't a hobbit walk from the Water to the River in peace?’
‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.’
‘I know, and yet it has always seemed so safe and familiar. What can I do now?’"
Strange as it might seem, these paragraphs reminded me of a very different character in a very different book: Job, the most tragic figure in the Bible.
Scripture introduces Job as blameless and upright, a man who feared God and turned away from evil, the greatest man of the East. He had seven sons, three daughters, thousands of head of livestock and a household of servants. He was so careful about sin that whenever his grown children held a feast, he offered sacrifices on their behalf in case they had cursed God privately in their hearts.
Then, in a matter of days, he loses everything.
Raiders carry off his oxen and donkeys and put his farmhands to the sword. Fire falls from the sky and consumes his sheep. Another band seizes his camels and kills the men guarding them. While he is still absorbing the news, a final messenger arrives to tell him that a great wind collapsed the house where his ten children were eating together, and that all of them are dead. Job is then struck with boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, and we find him sitting in ashes, scraping his own skin with a piece of broken pottery.
Three friends come to comfort him. They sit with him on the ground for seven days without saying a word, and then they begin to argue that suffering on this scale can only mean hidden sin. Job refuses to confess to crimes he never committed, and every reader instinctively takes his side. He is right. He did not steal, he did not oppress anyone, and he did not chase after other gods.
So what exactly did Job do wrong? What did this good man do to deserve his terrible fate?
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The Part of Recovery Nobody Sees
Right now, about 1.2 million people in Israel are caring for a family member who is seriously ill or disabled. Most of them earn nothing for it. Most of them go unrecognized.
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The Nations Will Be Dismayed: Reading the August 12 Eclipse and Meteor Storm Through Jeremiah’s Prophecy
Before sunrise on August 12, six planets will stretch across the morning sky. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune will all sit above the horizon at once, a lineup rare enough that NASA and major observatories have been tracking it for months.
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Twenty Dead: J7 Report Names 2025 the Deadliest Year for Diaspora Jews Since 1994
Twenty Jews were killed in antisemitic attacks in 2025, all of them in countries belonging to the J7, the Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism.
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Live Like David: Daily Devotional Journal
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Looking for daily strength and connection? Live Like David helps you walk with Israel’s greatest poet-warrior through the Psalms — one day at a time. With Hebrew, transliteration, reflection, and journal prompts, you’ll dig into God’s heart, process your emotions, and grow in faith — just like David did.
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Use code INSPIRATION20 to get 20% off!
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Blessings from the land of Israel,
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