Imagining the Unimaginable
For most of us the mourning of Tisha B’Av is only partly for our lost Temple. We mourn no less over our lack of access to the emotions aroused by the Temple, for our...
The World’s Worst Job
The first book my mother bought me to read myself was America and its Presidents. Being a dutiful son, I took the hint and spent my first two decades aspiring to be the first...
Maharal For Dummies-No-Longer
So many people joined the first of our four-part intro to Maharal last week, that it would be insulting to keep referring to them – even playfully – as Dummies. For those who missed...
Darwin Does Bereishis
Darwin was a Brit, after all, so it would be rather rude of Sir Jonathan Sacks not to comment on his 200th birthday. The Chief Rabbi manages to neatly side-step the thicket of arguments...
Purim Present
In 2003, the first day of Adar brought us an early Purim present. It wasn’t food, but rather food for thought.
Debating G-d: The “Must-Have” Tool
This may not initially read like a book review, but it is just that. Some older books are so important, that they deserve a bit of contemporary context to remind us how important they...
ISRAELI ELECTIONS 2009
It is more than a week after the Israeli elections, and the nature of the next government is still not known. That already suggests that the next prime minister, whether Binyamin Netanyahu (likely) or...
Heretics and Humility
What makes so many so certain that the current scientific orthodoxy is the final word? The answer is hubris, the monkey wrench in many a human machine.
Maharal For Dummies
Not quite. Dummies can’t understand Maharal, and I am notoriously poor at lecturing to intellectually challenged audiences. Still, lot of folks see themselves as dummies when it comes to wading through the works of...
Some questions in search of answers
As I write, it is two days before the Israeli elections. Prior to previous elections, my Har Nof neighborhood has always been festooned with election posters hanging from balconies. I have not seen a...