The Presidential Visit
With President Obama set to touch down in a few hours, it is understandable that much of the attention here is focused on how his arrival and subsequent moving around the city will paralyze...
A Note of Clarification
I have been asked how my recent establishment of a personal website comports with my often-voiced disdain for blogs that exist only to derogate others, spread loshon horah and rechilus, attack the Jewish mesorah...
It’s Not About Triumphalism
Here’s a synopsis of a Jewish dialogue that’s been going on for the past several decades: Non-Orthodox: You guys are headed for the dustbin of history. Your ossified vision of religion is dying out,...
Depth Learning: Response To A Commenter
A commenter wrote the following: Dovid2 also wrote the following: “Don’t tell the others also learn the same gemarot, Rambams, and Kethos. They just couldn’t hold the candle to the b’nei yeshiva of any...
Marketing 101
The Baltimore Jewish Times, which previously earned a bad name in the Orthodox community, is trying to rebuild under a new (Orthodox) managing editor, Maayan Jaffe. They have sent free copies to the community...
A Good Eye
One thing I was not prepared to find when I scanned the op-ed page of The New York Times this past Friday was reference to the perennial dilemma of what bracha, or blessing, to...
Letters Enlighten
The idiom osiyos machkimos/ letters enlighten appears innumerable times in rabbinic literature. It usually means that the one using the phrase has read the original of an argument, and finds it more enlightening than...
Pesach Audio Shiurim
For the really bored, I offer two shiurim on Pesach for download. The first was given last Thursday evening as part of a three part series at Cong. Kehilas Yaakov in LA, with a...
Counting Days and Making Them Count
Whenever the secular year closes and a new one begins, one of life’s simple chores is to change the pages of the desk calendar: out with the old, in with the new. But that...
Two At The Times
Kiddush Hashem happens – even in the New York Times. David Brooks’ appreciation of the Orthodox community will be talked about this Shabbos. So will the heart-wrenching translation of the letter of thanks that...