Subway Poles/Snakes on Poles
Subway riders in standing room-only cars try not to think too much about what organisms might be happily residing on the poles they grasp during the lurching trip. To obtain some hard data, Harvard...
Thoughts on the Conversion Mess
In the wake of public discussion regarding R. Haskel Lookstein’s conversions, Ivanka Trump’s halakhic status, demands by so-called “Open Orthodox” rabbis for Israel broadly to recognize their private decentralized conversions, wildcat and other outlier...
News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy – Parshas Chukas 5776
First Thoughts Upon the Passing of Elie Wiesel A Debt of Gratitude After 75 Years Locals absent at ceremony in Poland marking postwar atrocity Canadian PM Justin Trudeau sheds tears on Auschwitz visit A...
Mixing Moshiach’s Cup
[Editors’ note: Chazal often spoke of mezigas ha-kos, the practice of diluting their strong wine with water. This first-person report allows us to imagine how Moshiach’s kos will be mixed with the tears of...
When Vulnerability Means Strength
So, where exactly was the lie? The one, that is, to which the meraglim had to add some truth, in order for it to be swallowed. In this past Shabbos’ parashah, the spies, returning...
My Two Cents on the Great Debate About OTD
I would have resisted the temptation to comment, were it not for an irresistible opportunity to tie it all in to the parsha. We’ve seen a huge debate over the last week or so...
The Trump Opportunity Bubble
At every time of adversity, enterprising people have found ways to turn catastrophe to their own advantage. Every war, every conflict produced its profiteers – some legally, some not so. The tragicomedy of the...
News and Essays In and Out of Orthodoxy – Parshas Korach 5776
Harav Mordechai Krausz, Zt”l, Rosh Yeshivas Ohr Hachaim My Last Meeting With Elie Wiesel Remembering the Ungvarer Rov zt”l with Elie Wiesel Father of 10 killed in terrorist shooting remembered as intellectual and giving...
A Trip to the Museum, and a Trip to Faith
If you live in New York City and need to keep kids busy on a hot summer day, you go to a good museum and hope that the kids will take interest in at...
Rabbi Maurice Lamm, z”l
We note with great sadness the petirah of one of the deans of the American rabbinate, Rabbi Maurice Lamm. My most vivid recollection of Rabbi Lamm is of the person who firmly put a...