Purim Present
In 2003, the first day of Adar brought us an early Purim present. It wasn’t food, but rather food for thought.
Category: Jewish World
Making the Torah Real
Two students in one of Jerusalem’s high school seminaries came to interview me last week for a documentary about how to internalize one’s Torah studies. I was impressed both the seminary’s sponsorship of such...
Blowing the New Kashrut’s Cover
“Oy,” some progressively clean-shaven clergymen are probably thinking, “Popper’s blown our cover.”
Can an AAA support Shas?
Tu Bishvat,eve of Israeli elections. About seven years ago a journalist colleague confronted me during a coffee break. “Are you a Neanderthal? How could you support the Shas party?” I invited her to come...
My First Rebbe
Armed with my backpack and the Let’s Go Guide to Israel, I descended from the intercity bus at Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station, planning to spend a few days exploring the city for the first...
Unbearable
“Look… This child awaits his turn. Watch their humiliation. They are corpses, Allah be praised…”
Still Nervous
President Obama is now safely sworn in. Even the few curmudgeons left who have not been completely won over by the new president felt a surge of pride in their country as they watched...
Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, zt”l: Mekarev
It is far too early to write of Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, zt”l, as a public figure or of his historical impact. Just after the levaya is not the time to concern oneself with such...
Hypocrisies, Imagined and Real
I hope my wife and kids don’t find out that I consider it kosher to force 16-year-old girls to work 20 hours a day.
In fact, I was shocked at myself for having said such a thing – or, at least, I would have been had I actually said it.
New Hope for Out-of-Town Singles
There is no pleasure like the resolution of doubts, say Chazal. We have been hard-wired by our Creator to expect a certain order precisely because He created an orderly world, with rules governing both...
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