Mikeitz – Small, Not Inconsequential
Yosef, who reaches the height of temporal power in this week’s parshah, was originally presented as unimpressive, even vain, the favorite of his father but the lesser, at least as they saw things, of...
Category: General
The Myth of Mundanity: A Chanukah Thought
The thought experiment begins by asking us to ponder a world where the dead routinely rise from their graves but in which no grain or vegetation has ever grown. Long departed relatives routinely reappear...
Vayeitzei – Haters Gonna Hope
In a short, biting comment, the Chasam Sofer makes a trenchant observation about antisemites, whom he sees as following in the footsteps of Lavan, Yaakov Avinu’s father-in-law. When, after being tricked into working for...
Toldos – Confining Minds
A word often translated as “hunting” is used by the Torah to characterize Esav — “a man who knows hunting” (Beraishis 25:27). Likewise, earlier, to describe Nimrod — “a powerful hunter” (10:9). Rashi explains...
Rabbi Moshe Tendler ZT”L – A Personal Appreciation
He saved my Yiddishkeit, but I never realized it until he was gone. The gift that he provided to so many of us seemed so natural and obvious, that we failed to recognize its...
Closing the Abortion Discussion
So, now it has become clear: Rabbi Broyde seems to have entirely misconstrued the Agudah’s position, and this is why he claimed that the Agudah was somehow at odds with Rabbi Gordimer’s correct, factual...
A Reply to Rabbi Yaakov Menken on Abortion
by Rabbi Michael J. Broyde Rabbi Menken wrote: Abortion: I do not know the source for Rabbi Dr. Broyde’s claim that per Agudath Israel, “a fetus is not a person in the Jewish tradition.” I...
Response to Response
Dear R’Avrohom, Thank you for the thoughtful response to my post. Yom Tov begins shortly and does not allow for a full response, but I’d like to address two issues that you, and many...
Abortion and Religious Freedom: Even Agudath Israel Is Somewhat Pro-Choice
By Rabbi Michael J. Broyde Do you think that Agudath Israel supports the new Texas abortion law? Someone reading Rabbi Gordimer’s article “Sorry, Liberal Jewish Leaders – Judaism Is Not Pro-Abortion” would conclude “of...
Response to “First Step:LGBTQ+ and the Frum Community”
Several years ago, I was sitting with an adam gadol – an internationally-renowned rosh yeshiva and posek, who said that he had just privately spoken on the phone with a man who confided that...
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