In my recent “empathy” post, I wrote: The notion that only blacks can understand blacks, only women can understand women, and so on, undercuts the bedrock of our common humanity. In a previous post,...

by Avi Shafran, via Am Echad Resources I don’t own a television and so have never seen an episode of the popular program “Grey’s Anatomy,” which has been described as a contemporary, R-rated soap...

What does an MP3 player have to do with my esteemed fellow bloggers? Not much, perhaps, but I can attempt to explain the stream of thought that led to this post. Recently, I was...

I would like to second what Eytan Kobre wrote so movingly in his post “As Thyself” : There is a Jewish angle to this topic as well; specifically, regarding the tendency of some in...

The other day, the local public radio station aired an interview with the author of a book about the talented American musician Bruce Springsteen. Mr. Springsteen is renowned, it seems, for his ability to...

When I was a university student, there was a professor who joined the Orthodox daily minyan (services) for a time in order to say Kaddish for a relative. He commented that he felt that...

[The following is from the Iyar/May RJJ Newsletter. It has elicited a considerable response, including the suggestion that it receive wider circulation and that is the reason why I am posting it.] It has...

Please convey condolences, Yaakov Menken, to your brother-in-law; May Hamakom comfort him with the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. We were recently invited to a dinner with friends where the discussion turned most unpleasant....

UPDATED 9 Iyar, Wed., May 18 The funeral of Aaron Rosenfeld (he was my nephew, the son of my wife’s brother Elie) took place at 1:30 pm Tuesday. He was eighteen. Thank you for...

Our Torah provided the symbol of the medical profession: a snake wrapped around a pole. You find this symbol used by medical schools, hospitals, and the American Medical Association. The source is the following...