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Ammos Chorny

Ammos Chorny

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

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What’s in it for me?

I have lost count of how many times people have come to me with the inevitable question: W.I.F.M.? – What’s in it for me? It is one of the...

06.08.2026 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

More Than a Bulletin

Every Thursday afternoon, after the week’s visits have been made, emails answered, sermons revised, and the rhythms of synagogue life begin to...

05.08.2026 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

The Report We Swipe Away

Every Sunday morning, my phone presents me with a report. It tells me how many hours I spent looking at the screen during the previous week. It...

04.08.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

Beyond the Screen: Recovering Beauty in Tefila

Parchment to Pixels: Recovering Beauty in Jewish Prayer There was a time when the arrival of a new prayer book was an event. A skilled scribe copied...

02.08.2026 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

The Homework Was Finished

There are certain feelings we never entirely outgrow. The other night, just before turning off the bedside lamp, I kissed Aviva goodnight and said...

27.07.2026 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

Beauty before the Holy One

Ancient Wisdom, New Technologies, and the Art of Becoming Present One of the greatest obstacles to prayer is not disbelief. It is distraction. We...

19.07.2026 40

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

History Remembers. Torah Transforms

Few observations about history have become as familiar as George Santayana’s famous warning: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to...

15.07.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

Before the Stories Become Silent

There comes a moment in every stage of life when we find ourselves opening an old box. Inside are photographs whose corners have curled with age,...

15.07.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

The Spaces We Forget

When we tell the story of our lives, we usually begin with the milestones. We graduated. We married. Our children were born. We moved. We changed...

06.07.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

The Bread That Doesn’t Grow

Not long ago, I found myself watching a family at a nearby table at a restaurant. Just before the food arrived, they reached across the table, held...

30.06.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

America at 250: An Immigrant’s Gratitude

On July 2, 1978, the day I turned seventeen years old, I left my childhood home in Bogotá, Colombia, and boarded a plane bound for New York. I was...

24.06.2026 80

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

15 Feet Apart

A few days ago, my wife looked up from the living room and asked: “So, I’m alone again today?” I was puzzled. She was watching television. I was...

18.06.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos Chorny

Why I Never Skip the National Anthem

At my age, and having grown up in a Latin American country where fútbol is more than a sport, I have watched hundreds, perhaps thousands, of matches....

15.06.2026 70

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos chorny

The Sacredness of Remaining Time

The Sacredness of Remaining Time: Hospice, Jewish Ethics, and the Moral Meaning of Time at Life’s End There is a moment I have witnessed many times...

11.06.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos chorny

From Information to Transformation

Rethinking the Art of the Sermon Several years ago, I began noticing something uncomfortable about my own preaching. People would compliment a sermon...

10.06.2026 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos chorny

Alone in a Vast Universe? The Search for Meaning

In 1950, during a lunchtime conversation at Los Alamos, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked a deceptively simple question: “Where is everybody?” He...

07.06.2026 80

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos chorny

Babel in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

In recent months, I have found myself listening to lectures on artificial intelligence and quantum computing with a mixture of fascination and...

02.06.2026 50

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Ammos chorny