Burdened By The Times?
by Lawrence Reisman I must confess that I read The New York Times regularly. Outside of the Middle East, I find the coverage to be fairly complete, in line with my biases, and even...
Travels In Israel and the Tochachoh For Moderns
Visiting Israel always yields delights and surprises. Sometimes they come instantly; sometimes they take reflection. Usually, in my experience, they involve taxi drivers. On my recent trip, I found new understanding of the tochachoh...
How Technological Machers Limit Consumption To Their Kids
This article in the New York Times is not to be missed. Steve Jobs didn’t let his kids have iPads. The money quote from Chris Anderson, former editor of Wired regarding his five children,...
Two For Elul
Two poetic images from Cross-Currents’ resident poet, Rabbi Yossi Huttler Yemei Ratzon(Elul) – Tefilin, Mezuzos, Neshomos Casings and bodies opened up S/scribe scrutinizing sacred letters within for imperfections and omissions judging the living parchment...
Immoral “Morality”
In a good illustration of just how thick people who are intellectually gifted can be, the well-known biologist and militant atheist Richard Dawkins recently offered his opinion that Down syndrome children would best be...
Israel’s New Torah Askanim
A few months back, Yisroel Besser posed the question in these pages: Where will the next generation of askanim come from and what can be done to nurture them? His article generated a great...
What Do Gaza and Ferguson Have in Common
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D.-Mass.) was challenged last week about her support for an additional appropriation of $225 million for Iron Dome. Her town meeting questioner, John Bangert, asked incredulously, how she could not see...
Showing We Care
Two weeks ago, I was in Passaic for Shabbos. The main theme of my presentations in four shuls was the feeling of achdus in Israel, from the kidnapping of the three yeshiva students through...
Achdus: An Appeal For Ideas
Many, many people were touched by the palpable sense of achdus during the 18 days in which we davened for the three abducted teens, and during the weeks of war that followed. I know...
The Israeli Seminary Scandal
We’ve stayed out of it, because we had nothing particularly insightful to add. Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, who has been a fearless crusader against abuse in general, does have some special insight, and has been...