Bury the Horse!
Sigh. This is getting tiresome. The horse is decaying and in need of swift burial. Any readers still following the Menken/Shafran debate are urged by both protagonists to carefully read the relevant materials cited...
Author: Avi Shafran
And Nothing But the Truth
Well, it’s after Yom Kippur – and a gutteh kvittel to all! – so I can continue my public discussion with Rabbi Menken, but this time, I’ll be brief. I’m not sure how the...
The Mandate We Both Ultimately Embrace
In his latest installment of our discussion of political partisanship (we should take this show on the road!), Rabbi Menken asserts several things worthy of responses. For starters, he expresses doubt over why President...
Some Corrections
I’m reluctant to continue my debate with my valued friend Rabbi Yaakov Menken – he’s the one who invited me at Cross-Currents’ inception to post here! – but his most recent posting about my...
Recidivist Repentance
It’s easy to feel disheartened, even despondent, as Rosh Hashanah approaches, at the realization that some of the things we did teshuvah for last year are things we need to repent for again this...
Kashering Elephants and Donkeys
I appreciate that my friend of many years Rabbi Menken agrees with me that treating political affiliations like sports teams is wrong, as is attaching ourselves to political positions (or parties, as I wrote...
The President’s Rosh Hashana Conference Call
A piece I wrote for the Forward today about the conference call the White House has set up with a number of American rabbis, can be read here.
Statues of Limitation
It’s safe to say that many of us are less than exercised over the public debate about Confederate-era statues on public lands. It may animate those with a dog in the race, so to...
The Peril of Partisanship
Among contemporary American life’s many negative influences on Torah-conscious Jews is a subtle one that is generally overlooked. We don’t need reminders of the pernicious impact of the surrounding society’s denial of eternal truths,...
Death of a Slogan
“Le roi est mort, vive le roi!” That’s the famous French declaration that was traditionally made when a monarch had breathed his last: “The king is dead. Long live the king!” Recent days have...
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