Sociobiology isn’t Science
Marc Hauser and Peter Singer, professor of psychology at Harvard and professor of bioethics at Princeton respectively, recently sought to prove in these pages that our sense of morality is the result of evolution,...
Made in the USA: New Theologies, and the Limits of Orthodoxy
This is one of those challenges we throw out to our readers. It represents thought in progress, not a finished product. Please don’t take it as such. The Orthodox community continues to grapple with...
Rabbis easing rules on conversions?
According to the Miami Herald, “Now even Orthodox rabbis, the staunchest opponents of interfaith marriage, are exploring ways to encourage conversions.” Of course, as the article goes on to stress, the rabbis at the...
Some thoughts on visiting the U.S. Holocaust Museum
One of the highlights of a recent speaking tour in the United States was my first visit to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. I had some doubts in advance whether there was...
The number one problem of the Jewish people?
8 bAdar If you survey the front page headlines of newspapers in Eretz Israel and Jewish periodicals in the U.S., you would conclude that the most urgent problems of our people center around geopolitics...
Preparing for Jewish burial — the 7th of Adar
The body lies on a stainless steel table, draped with a sheet. Together with three other women, I cut away the body bag and hospital clothes, remove bandages, pull out IV lines. We wash...
Oscar and Us
We fared pretty well. Munich received no awards. Paradise Now didn’t either. The Palestinian cause will have to content itself with the cash of misguided Hollywood Jews, but not their statuettes. Brokeback did not...
Everything Goes – Including Halakha
Quoted from the NY Times of Mon, 3/6/06, on the issue now roiling the Conservative movement concerning homosexuality: Many students at the [Conservative Jewish Theological] seminary say they find the gay ban offensive and...
Our Attitude Towards Gays – Response to “Troubled”
I am troubled by Troubled. His comment citing Rav Moshe’s responsum could have come from many, many people in the general community. It is important to realize that getting a clear perspective on the...
Who is Hollywood’s audience?
Responding to Yitzchok Adlerstein’s post about a movie that’s much in the news, Eliezer Barzilai wrote: “there are movies in which a spouse comes back as a child (Birth), or as a person of...