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...
Retraction II (tis the season)
My recent Am Echad Resources essay “Bernie, Sully and Me” has generated substantial criticism from many readers, including people whose opinions I deeply respect. I have come to the conclusion that that there were...
Brace For Impact — In Advance
Anyone looking for a takeaway lesson from the amazing tale of US Airways Flight 1549 would do well to ponder the striking opening line of an Associated Press piece on the episode: “Chesley Sullenberger...
Retraction
A colleague expressed displeasure with my citing a story about a call to violence by a rabbinic figure. He argued that, at least in America, he has never come across an instance of a...
Tzniyus Patrols, Abuse, Violence and Getting Personal about Torah
The intrepid Rabbi Yaakov Horowitz published an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post recently hailing the sentencing of an operative for a self-appointed tzniyus vaad in Yerushalayim to four years in jail. He then republished...
Probability and Faith
Chief Rabbi (UK) Sir Jonathan Sacks [The following piece appeared in the Times of London late last month. In the mind of one of the senior contributors to this blog, it is as good...
Our Own Private Passover
But the Communist credo, after all, was “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” and so they were really only being good Marxists. They had spiritual needs, including kosher-for-Passover matzoh.
Piece Plan
“Orthodoxy” is simply the name that the Reform and Conservative movements gave to what “Judaism” meant for millennia prior – to what those movements sought to supplant when they birthed themselves.
Briefly Noted
“The heart wants what the heart wants.” – Woody Allen “The heart has its own rules and ways” – Sheikh Yusef Al-Qaradawi Qaradawi – is an icon in the Muslim world, and a leader...
Kids of Courage
The modal reaction to those who came in contact with the Kids of Courage (KOC) West Coast Tour last week was one of utter disbelief. Twenty-four participants, all of whom suffer from chronic conditions...