Partners in Creation
Tu B’Shvat provides an annual opportunity to examine our Sages’ understanding of the general purpose of life. Fruits are man’s soul food. In the original plan of Creation, fruit was to be the exclusive...
Of Tu BiShevat And Esrogim
In many circles, it is common to daven on Tu BiShevat for a beautiful esrog to use during the coming Sukkos. There is even a special tefillah composed just for this purpose. The New...
Silver Lining of the LA Scandal Cloud
It is still very much the elephant in the room. We can pretend that it didn’t happen, but it won’t go away that quickly. News sources are still writing new pieces, and the prosecutor...
Prisoner of ‘the fanaticism of reason’
After the failed Camp David summit of 2000, George Will pronounced then prime minister Ehud Barak “perhaps the most calamitous leader any democracy has ever had” for the way he had succeeded in “delegitimizing...
Lions in Winter
Winter might conjure pleasant memories of playing in the snow, but it is hardly a season most of us would consider symbolic of childhood. We more naturally associate the “winter of life” with a...
Not the Doctor’s Decision — Updated
This week Jerusalem Post health reporter Judy Siegel reported that Samuel Golubchuk, the 84-year-old frum Jew from Winnepeg, whose doctors seek to remove him from his ventilator and feeding tube, had awakened. Mr. Golubchuk...
State of the Jewish Union
The following is an unretouched verbal snapshot of an international NGO gathering in Europe: An Israeli is at the podium. He is young, bright, Western trained, and served a prior Israeli administration as an...
Modern Orthodox or Chassidic?
Last week, I was asked to make a shidduch (dating) enquiry, something that occurs on a very regular basis. For the uninitiated, a shidduch enquiry happens after someone I advise has been proposed a...