Mel Gibson’s Toughest Role
Mel Gibson’s powerful and on-target apology to the Jewish community for his anti-Semitic tirade was infinitely better than his weak and unsatisfying first statement. It would be a mistake for the Jewish community to...
Author: Yitzchok Adlerstein
Al Zeh Hayah Daveh Libenu
Sometimes it all comes down to a single story. Even an entire war. Many hundreds of us stood cheek to jowl in a Los Angeles shul on Sunday for a neighborhood prayer gathering. The...
An Elegant Credo
Profound and complex ideas do not the most memorable speeches make. In reaching the crowd, the speaker is better off framing simple, straightforward ideas in effective language. Think Gettysburg Address. British Chief Rabbi Sir...
Feeling Good About Tisha B’Av
Only one voice of optimism carried over last week’s sustained background of sadness and despair. Jonathan Rosenblum, writing in Yated, cobbled together some of the positive consequences that have emerged from the current war...
Anti-Zionism Equals Anti-Semitism
What is the likelihood that the op-ed writer, or cartoonist, or university professor who rants about the evils of Zionism is really an old-fashioned Jew-hater? Much better than most of us thought, according to...
What Animal Behavior Tells Us About Humans
If your spouse has been ignoring you lately, reading one article in the New York Times will explain it all to you. The piece describes the success that the author had in domesticating her...
The Top Ten Ways to Help Israel
Offered as a way to get some discussion going, in the hope of generating some ideas beyond the boilerplate. I claim no special insight and only limited experience in some of these areas. Still,...
Simana Milsa
The Daf Yomi of Sunday, July 16, Yoma 39, cites the following verse (Zechariah 11:1): פתח לבנון דלתיך ותאכל אש בארזיך Open, Lebanon, your doors, and let fire consume your cedars.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Three Weeks
Sadness, anger, worry, frustration – which committed Jew did not feel these reactions surge within as we listened to today’s events? Their arrival on the doorstep of the Three Weeks added an unsettling dimension...
World Cup Retrospective
Somebody with Cross-Currents has to say something, I suppose. After a full twenty-four hours to mull over the Game of Games, I am still searching for some appropriate Torah thoughts. Mostly, I keep on...
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