Rabbi Avraham Feder Z"L

Rabbi Avraham Feder Z"L

It was a difficult day today.  We attended the funeral of Rabbi Avraham Feder Z"L at Har Hamenuchot in Jerusalem.  Rabbi Feder was a great Rabbi - a Rabbi of a generation - a terrific Chazzan and a wonderful man.  He was our Rabbi, teacher and friend and touched the lives of so many people.

Rabbi Feder was the founding Rabbi of Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto in 1967, a Synagogue which later expanded and grew into a shul of more than 1,000 families.  He was energetic and passionate in his approach to Judaism, Zionism, music and social activism, among other passions.  He worked on building a community, not just a shul.  He pushed his congregants towards spiritual growth, greater halachic observance, wide ranging musical experience and Zionism.

I first came to know him in 1979 soon after our family moved to Toronto.  He taught a Pirkei Avot  class to a group of High School Students.  More than 30 of us joined him weekly for an in-depth discussion of a wide range of ethical issues.  He would always arrive early and get to know whichever students had shown up.  He was happy to speak about politics, baseball, ethical issues, or whatever other topic might create some common interest between him and the students.  In class, he would constantly try to find ways to engage each individual student.  Though his expectations were high, he was respectful, thoughtful and, often, funny.

As the congregation Rabbi, he would push congregants to try adding new observances.  For example, he implored more people to attend services for Sukkot - and to try building their own Sukkah.  When he saw that many families accepted his challenge and came to shul on Sukkot, he decided that he had to reward them by making Sukkot the fun and happy holiday that it was supposed to be.  He wanted to make "Zman Simchateinu" a reality - so he told adventurous stories of his heroic cousin who was serving in the Israel Defence Forces.

Rabbi Feder was an ardent Zionist who fervently believed that the mission for the current generation of Jews around the world was to do everything they could to rebuild the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.   He followed what he preached and left Toronto to make Aliyah in the early 1980s.  Some Beth Tikvah families joined him at that time.  Other families came later and still others - children and grandchildren of the original founding families of the shul - joined him in Israel many years later.

Rabbi Feder continued to return to Beth Tikvah each year to conduct High Holy Day auxiliary services at Beth Tikvah.  He had a passionate group of followers.  He led services, as the Chazzan, with beautiful, inspired davening.  The congregants came to know all of his melodies and sang along throughout.  These High Holy Day services were a spiritual treat, intense, uplifting and fulfilling.

He would sometimes bring new songs to teach to the congregation.  One year, after facing down some particularly difficult challenges, he asked the congregation to sing "LaKum Machar Baboker," the classic Naomi Shemer song about waking up to start a new day.  In remembering this type of approach, one person described him today as a "radical optimist."

In his role as the Rabbi at these services, he also delivered lengthy, powerful sermons, sometimes laced with musical interludes in Hebrew, English or Yiddish.  Since he was both the Rabbi and the Chazzan, he knew that the Chazzan would not complain if the sermons were too lengthy.  His sermons were fascinating works.  They touched on a wide variety of sources - the Torah and Talmud and other sources of Jewish law, contemporary and classic literature, current works of fiction and non-fiction, cinema, plays and personal anecdotes.  Some were sewn together meticulously.  Others might wander into unforeseen and provocative areas.  Many of these sermons generated vigorous responses.  But they always left us with ample fuel for discussion over Yom Tov lunch, whether we agreed or disagreed with what he said.

Over the years, we spoke and exchanged emails with him constantly.  He attended and shared "a few words" at each of our kids' b'nei mitzvah in Israel and we got together with him several other times.  He always asked about all of our family members, children, parents, brothers, sisters - he genuinely cared.  He was particularly proud of our children's accomplishments - as bar and bat mitzvah teachers, as shlichei Tzibbur and with their roles in the IDF.

At his funeral this morning - several people spoke.  Family members, friends and others.  If there was a common thread that ran through all of these eulogies - it was Rabbi Feder's passion and his love.  He was passionate about Judaism, Zionism, literature, Music, learning and had many other passions.  But each person who spoke about him - shared the thought that in all of their interactions with him - they always felt love and respect going in both directions.  They all felt that they had a special personal connection with him - and that this special connection touched and impacted on their lives in a unique way. This love of people and ability to connect with them - together with his true menschlikeit was what came through most powerfully from all those who spoke.

Aside from Jewish sources and classic literature (he was a Shakespeare expert), Rabbi Feder greatly enjoyed musicals - particularly classic Broadway musicals.  He would often sing snippets from some of his favourite pieces.  A few of the speakers today recognized this - and alluded to certain pieces - that were some of his favourites.  As much as he enjoyed the "classics," he opened his mind to new music, movies and books. And he continued to try to accomplish as much as he could - reading, writing and exchanging ideas with so many people.

Apparently, he had been working feverishly on a 250 page memoir which he completed very recently.  I have not yet seen it.  But when I heard about it today - I thought about how much he might have enjoyed Hamilton - and its blend of American history, Broadway music, contemporary music and social justices ideas.  And what more apt a line - than a line from Hamilton describing Rabbi Feder's efforts to complete his memoirs...."how do you write when you're running out of time..."  and, from the finale of Hamilton - "time...if I only had more time..."

For many of his - his family members, friends, congregants....we all wish he had more time.

I hope and pray that his legacy will inspire others to emulate many of his examples - whether in the area of yiddishkeit, Zionism, Judaism - or above all else - Menschlekeit.  

Published Announcement for Rabbi Feder Z"L

Memories After My Death: The Story of My Father, Joseph "Tommy" Lapid - by Yair Lapid - A Review

It has been a while since I have had the chance to put together a new post.  Things have been quite hectic, I suppose.  I'm not complaining about that.

I have been meaning to write a review for a while - about Memories After My Death: The Story of My Father, Joseph "Tommy" Lapid, by Yair Lapid.  This was quite an interesting read.

The book as written as an autobiography, yet it was written by Yair Lapid after the death of his father Tommy Lapid.  As Yair Lapid indicates in the acknowledgements, much of the material came from a series of interviews conducted by Amnon Dankner with Tommy Lapid in the last years of his life.

Tommy Lapid was a remarkable figure.  His story of survival from the Holocaust is powerful and chilling.  The book details the incredible sacrifices his parents made and their efforts to keep Tommy alive as the situation became grimmer and grimmer for the Jews of Hungary.  Lapid and his mother were rescued by Raoul Wallenberg and moved to Israel in 1948, while Lapid's father was murdered in a concentration camp.  

The book also traces Lapid's immigration to Israel and the astounding challenges that he faced along with all of the other new immigrants as they moved one from one existential struggle to another.  Through it all, Lapid became a lawyer, a journalist, a politician and a writer.  He wrote for a Hungarian language newspaper in Israel but later became a journalist with Maariv, director of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority, founder of the magazine "At" (a women's magazine), a Knesset member and, eventually, chair of Yad Vashem.

The book is an often intimate look at Lapid's life and those around him.  He doesn't shy away from telling stories of romantic and other sexual encounters - along with various stories of his travels and escapades.  From eating shark-fin soup in Hong Kong to meeting royalty in England, Lapid certainly managed to come into contact with many influential figures.  He covered the Eichmann trial as a journalist, he rubbed elbows with Arnon Milchan, Robert Maxwell (for whom he worked) and Ehud Olmert.  Interesting group of characters.  In fairness, he was also close with Ariel Sharon.

Lapid is a controversial figure in Israeli politics.  He was avowedly secular and dedicated to fostering an increased separation between shul and state in Israel.  This caused him to be a lightning rod for ultra-orthodox anger.  Yet, as Yair Lapid tells it, Tommy Lapid's vision for Israel was a considered one.  Here, for example, are some thoughts about his rift with the Ultra-Orthodox:

"a democratic society is not founded merely on rights but on obligations as well.  I have no problem whatsoever with an Ultra-Orthodox Jew who serves in the army, goes off to work in the morning, then studies Torah all night if he wants.  That man is my brother and I love him better than any non-Jew in the world.  He was there with me in the ghetto and on the rickety boat that brought me to Israel, he sat with me on a boulder facing a ruined synagogue on the island of Rhodes when I sobbed at the memory of 500 Jews led from the building by the Nazis and drowned at sea in an Italian ship."

And he goes on:

"The fact that a man wears a shtreimel on his head and grows a beard does not absolve him from the responsibilities carried out by all the other citizens of the state.  It was not with ultra-Orthodoxy that I have a complaint but with the fact that the Ultra-Orthodox turned it into a permit for ignoring all the chores were are obliged to carry out on a daily basis..."

These excerpts provide a window into the ideology of Lapid as well as his son Yair.  While Tommy pushed for the Israeli government to make changes to laws in Israel that define the religious-secular divide, it was Yair Lapid who was actually able to institute some key changes for a fleeting period of two years during which he was Israel's Finance Minister.  Once Yair Lapid was excluded from the government, the changes that had been made were reversed and the religious-secular landscape has shifted considerably with ever greater power accruing to the ultra-religious and the nationalist religious in Israel.

While I agree with Yair Lapid's past approach to these issues, an approach that was more nuanced than the vision that his father apparently espoused, I felt that little other philosophical ground was covered in this book.  That is an ongoing criticism of Yair Lapid in Israel - that he is shallow and often seems more concerned with who he is meeting, where is speaking and how he looks - than the policy content that he advocates.

I was not able to conclude from this book that I had a solid understanding of Tommy Lapid's goals for the country, his aspirations or his dreams.  Certainly I understood that he was successful, bright, engaging and often acerbic and determined.  He enjoyed fine wine, high quality food and many other trappings of his self-described bourgeois life.

Yet I came away feeling that I had missed out on his real goals.  Sure, Lapid was an ardent Zionist who was committed, unconditionally, to the survival of the State of Israel and to doing whatever he could to help it flourish.  I have little doubt that his son Yair shares those aspirations, just as he seems to share, for the most part, Tommy Lapid's outlook on the Ultra-Religious and the religious-secular fault line in Israel.

But beyond that, this book provides little from which one might discern a further understanding of the real aspirations of either the father or the son.  And perhaps that is by design.  Simply a genuine reflection of reality.  That shallowness, if you will, for lack of a better term, may well doom Yair Lapid to a comparable political fate.

      

Doomed To Succeed by Dennis Ross - A Review

I took the suggestion of one of my favourite rabbis and picked up a copy of Doomed to Succeed by Dennis Ross.  The book is subtitled "The U.S. - Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama" and that about sums it up.  Ross has served in senior roles in several U.S. administrations and has played an active part in Arab-Israeli negotiations.  The book traces the U.S.-Israeli relationship at the highest levels from the beginning of Israeli statehood through to just prior to the end of the Obama presidency.  Ross provides an insider's look at the history of the relationship, often through the lens of significant Israeli and Mideastern events.

Ross explains how some American Presidents and their administrations have sought to distance U.S. policy from Israel.  Included in this category would be Eisenhower, Carter, Nixon, Bush Sr. and Obama, as well as others to a lesser extent. Ostensibly, the goal of those administrations was to avoid upsetting the various Arab governments in the region.  Ross also explains that some of those administrations held the belief that if they would only pressure Israel, that would lead to Mideast peace.

Along the way, Ross canvasses some key aspects of those policies.  The Eisenhower administration's refusal to provide military equipment to Israel even in the face of Soviet supply of Israel's enemies. Nixon's refusal to supply Israel with weapons even in the face of an existential crisis during the 1973 Yom Kippur War (until it was almost too late).  Reagan's decision to supply Saudi Arabia with some of the most sophisticated weaponry available, even where that weaponry could be used against Israel. And of course, Obama's decision to skip Israel on his Mideast tour at the start of his presidency to send a message to Israel about the "new Middle East."

There are many other examples and discussions of these various incidents and events.

By way of contrast, Ross looks at the efforts of other Presidents, including Clinton and Bush Jr., who were generally more sympathetic to Israel's concerns and advanced the Israel-U.S. relationship in significant ways.  Some presidents like Truman, Reagan and even President Obama are portrayed has having a mixed record.

Ultimately, Ross suggests that those presidents and administrations who have sought, primarily, to distance Israel from the U.S. have made it more difficult to advance the cause of peace.  If the U.S.suggests that it is prepared to guarantee Israeli security and international standing as part of a peace deal, it is logical to assume that the U.S. would demonstrate to Israel that Israel can count on that guarantee. Otherwise, asking Israel to take significant security risks without appropriate assurances would be suicidal for Israel.

Perhaps Carter was the exception here, in that he managed to arrange a peace deal even while distancing the U.S. from Israel.  To this point, Ross seems to suggest that the Israeli-Egyptian peace deal may have happened with or without Carter, given the significant role that both Sadat and Begin played. While he acknowledges the significant efforts made by Carter and does not downplay that role, he does seem to suggest that Carter may have been able to do more with the other parts of the conflict if he had built up more confidence with the Israeli administration.

Ross also challenges the notion that it has been Israeli intransigence that has caused the lack of a peace deal. He repeatedly cites Arafat and Abbas' espousals of only "maximalist" bargaining positions and their failure to compromise to get a deal.  Even President Clinton, who built up the confidence of the Israeli administration and extracted significant concessions from the Israeli side was unable to obtain sufficiently reciprocal concessions from the Palestinian side.

That is not to suggest that Ross lays all of the blame on the Palestinians.  He suggests in no uncertain terms that Israel would need to agree to a Palestinian state to resolve the current conflict.  He suggests that Israel should refrain from building in those areas of the territories which are not likely to be held by Israel as part of a future peace agreement.  But he also suggests that the Palestinian side has quite a number of issues to address itself.  Those include recognizing that the Palestinians will only be able to solve their refugee problem within their own future state; that they will need to stop inciting and paying for terror attacks; and that they will need to build a culture of peace rather than a culture of animosity if a two state solution is ever to become a reality.

Reviewing the major historical events over the course of Israel's statehood, as Ross has presented it, one is left with the clear understanding that only Israel has been able to guarantee and take responsibility for its own security.  From the early wars of 1948 and 1956, in which Israel scrambled to find weapons suppliers, through the 1973 War, Israel has had to rely on itself, first and foremost.  Even decisions which were opposed by U.S. administrations, from the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor to the bombing of the Syrian nuclear reactor seem, in retrospect, to have been both important and successful for Israel.  In this respect, Begin, Netanyahu and even Shamir are all portrayed sympathetically, at times.

Ross's coverage of the 1973 War may be exceptional here.  His analysis implies that Nixon intended to hold back on resupplying Israel for long enough to ensure that the Arab attackers caused sufficient damage to Israel to restore the "Arab dignity" after their disastrous war loss in 1967.  But Ross's version ignores other historical accounts which suggest that the U.S. only began to resupply Israel after Gold Meir made significant military threats against Cairo in which Israel would use all appropriate means to defend itself.   This account, if accurate, would fit in more appropriately with Israel's record of, ultimately, defending its own interests without really being able to rely on the U.S.

That is not to say that the book does not criticize Israel.  The 1982 Lebanon War is largely characterized as a debacle.  In later years, some of Netanyahu's interactions with Obama and others are roundly criticized. Other Israeli actions are also assessed critically. 

But I think it is fair to say that Ross strongly prefers the view of those who would advocate for a special relationship between Israel and the U.S.  Given that Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East, that it is one of the only countries, if not the only one, with a truly independent judiciary, a respect for the rule of law, and protection for its religious, ethnic and other minorities, Ross argues that it is very much in the U.S. national interest to foster a close relationship with Israel.  He also argues that there is no evidence that a close U.S.-Israel relationship has damaged the U.S. relationship with its Arab allies.  On the contrary, Ross argues that Obama's efforts to tilt towards Iran and away from Israel and some other traditional Arab allies of the U.S. had significant and detrimental consequences to the U.S. relationship with its Arab allies.  Ross argues that Obama tilted back towards Israel later in his presidency, though the book seems to have been completed before the misguided U.N. resolution at the conclusion of the Obama presidency.

Ultimately, I suppose one must be skeptical about some of what Ross has written.  It is after all the view of someone who was very much involved in the process and there is a natural inclination to smooth over one's own shortcomings.  You would probably need to cobble together at least two or three different accounts of many of the historical events to be able to come to conclusions about what really occurred.  But Ross tries to be reasonably objective and, at times, cites areas of disagreement between himself and others.  In that respect, the book seems to have a reasonable degree of balance.

Overall, as someone with an interest in Middle Eastern history (and history in general), I enjoyed the book. It covers a great deal of ground (disputed territory mostly) and provides much to consider.  We can only hope that the title was chosen for dramatic effect rather than as a statement about the likelihood of a future with a more peaceful Middle East.










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Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. By Yuval Harari

I enjoyed Yuval Harari's first book, Sapiens (reviewed here), so much that I had to get hold of his second book Homo Deus as quickly as I could.  I finished reading it recently on my plane ride back to Toronto from Tel-Aviv.

Harari's first book, Sapiens, is subtitled "A Brief History of Humankind." It is a broad strokes, wide-sweeping tour de force, which covers thousands of years in a relatively short work.  Homo Deus is quite different.  Subtitled "A Brief History of Tomorrow," this is much more of an essay or even a polemic than a history book.  But it is filled with big, challenging ideas and concepts and provides enough discussion material for a seemingly unlimited amount of time.

Of course, as Harari might point out, we may not have that time.  Things are moving at a lightning pace.  Artificial Intelligence is developing at incredible speed.  Humankind is on the precipice of enormous and dramatic change.  Harari tries to sketch out some of these directions and changes and considers their implications.

The book is not really prescriptive.  It is far more descriptive.  While Harari speculates about future direction in belief, scientific development, genetics, artificial intelligence and other areas, Harari does not propose a belief system or moral framework for these changes.  Far from it.  This book is more concerned with trying to sketch out the what, how and why than to deal with questions of "whether."

Much of the first half of the book is somewhat historical.  It traces different aspects of human history to lay the foundations for the discussions of future trends.  Some of these discussions are covered in the first book.

One area of overlap is religion.  Harari's discussion of religion is fascinating.  He is quite adamant that there is little or no historical basis to most of the world's main religions and is very dismissive of any type of literal or truth-based approach to religious belief.  For Harari, since the world's large religions were developed and gained prominence so many years ago, they are necessarily ill-equipped to deal with the scientific challenges of an entirely different world.  What could agricultural based religions possibly have to say about modern genome discoveries?  or space exploration? Or artificial intelligence?  In some cases, if age old religious dogma is based on demonstrably false conceptions (for example, the case of gender equality or the religious belief in gender inequality), then these religious ideas are clearly outmoded and obsolete.

Yet Harari also acknowledges that the power of myth and religion has served a tremendous function. It is the shared belief in religious concepts that, historically, facilitated mass cooperation and even led, ironically enough, to scientific development.  Call this cognitive dissonance, says Harari, but religions have served an important purpose, even if the underlying basis for most of the beliefs is demonstrably false.

Harari argues that true religious belief died a few hundred years ago, and gave way to versions of Humanism. He describes different versions of Humanism and concludes that Humanism, like Deism, is destined to run its course.  Humans have no "soul" or purpose and are really a collection of algorithms, he argues.  In fact, he provides a detailed argument as to why humans may not even really have free will.  Their decisions are based on genetics, randomness or particular stimuli.  I'm not going to elaborate on these arguments further at this point - you will have to read the book if you are interested in these discussions.

The most interesting part of the book is the final third in which Harari discusses alternate new belief systems and ideas around which sapiens are likely to coalesce in the future if they are not already doing so.  Chief among these concepts is "dataism" - the recognition of the importance of data accumulation, analysis and application.

I could not possibly attempt to summarize the book and its various concepts in such a short review. But I wanted to set out just a few of the types of ideas that are raised to provide a flavour of the discussion.  Hopefully the reader will have sense of the types of topics that are covered from my discussion above.

By way of another example, one section discusses the future of various professions as one looks ahead 20 or 30 years from now - or more.  Harari suggests that a significant majority of the professions that people practice today and the jobs that people have will be obsolete.  Computers and artificial intelligence will do many of today's jobs more efficiently, accurately and economically.  Harari also examines topics like AI creation of art and music; the ever increasing use and significance of DNA research; the worldwide drive towards self-driven vehicles; and many other issues.

By the conclusion of the book, the predictions are somewhat grim.  For example, "humans will lose their economic and military usefulness."  But Harari has not put forward his predictions and analysis without careful thought and analysis of current scientific discoveries and trends.  He draws from a variety of disciplines but comes, fundamentally, from a scientific perspective.  This means that he is prepared to point out areas in which we are not able to draw conclusions at the present time.

Like with the first book, that is what makes Harari's books so readable and engaging.  He approaches most questions with a degree of scientific humility.  We may not know the answers to certain things - but we know, almost certainly, which things are wrong, even demonstrably wrong.  We also have theories about what might be right and some of them are very compelling.  Others are less developed.  But the idea is to raise the topics, provide information and context about where we are and then use that to suggest where we are heading.

There are certainly many ideas here that would face quite a bit of resistance.  I can't say that I agreed with everything in the book.  But that is really what makes the book so interesting.  The arguments are well constructed and they develop controversial but stimulating discussion points.  Anyone who reads this book honestly will certainly have a great deal to think about.  Some of the arguments are not easily refutable and some may be unsolvable.  Some are issues about which different people may never agree.  But all of that, for Harari, is almost certainly the measure of  his success.

Air Transat Review - Tel-Aviv-Toronto Part 2

In my last blog, I provided a review of my first flight on Air Transat between Toronto and Tel-Aviv. I also discussed some of the engaging conversations I had on that flight.  You can read the previous blog here.

I thought I would add some information about the return flight to complete the circle.  It was much less eventful but if you are thinking about trying Air Transat, there is some more information that you might want to know.

As I mentioned previously, I had paid a relatively nominal additional amount to buy "Option Plus." This provided me with an additional baggage allowance (a second bag of 30 kg) as well as some other perqs.  It was also supposed to include "priority boarding."  However, as with most airlines, other than perhaps, Air Canada, there is no such thing as "priority boarding" when leaving Ben Gurion airport.  The Air Transat crew did not even bother to pretend that there was an orderly boarding system.  They simply announced that it was "boarding time" and the inevitable chaos ensued.

I also note that Air Transat was not able to provide me with boarding passes or baggage check all the way through to Toronto, even though everything was confirmed.  I could not check in online for both legs of the flight.  I later discovered that I wasn't the only one - it must be a glitch that hasn't yet been worked out.  So I was only able to get an advance boarding pass from Tel-Aviv to Montreal and had to get the second boarding pass on arrival in Montreal for the flight to Toronto.  Somewhat inconvenient.

The Tel-Aviv to Montreal flight leaves at about 9:30 a.m., though I think we were delayed by about an hour. The flight was about 11.5 hours total and was relatively uneventful.  The crew were excellent.  Friendly, readily available and attentive.  Many of them were trilingual, speaking French, English and Hebrew.  They were offering to help passengers with their Canadian customs forms and they were very social with the passengers.

There were quite a number of Ultra-Orthodox passengers, including many Lubavitch who must have been returning after their proselytizing tours of Israel.  However, unlike the Toronto to Tel-Aviv leg, I only saw one Chabad guy making his way up and down the aisles looking for potential Tefillin  layers.  He didn't come to me or anyone else in my row.  Maybe he had read my last blog.

On the other hand, there were a number of Chabad women, walking up and down the aisles, handing out books of Tehilim (psalms) to any women travelling with children and trying to get them to read a psalm or two.  I was sitting across from a secular Israeli woman who was travelling with twins (and her husband) and she willingly agreed to accept the book of Tehilim and start reading.  So I suppose Chabad felt that it must have saved  at least one soul on this flight.

Air Transat flies an Airbus 330 to Israel - so there were personal screens with movies, TV shows and other entertainment.  Headphones cost $9 so you probably want to bring your own.  Blankets are also $9 and you get to keep them and take them off the plane at the end of the flight.  They seem to be new.  They also sell blow- up neck protectors for $9.  Since I had Option Plus, I received all of these high end gifts for free as well as the eye mask that was thrown in.

I ordered an Asian vegetarian meal which was fine.  The crew came around and served sandwiches mid-flight, which were all kosher (smoked turkey or feta cheese sandwiches).  There was a third meal about an hour and a half before arrival in Montreal.

The transfer in Montreal was not particularly convenient or fun.  You must collect your luggage, pass through customs and then drop off your baggage.  In my case, I also had to go to an Air Transat counter after passing through customs to get a boarding pass and baggage tag.  The seat that I had pre-booked had vanished somehow, so I was given a seat at the back of the plane for the flight to Toronto - though it is only a 50 minute flight.

You also have to go through personal security again.  I note that you are allowed to bring duty free items that you may have bought in Israel if they are in one of those sealed duty free bags.  If the bag is not sealed - or the goods are not in the bag, you cannot take them through security if they include liquids or gels.  I actually did not have any duty free goods with me this time, partially since I did not know if I would be able to bring them on the flight from Montreal to Toronto.

I then had to walk across the entire airport from the arrival gate to the Air Transat departure gate for Toronto.  I had about 2.5 hours to wait for the next flight but there was free wi-fi in the Montreal airport. We were delayed by about an hour but I will assume that was not Air Transat's fault.

The flight from Montreal to Toronto is short and easy.  On arrival in Toronto, there are no customs to clear since you have already cleared them in Montreal.  But, again, we had to cross the entire airport from the arrival gate to the baggage claim area.  Then it took quite a while to actually get the bags, but I eventually got my suitcase and left.

Overall, the flight was fine.  It was a better flying experience than some other airlines but certainly not as good as the better ones.  The key is that the price was fantastic.  Air Transat was selling high season summer round trip tickets for about $1,000 Cdn all inclusive, which was less than half the cost of available Air Canada tickets and significantly less than El Al as well.  You don't get any reward points and have no chance of getting upgraded to "business class" or "premium economy."  But you can save quite a bit of money and enjoy a reasonable flying experience getting to Israel.  I certainly see no reason to avoid it.