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...
Making the Torah Real
Two students in one of Jerusalem’s high school seminaries came to interview me last week for a documentary about how to internalize one’s Torah studies. I was impressed both the seminary’s sponsorship of such...
Blowing the New Kashrut’s Cover
“Oy,” some progressively clean-shaven clergymen are probably thinking, “Popper’s blown our cover.”
Turning Poetry Into Torah
Very few people can take a secular poem and turn it into a successful limud. Most who would try would have little worthwhile to say. They would use the poem as a source only...
Whatever Your Politics
Whatever your stance on the abortion debate, no decent human being can fail to be repulsed by the story: “Baby Trashed After Botched Abortion.” Apparently the doctor didn’t show up in time to abort...