Kiruv Goes On: the Models Change
Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler in his justly famous essay on Sukkos (“Bitul HaYesh”) brings a Midrash that compares our entry into the sukkah to a mini-galus. The Midrash explains why the mitzvah of sukkah...
Winter High
The wishes of “git vinter!” customary in some communities after Shemini Atzeres might put some people in mind of fall’s end weeks hence, and give them a chill. Not me. I’m decidedly in the...
Fixing The Damaging Messages We Are Teaching Women And Girls
by Leslie Ginsparg Klein “Orthodox women should have a job, not a career.” That is the message that frum girls are hearing at home and throughout their education. I’ve heard it repeated by my...
Viewing One Another with a Favorable Eye
Just before Rosh Hashanah, Rachel Fraenkel, the mother of Yaakov Naftali Fraenkel, one the three murdered yeshiva students, issued a video message through Aish.com to the entire Jewish people. She recounted very briefly the...
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg – CNN Hero, and Mine
In a large mosque in Detroit hangs a plaque honoring Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg. That will give you just an inkling of the Kiddush Hashem that Rabbi G (as he is affectionately called) has created...
“Personal Torah”
A recent announcement by a respected Conservative rabbi has been trumpeted widely as evidence of his heroism. My take is somewhat different, and was published, to the periodical’s credit, by the Forward. You can...
Misplaced Zeal
The powerful swell of voices on Broadway, thirteen stories below Agudath Israel’s offices, did more than disturb my concentration. A thousand people were blocking traffic and loudly chanting in unison, the roar less redolent...
The “Shabbos App” is a Farce
It is true that the “Shabbos App” has attracted a great deal of attention and discussion. Personally, I am waiting for the prankster to come forward and explain that this was all designed to...
Why I Love Rav Shmuel – And Will Advocate Vaccination Nonetheless
There is no contradiction. Anyone who finds one has targeted a straw man. I have had the benefit of association with three generations of Kamenetskys. They have never, ever let me down when I...
What’s (Shabbos) App?
Yielding to the many who have asked for my take on the now-infamous Shabbos app, here is the quick and dirty version: It does not do what its developers say it does – “The...