Lucky Shlomo
My host for Shabbos lunch on a recent trip to Baltimore told me a story that I have already repeated many times. After high school, Shlomo learned for two years in Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh...
Author: Jonathan Rosenblum
Shmita is our test of faith
At the height of the ongoing controversy over shmita observance, an editorial appeared in this paper (“Shmita pragmatism,” Sept. 18) celebrating the heter mechira as the essential manifestation “of the religious Zionist ethos.” The...
An Exercise in Futility; but not without Danger
In no area of human behavior does Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity – “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – come so frequently to mind as Middle East...
Are there limits to the exercise of power?
Do Torah Jews have an obligation to use any power, political or economic, that they can muster to force the not-yet religious to live in greater conformity with the Torah’s commands? In determining whether...
What the Ba’alei Teshuva Do for Us
The theme of this year’s annual convention of Agudath Israel of America is the necessity to “Wake the Sleeping Giant” by involving all members of the Torah community in efforts to reach out to...
Man and Beast
The name Rabbi David Fohrman flashed brightly on my radar screen for the first time in twenty years this past summer. I was in Lawrence, and a good friend told me that he had...
Jews and Nationhood
When last heard from, we were lamenting the alienation of younger, non-Orthodox American Jews from Israel, as detailed in a recent study by sociologists Stephen M. Cohen and Ari Kelman. Those findings parallel a...
The Necessity of Choice
Yitzchak entreated Hashem opposite his wife because she was barren. And Hashem answered him, and Rivka his wife conceived (25:21) According to Rashi, both Yitzchak and Rivka were praying for a child, but Hashem...
Passion, not poison
I was asked recently to speak to a group of foreign journalists about the haredi community in Israel and take them on a tour of Mea She’arim. I refused the second request. A tour...
More than the Calf Wants to Nurse
More than the Calf Wants to Nurse One aspect of the Torah community in Eretz Yisrael that never ceases to amaze me is the incredible number of “mitzvah entrepreneurs” who see a problem and...
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