Chiddush in Our “Beis Medrash”
By Yaakov Rosenblatt Hewed by Hashem into the essence of man is the need – the unmistakable and existential need – to add something to the experiences, choices, and lifestyle of the generation before...
Pelosi’s Father Aided Jews of the Shoah
With mounting fears in some circles that the Democratic Party’s long-standing support of Israel is perceptibly waning, we know of at least one high-ranking member for whom commitment to Jewish causes runs in the...
Givers don’t absorb
A few weeks ago, I spent a day with Rabbi Shlomo Raanan, the founder of Ayelet HaShachar, an organization that has placed religious families on sixty-five non-religious kibbutzim and yishuvim in recent years. In...
Moving to the ‘Burbs
Tensions between religious and non-religious Jews and religious Jews occasioned by the move of religious Jews to upscale suburbs have long been a staple of both American Jewish fiction and sociological writing. Nearly half...
People in Glass Houses
Last week’s General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Los Angeles was organized as a show of solidarity with Israel in the wake of the last summer’s war in Lebanon. The solidarity, however,...
The Values and Politics of Charity
Charity begins at home. And in the house of worship. And on the conservative side of the political aisle. All of these remarkable facts grow out of a survey whose results were described in...
Jewish Action
A new issue of Jewish Action, – the OU’s glossy quarterly – hit the stands last week. A confluence of factors leads to this unabashed plug. Of course I’m biased. I’m on the editorial...
Avodah Zarah Matzah
Is this a knock-off of Hirhurim’s Great Shatnez Potato Chip (scroll down to Nov. 12 there) conjecture? Or is it real? If it is, do we start eating hand shmurah the rest of the...
Why We Are All ID Dummies
Oh dear. At least one can say in favor of this posting that it’s accurately titled. Beyond that, it reminds me how important it is, including for rabbis, to hesistate to express opinions on...
Eis Tzara L’Yaakov
One of the world’s leading Torah thinkers began a shiur last week by reminding his audience that while there is no mitzvah from the Torah of fixed daily davening, there is a Torah mitzvah...