A Model Shul
Last week was spent in Toronto, where most of my davening was in Congregation Shomrai Shabbos. One instantly notices that a great deal of thought went into the design of the shul, with an...
Category: Judaism
The Basis of Our Mesorah: Parents Worthy of Trust
I mention my morning shiur fairly frequently in these pages, partly to indicate how important such a shiur with a rav whom each person in the shiur looks up to as a walking Mesilas...
Israel Led the Way — Sadly
The United States today is in almost every respect a more unpleasant country than the one I left over 35 years ago – less optimistic, less confident, and more bitterly divided. For the first...
Supreme Court Vs. Supreme Being
Some thoughts of mine about the recent Supreme Court decision redefining marriage are posted here.
The Pew Christian Report: What It Means For Them And For Us
First Pew came for the Jews; then Pew came for the Christians. Martin Niemöller didn’t really say that – but he could have. The famed Pew study of Jewish religious life and attitudes (Pew1)...
A Magical Encounter
Walking home from Shacharis one morning last week, I had an interesting interaction with a little non-Jewish boy. Turning a corner, I found myself facing a middle-aged woman, clearly from the Indian subcontinent, wrapped...
Gay Marriage Decision Interview
I was interviewed by phone on a Jewish cable television program last week about the recent US Supreme Court gay marriage decision. The interview, along with one of a Conservative movement representative, can be...
Tikvah Fund Institute for Women
It is a woman’s prerogative, they say, to change her mind. The same ought to hold for a women’s program. Happily, the Tikvah Fund, the group that is responsible for the most intellectually stimulating...
Say It Isn’t So, Rabbi Shafran
Rabbi Shafran is someone I have admired for decades. His witty, moving, and inspirational biography of the journey of a Jewish convert, Migrant Soul, emerged when I was still a yeshiva student, and when...
In Judaism, Love Doesn’t Always Win
In their rejoicing over the recent Supreme Court same-sex marriage decision, various Jewish groups grievously misrepresented Judaism. An essay of mine about the Jewish religious tradition’s true take on homosexuality and the formalization of...
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