Esav and the New Modern Family
The closest we get to soap opera in Chumash is Esav’s family tree in Bereishis 36, replete with many intimations of incest and other illicit relationships (see Mizrachi 36:2). According to the New York...
Double-Blind Science and the Church of Agnosticism
Rabbi Natan Slifkin recently posted a response to Rabbi Shafran’s essay from yesterday. Unfortunately, he misrepresents what Rabbi Shafran had to say, which was entirely reasonable — and on target. Rabbi Shafran said that...
Science, Blinded
“Just as ordinary, pig-headed and unreasonable as anybody else” was the eminent twentieth century psychologist H.J. Eysenck’s judgment of scientists. “And their unusually high intelligence,” he added, “only makes their prejudices all the more...
Nothing Too Challenging For Torah
Larger than life challenges to Torah values can be met in two different ways. We can prudently retreat, placing the sanctity of what is most important to us ahead of all other needs and...
Lucky Loser
Contests aren’t really my thing. I don’t buy lottery tickets or wager on sports (or, for that matter, even know much about them; until recently I thought Miami Heat was, well, a straightforward description,...
The Wisdom of a Classic Shul Rov
I couldn’t resist sharing this wonderful reminiscence of a father by his son. Rabbi Saul Berman penned this recently upon the occassion of his father’s,z”l,34th yahrzeit. It is published with permission of the author....
Something Fishy About Anisakis?
The current halachic rage – the status of fish known to host worms – presents two layers of fascination to me. From the very beginning, I recognized that how you generally understand the intersection...
Artscroll Shas at More Than Half Off
My son Peysi submitted this tidbit. It was a one day deal – but Borders has run it before, and may very well run it again. The entire Shas can be purchased for $1369....
Bias Has Consequences
According to a new book from a Professor at UCLA, the media’s left-wing bias is so overwhelming and pervasive that the few balanced news outlets appear to have a conservative slant. “It’s like concluding...
How the Gadol Hador Showed Love To His Sons
Frequent contributor Rabbi Dov Fischer offers what Rav Ruvain Feinstein shlit”a remembers about his father, Rav Moshe zatza”l: In the New York winter, after waking up Rav Ruvain as a little boy, Rav Moshe...