The Second Son
A Pesach-themed piece I penned for the Forward appears here Chag kasher visame’ach to all Cross-Currents readers, and all of Klal Yisrael! AS
Category: Religion
More on the Charedi Draft
I had this as a comment to Rabbi Landesman’s post, but Rabbi Adlerstein encouraged me to elevate it to a post unto itself. He did say that Rabbi Landesman may go “a second round”...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Our Soulless Society
Back in 2005, The New York Times asked a number of contemporary thinkers what idea that is taken for granted these days they think will disappear “in the next 35 years.” Professor Peter Singer,...
Pondering the Prayer Gathering
The article below appeared last week, on March 11, in Haaretz. It is republished here with that paper’s permission. The weather in Manhattan on Sunday – a few degrees above freezing – wasn’t as...
Purim Torah
If one were trying to prove to the Chareidi community that the new draft bill is not an attempt at coercive social engineering, that it is not motivated by a desire to change Chareidi...
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