Much Ado About Something
I suppose I should have realized something extraordinary was afoot when a friend messaged me on Facebook to ask if I was “okay.” I wondered what he meant, until he said that he’d heard...
Nothing Like a Compliment
As part of my recovery from the removal of a polyp from one of my vocal chords, I’ve been doing a course of voice training to prevent any recurrences. Much of the training in...
Wanted: A New Mussar Movement
We are a long way from the shtetls of Eastern Europe, in which life seemed to changed little from century to century, until the first winds of the haskalah started blowing. In traditional Jewish...
Bright Stars On The Jewish Horizon: The Tikvah Program For Yeshiva Men
We could have called it “Litvish-America’s Got Talent.” For those of us weary of worrying about the problems that plague the Torah community we love, it was a reassuring hug from Heaven. The seventeen...
The End is Near
The recent upsurge in anti-Semitism across Western Europe and around the globe, complete with swastikas and “Death to the Jews” chants, is depressing and alarming. It should also, however, be inspiring. For, once again,...
Responses to the Shidduch Proposal
Besides abandoning CC for two weeks while running the Tikvah Program for Yeshiva Men (reaction coming later) and a few days of decompression at Mammoth, I waited to see if readers of Mishpacha would...
Enemies, Real and Imagined
1) Hamas is evil. 2) Israel has a responsibility to protect its citizens. 3) Anti-Israel sentiment is usually simple Jew-hatred in (not very good) disguise. 4) The United States needs to be fully supportive...
Your Narcissism is Showing
Rob Schneider, a second-tier celeb, best known for a series of sophomoric comedies, recently tweeted: “To not be outraged at the killing of children to risk your very soul.” To which I would reply....
Death of an Icon
I grew up watching Mork. I’ve seen Aladdin. I even, during college, watched him perform live. But I never knew Robin Williams. He was the consummate entertainer. He just knew how to make us...
Max Steinberg, zt”l, as Rorschach Test
The death of lone soldier Max Steinberg in combat in Gaza served as a Rorschach Test for Jews around the world. In Israel, 30,000 Jews, across the spectrum of Israeli society, took time off...