Ever change your mind?
Ever change your mind after reading something? In the course of translating an essay I was stimulated to rethink a principle I once held dearly: suspicion and avoidance of large crowds. I believed that...
Sukkot and the Great Meltdown
All the Jewish holidays are times of rejoicing, but only Sukkos is specifically known as “the time of our rejoicing.” The special joy of Sukkos is connected to the extra measure of closeness to...
Ignore the Grandchildren
The Obama campaign is encouraging Jewish kids to fly to Florida to visit their grandparents over Columbus Day weekend. The website for the intitiative, www.thebigschlep.com, features comedienne Sarah Silverman instructing Jewish youth in Lysistrata-style...
Hanging in the Balance
Hashem prepared us for Rosh Hashanah this year with a vengeance. The Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah 8:5) on the words, “Na’aseh adam — ” Let us make Man,” describes a debate that took place in...
Hekhsher Tzedek is Not the Way to Go
What does it take to get two very opinionated writers to drop their differences and collaborate on a hot topic? A shared feeling that the topic is too important to go without comment. That...
Sukkah-Vision
The defining element of the sukkah – the temporary dwelling in which Jews are commanded to spend a week each autumn, beginning five days after Yom Kippur – is the once-growing but now detached...
Halacha Meets the Subprime Market
Being completely unschooled in the dismal science, I have nothing to say about the economic mess major parts of the very intertwined world finds itself in at the moment. In lieu of analysis, I...
Change is Possible
Rabbeinu Yonah discusses various barriers to teshuva in Sha’arei Teshuva. But perhaps the greatest barrier most of us experience is a lack of belief in our capacity to change. In this month of teshuva,...
New Issue of Tradition (1)
A new volume of Tradition (available for paid download only) arrived in the mail a few days ago. A memorial volume offered in tribute to Rabbi Dr Walter Wurzburger z”l, it is especially rich...
Yad Vashem & the Pomegranates of Rosh Hashana
The place:Liberated Theresienstadt. Date: May 1945. Hanna, a survivor, recalls: “I thought to myself: ‘I am now free. I am actually free to do whatever I want.’ But I had nowhere to go. I...