Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy – Week of Parshas Mishpatim 5776

(Featured photo of Rav Belsky zt”l in action at OU Headquarters for his weekly p’sak session, bedazzling captivated listeners with his Torah, wit and genius. Photo credit: Rabbi Eliyahu Ferrell)

• Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt’l Passes Away

• Multitudes Attend Levayos of Harav Belsky, zt”l, in New York and Yerushalayim

• Photos: At the Levayah of Rav Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt”l in Yerushalayim

• Piskei Halacha of Hagaon Rav Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt”l

• Photos: Scenes from the Life of Hagaon Rav Chaim Yisroel Belsky zt”l

• Rav Avrohom Yosef Weiss, Zt”l The Last Talmid of Rav Moshe Soloveichik, Zt”l

• The Rope of Hope

• The Chosen: The Open Orthodoxy Rabbinical Schools

• Efrat rabbi brings gender equality to synagogue
• Israel Approves Prayer Space at Western Wall for Non-Orthodox Jews – Even if one would support this move by arguing that “religious coercion” does not work and is counterproductive, it is very disturbing that some Open Orthodox leaders are actually hailing this decision as a show of respect for non-Orthodox ritual.
• Egalitarian section of Western Wall ‘profanes’ holy site, haredi group Agudah says – A courageous and very necessary statement.
• The religious girls’ school that also believes in feminism – Really radical. Which bona fide halachic authority would endorse this??
• Did Esther and Ruth Break the Glass Ceiling? A Debate – If this is the type of “Torah” that is emerging from women’s “rabbinical schools”, we may be in more trouble than previously thought.
• New chief rabbis appointed for Vilna and Lithuania
• Dr. Avichai Mandelblit Becomes Israel’s Yarmulka-Wearing Shomer Shabbos Attorney General
• Parshas Yisro – Messaging Tips from Heaven – This article of last week got buried in a pile of other articles and did not remain on the home page for more than an instant. I feel very strongly about the major communication deficiencies in contemporary society, and this was a small and very basic effort to address some of the most glaring problems.
• Lakewood Yeshiva Principal Responds To Rechnitz Speech
• EXCLUSIVE: Refining Rechnitz Targeting – by Richard H. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D. – Here are some of the perspectives that emerged from my discussions with people from Lakewood and elsewhere about this issue: 1) The primary blame must be placed on parents with unreasonable demands; 2) The underlying problem is the severe lack of available school space – not nearly enough schools and classes to handle a population of 25,000 children, with numbers growing exponentially, in this relatively small town – thereby creating cutthroat school competition, with people getting locked out and settling for schools not of their choice; 3) The underlying problem is that these schools are not community institutions and hence operate in a vacuum, with no real communal responsibility or control; 4) One major consideration is that Lakewood was established as a small, isolated yeshiva town, with exceptionally high standards, and it is not right for non-yeshiva newcomers with different standards to flood the town and expect its schools to change from their native and intended standards; 5) One major consideration is the unjustified position that students can be denied entry to schools just because these students may have somewhat different standards, even though these standards are within Halacha.  (I have no position on any of this – I am not a firsthand witness to it – but it is obvious that there is immense disagreement about the root, nature and scope of the problem.)

Last week’s installment of Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy can be viewed here.