Thinking Jewishly
A few years back, I spent two or three hours in the Boeing Museum of Flight in Seattle. It wasn’t enough. The story told there cannot help fill one with awe. The fantasy of...
Torah Always Matters
This was not an easy blogging week. The issue of women’s ordination brought some sharp divisions within the community into focus, including fundamentally different conceptions of halachic process and authority. Surprisingly, the most jarring...
The Day the RCA Became Agudah
Not in the way you think. This is written in praise of the RCA, not to score points for Agudah. (I wouldn’t take sides – I have a high regard for, and work with,...
Of Cartoons and Coldhearted Cowardice – Part 1
This week, the New York Times’ token center-right columnist, Ross Douthat, had an important piece on the contradictory notions of censorship in contemporary society. Reading it through Jewish lenses, though, one can see its...
The RCA Resolves Against Ordaining Women
From the press release: In light of the opportunity created by advanced women’s learning, the Rabbinical Council of America encourages a diversity of halakhically and communally appropriate professional opportunities for learned, committed women, in...
Let’s Not Institutionalize Mediocrity
[This post is a response to a comment by Dr Meir Shinnar to a previous post.] No, no, a thousand times no. We do not misunderstand. And we do not challenge the fact that...
Preaching to a Very Mixed Choir
What do you tell a gathering of clerics, when they give you about a minute, and others can be expected to offer some PC drivel? Speaking at the World Summit Of Religious Leaders Forum...
Two on Rubashkin
I was sent the article, “Is A Life Sentence for Iowa Kosher Butcher Disproportionate Justice?” Not knowing much about “The Cutting Edge News,” a few clicks led to “Rubashkin Sentence Must Be Fair—Not Shocking,”...
The View from Nebraska
Sometimes it takes an outsider to accurately describe the state of affairs and put things in perspective.
Gender Agenda of the RCA
The Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America met this week and on the agenda was gender. This reminded me of another conference of professionals, the Arizona Engineers’ Society (l’havdil) which I attended as a civil...