Yeshivish Mainstreams!
The New Yorker, that venerable favorite of generations of East Coast literati, has apparently decided to weigh in on the recent Cross-Currents discussion regarding the use of proper and nuanced English. It may be...
Tisha B’Av, Intermarriage & Slippery Slopes
11 b Menahem-Av Formerly Orthodox Professor Noah Feldman, writing in the New York Times Magazine , “Orthodox Paradox,” July 22 two days before Tisha B’Av, complains that the Jewish Day School he attended (Maimonides...
Kibbutz Conversation
Tisha B’Av – which falls this year on July 24 – always brings back the personal memory of a conversation between two teen-aged cousins more than thirty years ago. It took place on the...
A Modestly Bold Proposal
I received the following letter from my friend Rabbi Dr Cardozo. The sentiments expressed therein will resonate with many. Some may cynically and perhaps correctly consider the notion a pipe dream. Yet it strikes...
Actions, Values, and Education
by Rabbi Doron Beckerman Much virtual ink has been spilled in recent months over the acts of vandalism, hooliganism, and general bad Middos of various sub-sectors of Charedi society. One of the themes which...
Remembrances of Tisha B’Av Past
Certain key occasions in the Jewish calendar invoke strong memories of my seven years in Gateshead Yeshivah. One of my teachers assured me that by spending Yomim Tovim and other special moments in the...
A Powerful Metaphor, but Does it Work?
“I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of Moshiach. And even though he tarries, I still await his arrival every day.” Those words form one of the 13 basic principles of faith...
Conversion To Judaism: The Need For A Uniform Standard
Three weeks ago, Rabbi Marc Angel, the retiring spiritual leader of Manhattan’s Congregation Shearith Israel argued in the Jewish Press (“Conversion to Judaism: A Discussion of Standards“) that: (1) there is a multiplicity of...
Harry Potter and Shabbos
See my comment at the end of this posting for an update on the actual fining of stores that opened on Shabbat. 3 bMenahemAv Only in Israel would the hourly news report a storm...
Uninvited guest
3 b Menahem Av Remember the party-crashing in the Kamtza and Bar-Kamtza episode? Well, I had my own experience last week. Jonathan Rosenblum describes below what he would have told the Jewish People Policy...