Israeli Justice Recuses Himself
A strange thing happened in the Israeli Supreme Court the other day. Prior to a hearing on petitions brought by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel to force the Israeli government to comply...
A Letter from Berlin
Dear Friends, After reading the letter forwarded the other day, I feel obliged to add a few words. I attended the opening of the Berlin Memorial yesterday, and asked the architect, Peter Eisenman, whether...
The Holocaust and Daf Yomi
Received via email: An article in the Arizona Republic on the new Holocaust memorial in Berlin (“Memorial divides Berlin,” Sunday May 8, 2005) reports: “The memorial is a maze of 2,711 unadorned concrete rectangles,...
Is This What G-D Wants of Us?
The current issue of Yated Ne’Eman (U.S. edition) has a letter from a fellow who extols the trips that were available during Chol Hamoed. He writes: “It comforted me that we were surrounded by...
Two Men, Two Worlds: Rav Wolbe and Ezer Weizman
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this blog. During Pesach, two major funerals took place here in Israel. One was for Ezer Weizman, former president of Israel; the other, for Rav...
Hadran Alach Maseches Brachos
The above is said when completing Tractate “Brachos” of the Talmud, and those who are studying the Daf Yomi, a page of Talmud daily, completed this, the first tractate, on Tuesday. Yes, I’m a...
Yom HaShoah
Every year, I mark Yom Hashoah by discussing with my 12th grade Jewish history students (Bais Yakov of Miami) why we don’t do Yom Hashoah. The discussion is slightly subversive, in that by having...
My Three Sons Meet the Haggadah’s Four
Question: The last number of weeks have been marked by three spectacles — the Schiavo saga, the funeral of the old pope and the investiture of the new one — that have riveted public...
A Question About Writing
Writing is not the only thing that I do, nor is it the main thing that I do. I suppose that much the same can be said about most writers, but there is a...
Riding with the Amish
For Jewish day school children everywhere, one potential highlight of the holiday season is a biannual ritual known as the “Chol HaMoed trip,” a family outing taken during the “intermediate days” of Pesach and...