The tripartite division of the recent CNN series God’s Warriors into Jewish, Christian and Islamic segments conveyed its underlying message: Religions produce murderous fanatics. That particular trope features in all the recent spate of...
Not much competition, really. Eveybody wins. For many of us, no yom tov is properly observed without some immersion in the special works that lead to a deeper appreciation of the special quality of...
We owe much to Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum. Not just because he gave us an excuse to stop talking about Noah Feldman. Not really for the substance of his remarks, either. Many readers of CC...
21bEllul “Tsunami of porn” is the colorful phrase the Shmuley Boteach coined to describe the skimpy clothing and other phenomena that characterize much of modern behavior. See his Jerusalem Post Sept.2 oped “Why women...
Time Magazine’s cover story this week provides an opportunity for what Einstein (and others) called a “thought experiment.” Time examines a different side of Mother Teresa. A veritable icon of spiritual strength and confidence...
Great ideas speak for themselves. A little PR, though, wouldn’t hurt. Aish HaTorah’s Project Inspire has floated an idea that I am enthusiastic about. Through a subsidy that allows them to do this at...
An odd Rosh Hashana custom, duly recorded in the Talmud and halachic codes, is the lavishing of puns on holiday foods. Most Jews know that on the first night of the new Jewish year,...
I have been involved with formal and informal outreach for more than 15 years but have only recently started to ask myself a few pointed questions, which I share, anticipating that they will be...
The law does not say that a Jewess cannot marry a Christian, nor a Jew a Christian woman; nor does it state that the Jews can only marry among themselves. The only marriages expressly...
A well-worn anecdote has it that a teacher assigned the writing of an essay with the requirement that it relate to elephants in some way. Looking through the submitted papers, the teacher came upon...
