Target (Mal)Practice
Some unwarranted criticism that was lobbed last week at several Orthodox writers greatly disturbed this one. The target of one volley – though the shots widely missed their mark – was Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum,...
Author: Avi Shafran
Savage Ignorance
It’s difficult to know whether shock-jock Michael Savage is in fact the actual person whose Bronx-accented ranting emanates daily from radios across the country, or whether that voice belongs to an adopted persona, a...
Obama Comes Clean
Back in 2009, I was troubled by the reaction of many of my friends to President Obama’s speech in Cairo to the Muslim world. I had shared the same concerns they had about Mr....
Monkeys, Marriage and Morality
Amid the ongoing avalanche of political conversions, punditry and testimonials on behalf of redefining marriage was a recent op-ed piece in The New York Times by a professor of biology, David George Haskell. The...
Announcement
Response to my proposed weekly by-subscription PDF offering, “An Observant Eye,” was sufficiently strong to justify my undertaking the project, and I’m happy to announce that the first issue will be e-mailed to subscribers,...
Deconstructing Dayeinu
Much of our Seder-night message to our children, mediated by the Haggadah, is forthright and clear. Some of it, though, is subtle and stealthy. Like Dayeinu. On the surface, it is a simple song...
A Note of Clarification
I have been asked how my recent establishment of a personal website comports with my often-voiced disdain for blogs that exist only to derogate others, spread loshon horah and rechilus, attack the Jewish mesorah...
A Good Eye
One thing I was not prepared to find when I scanned the op-ed page of The New York Times this past Friday was reference to the perennial dilemma of what bracha, or blessing, to...
Dos Yiddishe Mensch
If you’ve noticed a little less dignity, geniality and nobility in the world of late, it may be because we no longer have Reb Yosef Friedenson here with us. Reb Yosef’s humble bearing, good...
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