Brace For Impact — In Advance
Anyone looking for a takeaway lesson from the amazing tale of US Airways Flight 1549 would do well to ponder the striking opening line of an Associated Press piece on the episode: “Chesley Sullenberger...
Retraction
A colleague expressed displeasure with my citing a story about a call to violence by a rabbinic figure. He argued that, at least in America, he has never come across an instance of a...
Tzniyus Patrols, Abuse, Violence and Getting Personal about Torah
The intrepid Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz published an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post recently hailing the sentencing of an operative for a self-appointed tzniyus vaad in Yerushalayim to four years in jail. He then republished...
Probability and Faith
Chief Rabbi (UK) Sir Jonathan Sacks [The following piece appeared in the Times of London late last month. In the mind of one of the senior contributors to this blog, it is as good...
Piece Plan
“Orthodoxy” is simply the name that the Reform and Conservative movements gave to what “Judaism” meant for millennia prior – to what those movements sought to supplant when they birthed themselves.
Briefly Noted
“The heart wants what the heart wants.” – Woody Allen “The heart has its own rules and ways” – Sheikh Yusef Al-Qaradawi Qaradawi – is an icon in the Muslim world, and a leader...
Kids of Courage
The modal reaction to those who came in contact with the Kids of Courage (KOC) West Coast Tour last week was one of utter disbelief. Twenty-four participants, all of whom suffer from chronic conditions...
A Thought About Thinking
it’s only at a certain point of development that thinking – at least about consequences – really kicks in
Imagining the Unimaginable
For most of us the mourning of Tisha B’Av is only partly for our lost Temple. We mourn no less over our lack of access to the emotions aroused by the Temple, for our...
The World’s Worst Job
The first book my mother bought me to read myself was America and its Presidents. Being a dutiful son, I took the hint and spent my first two decades aspiring to be the first...