Driving to Lancaster from Philadelphia Friday afternoon, my wife and I passed through a town named Ephrata. In was named after the town that, in ancient times, was part of the city of Bethlehem; today it is a thriving Israeli city of 8,000-plus. Friends and colleagues who were meeting us in Lancaster passed towns named Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lebanon, and Zion. Early Pennsylvanians believed, as many modern ones do, in the Divine promise that the exiled Jews would be returned to the land of Bethlehem and Zion. How appropriate, I thought, to help usher in our Shabbat with Governor Palin, an...