A Jerusalem Yankee in the King of Sweden’s Court
Motzei Shabbat 9 bKislev Luckily for Jews, Alfred Nobel passed away on December 10 and not during the summer over a century ago. The King of Sweden awards the Nobel Prizes annually on December...
Bashing Conservative Judaism
Here we go again. Yet another Rabbi thundering away that “calling Conservative Judaism a halachic movement is intellectually dishonest,” and pointing out that there’s not much standing between the commitment to observance of your...
Two Sifrei Torah Stolen in Westwood
Two Sifrei Torah and a Paroches were stolen from a synagogue in Westwood, CA on Monday night: Two Sefardi Sefer Torah in wooden boxes with the Rimonim. The boxes are white background with pictures...
How will they label “Basar Lavan?”
Arutz-7 reports that “As of today, food may not be sold in Israel without being marked as either meat, dairy or pareve (neither milk nor meat).” A new law to this effect passed its...
Torah Reading and the Documentary Hypothesis
This Shabbos it was my pleasure to join a retreat at a conference center. Jewish learning in a relaxed atmosphere, a mixture of serious discussions and fun had by all — what could be...
Heterodoxy Meltdown?
What would happen in Ori’s hypothetical mass teshuva of heterodox clergy? Would the laity become observant, or would they opt out of Judaism? My guess is that most would do neither. In fact, most...
Battleground Suburbia: Episode 15
In many respects, a piece in the September 20, 2005 New York Times (please don’t suspect me; it was someone else’s discarded copy) on suburban discord over a new Orthodox institution was predictable in...
Goodbye to Heterodoxy
Regarding Ori’s question, I reject the forced choices — I think the majority of Jews would join Orthodox shuls without becoming observant. That is option 3. And I think that would be a vast...
End of heterodoxy, deja vu.
29 b Heshvan On November 27 Ori Pomerantz posed a question under the heading, The end of heterodoxy? Imagine that tonight there was a miracle, and tomorrow morning all the rabbis and chazzanim of...