Winter Harvest
In a forthcoming book, “Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality,” Dr. Pauline W. Chen writes about the many operations she performed on brain-dead patients for the purpose of procuring, or “harvesting,” their organs...
Some Random Pensees on Chareidi Education in Israel
This week’s English HaModia reported that the gedolei Yisrael have refused to permit Meitzav testing of student progress in certain core subjects in chareidi schools. The article attributed this opposition to fears that such...
Blame, Bava Kamma, and the Santa Monica Driver
There was very little closure when a judge recently ordered probation for George Weller, the 89 year-old man who three years earlier steered his car on a swath of deadly destruction in a Santa...
Ahead to the past
Here is my sister’s travelogue from her recent visit to our mother’s birthplace in Berlin: I had to choose whether to fly with my husband and two of our boys to Berlin, or whether...
Pelosi’s Father Aided Jews of the Shoah
With mounting fears in some circles that the Democratic Party’s long-standing support of Israel is perceptibly waning, we know of at least one high-ranking member for whom commitment to Jewish causes runs in the...
The Values and Politics of Charity
Charity begins at home. And in the house of worship. And on the conservative side of the political aisle. All of these remarkable facts grow out of a survey whose results were described in...
Why We Are All ID Dummies
Oh dear. At least one can say in favor of this posting that it’s accurately titled. Beyond that, it reminds me how important it is, including for rabbis, to hesistate to express opinions on...
Eis Tzara L’Yaakov
One of the world’s leading Torah thinkers began a shiur last week by reminding his audience that while there is no mitzvah from the Torah of fixed daily davening, there is a Torah mitzvah...
Fed Up with Fox
The Fox News Network is supposed to be the one without the left-wing bias which grips much of the media. To a point, that’s true — but Fox leaves much to be desired if...
Intelligent Design For Dummies
Whatever you believe about evolution – that it is entirely incompatible with Torah belief, that it is nothing to lose sleep over if it turns out to be true, or that it is the...