A Letter to a Troubled Charedi Father
I received an email from a Charedi man with two sons in learning (one in Lakewood), who is very troubled by the current rejection of the draft. It is obvious that he does not...
Category: Judaism
The (Not So) Subtle Racism of the Draft Bill
In describing the effects of the new draft bill one month ago, I considered only the response of what we would call the “core” charedi community — families in which both parents and children...
A Brief Response to Rabbi Slifkin
The points raised by Rabbi Slifkin deserve a response, albeit not as elaborate as I might have liked, again due to serious time constraints. 1) Rabbi Slifkin notes that my single-sentence summary that there...
Women and Tefillin: R. Twersky’s Magisterial Approach
[Ultimately, it is not about women or tefillin – it is about the very nature of halachic process. Rabbi Mayer Twersky, a rosh yeshiva at RIETS, grandson of Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt”l, and...
More on Drafting Yeshiva Boys
by Rabbi Doron Beckerman Many of the arguments regarding the hot-button topic of drafting Yeshiva boys unfortunately seem to suffer from profound confusion. In an attempt to clarify the issues as seen from a...
A New Dialogue in Eretz Yisroel – The Transformative Model
Binyomin Wolf Both sides on the chareidi draft issue in Eretz Yisroel see the other as an existential threat. The current coalition government apparently thought that they did not need to compromise on the...
Lapid Flunks the Leadership Test
Yair Lapid pushed the criminalization provisions in the new draft law through the cabinet. Without those provisions, he told his cabinet colleagues, he could not sell the law to his supporters. Rather than call...
The Virtues of Ham-Handed Moderation
As you’ve probably noticed, Cross-Currents has been very active these days. More content from a wider variety of writers, touching on some of the most timely issues of today, means more traffic — and...
Purim: Respecting the Limits
Avrohom Gordimer The final hours of my Purim this year were utterly ruined by several incidents of irresponsible drinking. It is time that our communities aggressively tackle this most serious matter head-on. No, I...
An Atzeres Tefillah
It is with good reason that the huge gathering in response to the Shaked Committee Report was styled as an atzeres tefillah (a prayer gathering), and not as a protest. Even in moments of...
Recent Comments