Balak – Life in Three Dimensions
I’m not entirely sure why eyepatches are often associated with dangerous characters like pirates. But the only character in the Torah who is described as having a single eye is Bilaam (Bamidbar 24:3, although,...
Cheerleading Rarely Helps
Rabbi Michael J. Broyde Dear Rabbi Adlerstein, There is so much truth in your open letter. Thank you for writing it. Like you, I am grateful for our friendship and the ability to be...
Google Sanitizing Anne Frank’s Diary
June 25, 1947 was a significant day for Jews. So significant that the 75th Anniversary of that day was highlighted by the Google search engine with Google Doodles “Honoring Anne Frank.” June 25 was...
The Demise of Roe v. Wade: A Letter to Rabbi Michael Broyde
Dear Reb Michael, Congratulations on the excellent piece in Lehrhaus. It’s perhaps the best piece that I have seen on the subject. Not that I agree with everything you wrote, but that is not...
Chukas – Vocabulary and Venom
In the only instance of a pun in the Torah (isha from ish doesn’t count), we find Moshe forging the nachash hanechoses, the “snake of copper,” out of that particular material because nechoshes sounds...
Korach – The Nature of Nature
My late friend and once-Staten Island Ferry chavrusa Yossie Hutler, zichrono livrachah, once posed an insightful question about parshas Korach. “[In the] morning,” Moshe tells Korach and his entourage, Hashem will make His will...
Agudath Israel on Reversal of Roe
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States overruled Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision establishing a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. Agudath Israel of America welcomes this historic development. Agudath Israel has long...
Parshas Shelach – The Importance of Feeling Unthreatened
The idea that the prohibition against lashon hora, “speech of evil,” includes speaking negatively about a thing, not just a person, is surprising. But the sin of the meraglim, the scouts who were sent...
Happy’s Happy, But Not Human
Happy the elephant isn’t a person. That seeming truism was the official ruling of New York’s highest court last week, necessitated by a suit brought by the Nonhuman Rights Project aimed at freeing the...
Beha’aloscha – Woe Isn’t Us
The reflexive form of the word k’mis’onenim (“The people were mis’onenim [complaining] bitterly before Hashem” – Bamidbar 11:1) indicates that our ancestors were self-focused in their grumbling. They were mourning themselves, sorrowful (as per...