Response to Response
Dear R’Avrohom, Thank you for the thoughtful response to my post. Yom Tov begins shortly and does not allow for a full response, but I’d like to address two issues that you, and many...
Abortion and Religious Freedom: Even Agudath Israel Is Somewhat Pro-Choice
By Rabbi Michael J. Broyde Do you think that Agudath Israel supports the new Texas abortion law? Someone reading Rabbi Gordimer’s article “Sorry, Liberal Jewish Leaders – Judaism Is Not Pro-Abortion” would conclude “of...
Response to “First Step:LGBTQ+ and the Frum Community”
Several years ago, I was sitting with an adam gadol – an internationally-renowned rosh yeshiva and posek, who said that he had just privately spoken on the phone with a man who confided that...
A First Step:LGBTQ+ and the Frum Community
By Rabbi Yisrael Motzen She hadn’t spoken to her parents in twenty-seven years. Her siblings had intervened, her uncles and aunts had tried to reason with them, but her parents were adamant, their daughter...
V’zos Habracha – Spacewarps
A Roman emperor, according to a Midrashic account (Sifri, Devarim 357), sent two army units to find Moshe Rabbeinu’s burial site. When they stood above it on a hill, they saw it below. When...
As Good an Omen as it Gets
People look for some sort of sign that Yom Kippur went well upstairs. I can’t promise that, but I did find one that leaves room for huge optimism. Some find it in a gematria...
Haazinu – Not Bad But Best
A man once visited the saintly Chafetz Chaim and the sage asked him how things were going for him. The visitor responded, “Well, it wouldn’t hurt if they were a bit better.” “How can...
Sorry, Liberal Jewish Leaders – Judaism Is Not Pro-Abortion
The new anti-abortion law in Texas has now become the target not only of the Justice Department, but of non-Orthodox and pseudo-Orthodox Jewish clergy and lay leadership as well. The executive director of JOFA...
Driving Like It’s Rosh Hashanah
Some Jews attend shul only on the Yamim Nora’aim or for a yahrtzeit. They “compartmentalize” their Judaism. It’s called on only for special occasions. And yet, as always, there’s more to be gained by...
Parshas Vayeilech — Prepared to Not Progress
Children brought to shul need to be controlled by their parents, of course. They mustn’t be permitted to disturb those gathered there to daven. But, at least from an age when they can be...