As Long as We’re Guessing at God’s Message…
It didn’t take very long for some holy rollers to pop up and tell us why God punished the East Coast with a devastating storm. Not only didn’t it take long, there seemed to be a rush to see who could come up with a reason first. I don’t know who actually won that race. But I do know that there are a lot of people who think they have a direct line to God and know exactly what He was trying to tell us. Well, I’m glad I now know. Or do I?
An Attempt to Export Failure
The Pew study provides a stark picture of the disintegration of American Jewry--with the exception of the Orthodox.
The Defiant Ones
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THESE PEOPLE!
An Unprecedented Tragedy in Israel
So I am not against having this event every Lag B’Omer. I am only against having crowds of this magnitude there. The chances of a tragedy like this happening again can be avoided or at least minimized.
One Torah – One People
There is not an iota of real difference between the way Torah is studied in the Beis HaMedrash of YU and the way it is studied at any other Yeshiva. It is more than time that Modern Orthodoxy is treated like an equal among equals and given the same prominence they give those to their right.
Torah and the Secular Jew
As a youth, MK Dr. Ruth Calderon was not satisfied with the secular treatment of Judaism she got in Israeli schools. So eventually she founded a secular yeshiva.
Emes Ve-Emunah: I Love Lucy
There are Arab Muslims like Lucy Aharish. Probably a lot more than most of us realize. Fortunately.
The Giving Pledge and the Tuition Crisis
If I make a million dollars in 2 weeks, how can I observe something like this and sit by quietly?”
Refuting a Rebuttal
There are people on both sides of the ideological aisle that insist that their perspective trumps the other. Those scientists that are not guided by faith will discard everything that science contradicts. Those that insist on the literal interpretation of entirety of the Torah narrative will deny the science no matter how clearly the science is demonstrated as fact.
Who Has The Moral High Ground?
We too have our Joe Paternos. Only they are not football coaches. They are rabbis who have been just as guilty in cover-ups as Paterno was. In at least one case, a Rosh Yeshiva tolerated sex abuse by one of his Rebbeim for many years and did nothing about it. He knew it was going on and yet allowed that teacher to continue teaching and continue abusing his students. He is still around – as is his Yeshiva.
Orthodox Schools as the Model for Public Education
America's public school system is a failing enterprise and needs radical changes to restore it to former greatness. Examining certain Orthodox schools may provide some inspiration
Rabbi Avi Weiss Crossing Hard Lines
Rabbi Weiss wrote: "Israel as a state should give equal opportunities to the Conservative and Reform movements."
Are There Really Solutions to the Tuition Crisis?
The Orthodox Union has announced a massive push to get the government to help fund Jewish education
The Impressions of an Expert on Pedophilia
The revision of the DSM that omitted homosexuality was not based on research, nor was much else. It was "political" pressure.
Can Women say Kaddish?
I do not see this as a feminist issue at all. This is a human issue.
Emes Ve-Emunah: A Win? Or a Defeat?
Progressive Orthodoxy can afford to retreat. Not because they have won, as they think but because they have lost even if they don’t realize it yet. If they insist on maintaining this new innovation of 'women rabbis; they will eventually write themselves out of Orthodoxy
Emes Ve-Emunah: Will Identity Politics Destroy Us?
This is no way to run a country. True leaders need to be color blind. You look for the best people and hire them
The ‘A’ Word
I do not for a minute think he ever believed that Israel was or will be an Apartheid state. He simply misspoke.
YCT, Heterodoxy, and Agudah
It is a fact that heterodoxy is no longer the threat to Orthodoxy it once was – if at all.
Actions – Not Platitudes
Artifacts are not what make the Jewish people great; it is our conduct that does.
An Unorthodox Renaissance
I disagree with Bayme's equating Modern Orthodoxy with the left but I agree that the left should be restored as a viable choice within Orthodox Jewry
Emes Ve-Emunah: Basic Education Will Improve Their Lives
Surprisingly, many Hareidi communities do not advocate full time Kollel study for life as the ideal.
Reading the Mind of God
"As soon as these chariots of kedusha started running, the suicide bombers stopped."
The Beis Yaakov Feminist Experience
If feminism is mentioned at all, it is usually to condemn it as an anti Torah ideal.
An Orthodox Rabbi Whose Wife is Not Orthodox
It undermines the tenets the rabbi preaches to his congregants when his wife does not live by them
What Is Sexual Abuse?
Should a university be sued because their officials at that time misread those events as relatively harmless?
The Siyum – Postscript
The highlight of the evening was a brief but inspiring video of the history of Daf Yomi from its inception at the first Agudah convention via until the present. Over all, The Siyum was a job well done I thought. At least here in Chicago.
More Religious? Or Going Off the Deep End?
They want to have total isolation from the rest of the world? I think perhaps we should finally give it to them. It pains me to say so but based on what I am reading in their very own media, going off the deep end is not an exaggeration. It may even be an understatement! It is a wonder that they do not have a bigger OTD problem than they already do. I guess that their system works very well for them that way.
The Paranoid Editor of the Yated
Lipschutz goes completely off the reservation ranting about the Post and the antisemitic world.
Charedi Suicide Squads
I understand their angst. These are funds they have relied upon for decades in order to subsist.