Should “Black Lives Matter” Matter?
[photo credit: Rathkopf Photography] If there were a contest for the most tasteless use of a slogan this summer, it would be hard to pick one out of several recent candidates reacting to...
Category: Morality
Human Nature, Police and “Defunding”
A piece I wrote for Forward about what the Talmud has to say about the nature of men and the need for governmental authority, and the movement to “defund” police, can be read here.
Understanding Sotah
An article I wrote about the oddity, indeed, uniqueness, of parshas sotah, for My Jewish Learning, a site intended to offer Jews seeking to learn more about their religious heritage, can be read here.
Criminality in the Streets and in the Cloud
As sad as it is ironic, those who have seized the opportunity during protests over the killing of George Floyd to vandalize police vehicles and attack officers, deface buildings and loot stores are perpetuating...
Adam and the Eco-Fascists
Yes, it would be a great name for a punk rock group. But the Adam in the title refers to the original one, the first man. And the eco-fascists are contemporary environmentalists gone wild....
My Purim’s Highlight
My Purim’s highlight this year was an interaction I had with two little boys, no older than 8 or 9. The shul I attend is often visited by a number of “collectors” asking for...
Contemptible Comity
The state of political discourse in these United States today – unfortunately, including much of the American Jewish world (including our corner of it) – was well exemplified in the reactions to something Senator...
Disinformation Please
The ad accuses President Trump of having paid a $2 million bribe to a Vermont prosecutor for the latter to fabricate a larceny charge against Senator Bernie Sanders. Despite the president’s vociferous objection to...
Amino Acids and Us
Like many 60-somethings, I remember being informed in grade school of the imminent solution to the mystery of life. Triumphantly, teachers described an experiment conducted by two researchers, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey, in...
Crime and Capital Punishment
So accustomed are we to incarceration as punishment that it’s easy to forget that punitive confinement is entirely absent from the Jewish mesorah. To be sure, the Torah allows for – and even describes...
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