For the past few weeks, President Joe Biden has been steady in his public support for Israel following Hamas's murderous Oct. 7 rampage. Three days after the massacre, the president gave a commendable statement in support of Israel. He made it clear that Israel must defend itself from the "sheer evil" of Hamas.

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Like many American Jews, I learned of the horrific terror attack on Israel while in synagogue.

The Saturday of the attack was the first day of a two-day festival, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, during which Orthodox Jews do not use electricity: no phones, no TV, no radio, no Internet, a complete news blackout. Even so, word about what was happening started to trickle among us. People learned the news from Gentile neighbors and would pass it on. At first, we heard there were 20 casualties, then 200, then 300. (It was not until the holiday ended Sunday night that we heard there were more than 700 dead, a number that has now exceeded 1,300.)

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Democrats are anxious over a recent poll showing that nearly two-thirds of Democrats do not want President Joe Biden to run again. Worse still, from their perspective, is the survey's finding that Biden is trailing in a head-to-head matchup against his likely Republican opponent. The feeling is bipartisan: 70% of voters don't think Biden should run for reelection.

Yet Biden remains undeterred. And if the president is simply trying to wait out the doubters until his candidacy becomes inevitable, he might need a new strategy: History shows that many past presidents have both mulled and even chosen to drop out of the race later in the cycle than we are now.

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When we talk about America's political parties today, there seem to be just two: Democrats and Republicans. This is all the more amazing given widespread dissatisfaction among voters, a majority of whom don't want to see a Trump-Biden rematch in 2024. Yet most analysts still claim that a third-party run is simply impossible and that Americans are destined to be held hostage by the two feuding parties.

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This Friday, September 15, marks Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. This year, however, Rosh Hashanah also marks the 100th anniversary of the Daf Yomi, a program for daily Talmud study that has become a staple throughout the Jewish world and brought some measure of unity to an increasingly fragmented people.

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