Rabbi Sacks Takes on the Atheists
It was an exercise in purely fanciful speculation, but it led to much productive discussion of what it means to be mamlich Hashem – to coronate G-d on Rosh Hashanah. I asked my guests...
To Each Person a Mission
Rav Dessler, following the Vilna Gaon, learns the opening words of ya’aleh ve’yavo as descriptive of a process of ascent that brings our neshama ever closer to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The seven terms of...
Sounding the Shofar in Auschwitz
From the memoirs of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Meisels, ztz”l describing Rosh Hashanah 1944: “The experience of one transport that left Auschwitz is seared in my memory. With the grace of HASHEM I was miraculously...
Bible Codes Announcement
My other favorite publication, Jewish Action, just released its fall issue. It contains a revisiting of the Codes controversy, in the form of a Sarah Shapiro interview with Harold Gans. (I’ve been trying to...
The Shofar of Elul
The more important something is to us, writes the Avnei Nezer, the greater the preparation we will devote to it. Athletes prior to a major competition or an important game, for instance, will train...
Think Again: Dangerous godlessness
The tripartite division of the recent CNN series God’s Warriors into Jewish, Christian and Islamic segments conveyed its underlying message: Religions produce murderous fanatics. That particular trope features in all the recent spate of...
First Annual Yamim Noraim Hisorerus Competition
Not much competition, really. Eveybody wins. For many of us, no yom tov is properly observed without some immersion in the special works that lead to a deeper appreciation of the special quality of...
How to Criticize in Elul
We owe much to Rabbi Eli Teitelbaum. Not just because he gave us an excuse to stop talking about Noah Feldman. Not really for the substance of his remarks, either. Many readers of CC...
Stop Skimping
21bEllul “Tsunami of porn” is the colorful phrase the Shmuley Boteach coined to describe the skimpy clothing and other phenomena that characterize much of modern behavior. See his Jerusalem Post Sept.2 oped “Why women...
Saving Mother Teresa
Time Magazine’s cover story this week provides an opportunity for what Einstein (and others) called a “thought experiment.” Time examines a different side of Mother Teresa. A veritable icon of spiritual strength and confidence...