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...
Burning down our own neighborhood
I’m delighted to have been out of Eretz Yisrael during the prelude to last week’s scheduled Gay March of Pride. The closest I came to the action was the morning I could not get...
Dale Carnegie next door
None of the common stereotypes of charedim infuriates members of the community quite so much as that of mindless, interchangeable automatons blindly following whatever we are told to do by our rabbinic leadership. Because...
Partial-Birth Distortion
Listening to critics of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003, one might conclude that the law, which was ruled unconstitutional by several courts whose rulings are now under appeal before the United States Supreme...
Pitfalls that Aren’t
A few weeks ago, Avakesh posted on the “Pitfalls of Kiruv.” An associate of mine discovered it Friday, probably through R’ Gil Student, who says “I’m not sure whether I agree with him or...
Fed Up with Fox
The Fox News Network is supposed to be the one without the left-wing bias which grips much of the media. To a point, that’s true — but Fox leaves much to be desired if...
Intelligent Design For Dummies
Whatever you believe about evolution – that it is entirely incompatible with Torah belief, that it is nothing to lose sleep over if it turns out to be true, or that it is the...