Last Words
To a believing Jew, every other Jew, no matter how ignorant or personally unobservant, is a relative – a member of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish Family.
Author: Avi Shafran
Caleb’s Gift
A Philadelphia law enforcement official soberly informed television viewers how the “devices” worn by Mr. Leibowitz were called “olfactories.”
The Myth of Mundanity
An abrupt shift takes place in all the world’s synagogues around this time of year. Over the previous 17 weeks, since the public reading of the Torah was begun anew after the holiday of...
A Personal Note to Cross-Currents Readers
I had been planning to write a follow-up message about my posting “The Earth Trembles” even before Illana B.’s comment (# 20) appeared. But her request – taking me back to my family’s wonderful...
The Earth Trembles
To any early 20th century Polish Jew, Japan could as well have been Neptune. The distance between the shtetl and the Far East was measurable not merely in physical miles but in cultural and...
The Problem
Objective observers of the Middle East, though, should think long and hard about what happened in the wake of the mosque burning, and in the wake of Rabbi Chai’s murder.
The Wall is Wailing
The Kotel is a holy place, and should not be made a battlefield by advocates for social or religious change.
Defining Death Down
The shortage of organs for transplantation – is pushing some physicians to call a life a life, even if it hasn’t yet been fully lived.
Stairway To Peoplehood
It is thus much more than a comparison; it is an identification. Jacob is the Jewish people; and that is why he is deathless.
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