Name Abuse
Much in our world desecrates the name of G-d – in Hebrew, that is called “chilul Hashem.” Whether murder and mayhem in the name of religion or misbehavior on the part of religious individuals,...
Category: Judaism
As I Watch From Afar
How does one cope with the pain, sitting here in New York, while at this moment, thousands of miles away, our beautifully pure, and purely beautiful, Yerushalayim is being traumatized? Yerushalayim, whose streets and...
Taking Care of Our Bodies: Making Time for Our Souls
Many years ago, my rosh yeshiva remarked of avid joggers: They are running in order to live longer. But they have no idea what they are living for. In the secular world, we see...
Bracing For the Battle
Let it be a matter of record. Responsible leadership took steps to prevent violence and chilul Hashem (desecration of G-d’s Name) associated with the protests of Thursday’s scheduled Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem. Degel...
Newton on Kodshim, or 53 Shopping Years Left Until Apocalypse
It sure seems like the Borei Olam has a wonderful sense of humor. Just as Dick Dawkins and his fellow best-selling nihilists were riding high, selling books like hotcakes the better to worship their...
Friendly Coverage — It Can Be Done
A few weeks ago, a reporter for the Florida Times-Union called with a few questions about sheitels, the wigs worn by married Orthodox women to cover their natural hair. The result is this morning’s...
Chalk one up for Olmert
To judge from opinion polls, most Israelis would be hard-pressed to name one action of the Olmert government that they support. Well, I can: the appointment of Professor Daniel Friedmann as Justice Minister. The...
Fraying Bonds
by Rabbi Elchonon Oberstien Haaretz, the newspaper of Israel’s Ashkenazi elite, is worried about the future of Kibbutz Mizra. What is so special about Mizra? Kibbutz Mizra’s meat processing plant is famous for its...
The Protest That Fizzled
What if the Palestinian lobby threw a party, and no one came? They did, and that’s pretty much what happened. The fortieth anniversary of the Six-Day War was supposed to be marked last weekend...
Dear Graduates
[I was recently privileged to address the commencement ceremony of Bais Yaakov of Baltimore, an Orthodox girls school founded in 1942. Below is an edited version of my remarks to the more than 100...
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