Prominence ≠ Importance
When President Obama called the recent U.S. military announcement that all combat roles will now be open to women a “historic step forward,” the image that came to mind was of someone marching resolutely...
ISIS, Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn, and Kiddush Hashem
The Law of Unintended Consequences as applied to your wife deciding to paint a few rooms is that when they put your seforim back in place, you will never find what you are looking...
Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy
Rabbi Yosef Weiss z”tl Divrei Hesped at RIETS for Rav Yosef Weiss zt’l Articles and Shiurim of Rav Weiss zt”l The New ‘Orthodox Rabbinic Statement on Christianity’ – An Analysis (Aside from the statement seeming...
What the Vatican Said and Why We Should Care
Within a few hours, the headlines all screamed the same message. The Vatican had declared that Catholics should not try to convert Jews. I knew that this could not be correct. Catholics could never...
Happy Meals, Jewish Style
There’s something – and something Jewish, as it happens – to be said for willfully denying ourselves foods, at least at times. An article I wrote for the excellent site simpletoremember.com, about eating Jewishly,...
Trumping Terrorism
When the Obama White House and Dick Cheney agree on something, it’s worthy of note. What united the two – along with a conga line of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, members of Congress...
Weekly Digest – News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy
The religious Left’s war against normative Orthodox Judaism – It turns out that many of the most vocal opponents of the new RCA resolution, who condemned and disparaged the RCA and the resolution in...
“Marriage Redefined”
Newly posted online is a video of an Agudah convention session titled: “Marriage Redefined: Should I Care?” I was one of the presenters, and if you have interest in the topic (I think it...
Merits, Not Munitions
The reporter’s question: “Should the chareidim serve in [Israel’s] military, or at least serve in some other capacity such as recognized public service commensurate with military service?” The query was posed to me in...
Turning Chanukah on Its Head
Tisha B’Av is the most ideologically challenging day on the Jewish calendar for secular Zionists (and even for some religious Zionists). Messages of the Jewish People being in a current state of Galus (Exile), imagery of...