Western Walls
Many are celebrating the official setting aside and expansion of a part of the Kotel Maaravi for non-traditional public prayer. I’m not among them. My thoughts on the matter are in the Forward today....
Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy – Week of Parshas Mishpatim 5776
(Featured photo of Rav Belsky zt”l in action at OU Headquarters for his weekly p’sak session, bedazzling captivated listeners with his Torah, wit and genius. Photo credit: Rabbi Eliyahu Ferrell) Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky...
Agudath Israel Reaction to the “Kotel Compromise”
Designating an area at the Kotel Maaravi for feminist and mixed-gender prayer not only profanes the holy site, it creates yet a further lamentable rift between Jews. For more than three decades, the Western...
Spinoza and Farcical “Orthodoxy”
This article originally appeared in Times of Israel: He rejected the concept of divine revelation; he equated God with nature; he denied the idea of a personal God, Who intervenes in history and performs...
Iranian Elephant
“Whatsa matter, you don’t like the other one?” That was what an old-time comedian claimed his mother-in-law said when she saw him wearing one of the two neckties she gave him on his birthday....
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Even the days associated with the Shoah have become nightmares. In recent times, Jews have been uninvited from Holocaust remembrance ceremonies, in deference to Muslim requests. Anti-Semitic acts have skyrocketed in Europe, and a...
A French Philosopher’s Ode to the Kipah
Good writers get it the way the rest of us can’t. It is a joy to read how a leading French intellectual, Bernard-Henri Levy, understands and presents the yarmulke in imagery that is fresh...
Shlomo Yehudah Rechnitz’s Powerful Jeremiad
It’s gone viral. We’re calling attention to it because it is so important that we would like to do our share of publicizing what should be read by everyone. Let no one say that...
Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy – Week of Parshas Yisro 5776
A Tribute to My Rebbe: Rav Abba Bronspiegel, Shlita Rav Refoel Shmulevitz Zt”l “My Job in This World Is to Teach Torah” Masorah and the Role of the Jewish Woman – Transcript of Rav Twersky’s...
Torah Scrolls Grow on Trees… well, almost
What do you do when your Tu Bishvat trip to plant trees is cancelled because there is a wind storm, rain, and freezing weather in Israel – as is happening as I write this?...