A Father’s Faith: Rav Tamir Granot on Loss, October 7th, and the Soul of Israel

What does it mean to write about Jewish hope and renewal — and then lose your son a week later?

Rav Dr. Tamir Granot is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Orot Shaul, a hesder yeshiva in the heart of south Tel Aviv. He is a Holocaust scholar, a student of Rav Amital and Rav Lichtenstein at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and the author of multiple books on Jewish thought. Days after October 7th he published a major theological essay arguing the massacre was a watershed moment demanding Jewish renewal — not despair. One week later, his son Amitai, a 24-year-old IDF officer who had just become engaged, was killed by a Hezbollah missile on the northern border.

In this deeply moving conversation, Rav Granot joins Jewish Insights with Justin Pines tospeak about faith under fire and the private spiritual journals of his son — published as A Dreamer and a Fighter: https://www.amazon.com/Dreamer-Fighter-Reflections-Journal-Entries/dp/9655841561