Who Feels Chosen?
Few concepts are so closely with the Jewish people as that of the “Chosen People.” That singularity is reiterated constantly in the Torah. We are referred to variously as “a kingdom of priests, a...
Gates of Wisdom
Last week’s news of a healthy 14% first-quarter profit for Apple Computer stood out as a ray of hope in an otherwise gloomy economic landscape. The company’s strong sales were due largely to the...
A Serendipitous Comment to Hillel Goldberg’s Post
A scant few hours after Rabbi Goldberg posted his essay , I showed up at a school where I teach, only to discover that my class was preempted by some visitors who were going...
Unanticipated responses to Orthodox-Reform fissures
My entire adult life I’ve been hearing about the coming demise of the American Jewish community. The first such prediction, some 40 years ago, went like this: The Orthodox and the Reform define a...
Blaming Us for Their Problems
Those moving from America to Israel on aliyah are predominantly Orthodox, while Reform and Conservative Jews are staying put in America. Most of us would attribute this to Orthodox “willingness to pay a personal...
An Internet Tale
[Sarah Shapiro, noted Orthodox writer and daughter of literary icon Norman Cousins, would be a welcome permanent addition to Cross-Currents if I can finally talk her into it – YA – Updated Apr. 29...
Rav Moshe Zt”l on Survivors
Seldom since the years immediately following the War has so much attention been paid to Yom HaShoah, thanks to Ahmadinejad’s tirade at the UN yesterday. Few news sources resisted the irony of the world’s...
Two unusual leaders:Satmar Rebbe today and R.Tuvia Geffen 1935
I was at a study-seminar in Nahariya when I received a phone call 1 am Friday, erev Shabbat Hagadol from New York. “We have an emergency,” said one of the editors of Mishpacha Magazine....
Birchas Ha-Chamah For Litvaks, or What Happens If It Rains?
If you made it this far without doing the reading, you are probably not going to get to it before the event. For a quick and easy presentation, try the summary written by the...