יום שישי, כ״ו חשוון תשפ״זFriday, November 6, 2026
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He was among the first rabbis to embrace the internet as a platform for Torah, publishing responsa as early as the 1990s. But these were not ordinary responsa. Every ruling stood behind an idea.
In the wake of the Jewish people’s collective wedding anniversary on Shavuos, I offer five dating mindsets that I’ve gleaned from those summers – for those of us still on the journey toward our chuppah, and those genuinely offering support along the way.
By Brian Romick
The United States should absolutely use its leverage to advance peace. But that leverage should not be focused solely on Israel.
By Mendi Glik
Over the years, Cohen was in close contact with his uncle. He used to send him songs and consult with him. Shloime taught him that to sing is to pray.
It begins with counting. Order. Structure. Arrangement. But almost immediately the parsha shifts into the unpredictable terrain of human emotion.
Ever since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the use of Holocaust inversion by enemies of Israel has gone from being used only by pariahs to becoming chic.
With most of its primary source of revenue cut off, the question remains: How did the PLO-P.A. continue financing terror payments?
By Jessica Russak-Hoffman - JNS
The buffer zone would be twice the size of the one Mamdani vetoed earlier this year.
The question now is, at what point does the spread of the disease become so bad that the only solution is to flee.
Imagine what another decade of inaction would have produced.
By Ben Rothke
The topics are all real, important, and relevant in this significant work.
From a philosophical perspective, many Jewish thinkers have focused on the unique role of speech as a defining element of humanity. Speech, at least in its fully realized form, distinguishes Man from the animal; for humans, speech expresses thought, making this distinction especially profound.
Throughout the narrative, Horowitz points out examples such as this, where things in her life could have been so much worse, and woven throughout the entire sefer is evidence of the incredible gratitude she has to Hashem for the many gifts she has received that help her navigate through a world without sound.
By Alan Zeitlin
The play presents Dahl as a man in physical pain, desperate to secure his marriage to his second wife, and increasingly cornered by public backlash.
Ruth’s story is not about conversion as a moment. It is about covenant as a life. Her geirus is not described as a ceremony. It is described as a relationship.
Torah speaks differently to different souls. Every Jew has a unique relationship with Torah, a unique derech in serving Hashem, and a unique contribution to make to the Jewish people.
It is surprising, then, that this practice is so entrenched, especially since it has no basis in Chazal or the Rishonim. … In the late 16th century, however, two Eastern European authorities record a tradition not to recite Kiddush on the first night of Shavuot until nightfall.
If our personal foundation isn’t all it can be at that time, regardless of how strong our spouse’s foundation is, our future together will be shaky; our weaker qualities will ultimately reveal themselves more clearly rather than improve.
Identity, in Ruth's case, is not something preserved through careful self-protection. It is something discovered through openness – through relationships, risks, and responsiveness to the unexpected.
By Shlomo Greenwald and Joey Aron
The key question is not whether the conduct hides behind the veil of political language. As we mentioned, antisemitism almost always borrows the respectable vocabulary of its time. The question is whether Jewish students are being treated equally.
By Adina Broder
People may have varied religious practices, ideologies, or political views. They may come from different backgrounds, affiliations and persuasions. But this doesn’t mean that there needs to be strife between us.
By Alan Zeitlin
“So, we are here today not to accommodate, not to give permission, not to bow our heads,” Louis-Klein said. “We are here today to say no. To say that we, as Jews and as Israelis, will not be erased from this society. We will not countenance a racist hate movement. We will not accept antizionism...
The modern business of antisemitism begins, like so much else in modern Europe, in Paris.
Seventy-eight years ago this week, on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was established. To celebrate this monumental event in Jewish history, here are some related medals from my personal collection.
The midbar is often imagined as a place of danger and emptiness. The Torah presents it differently. The wilderness is not chaos. It is unwritten space.
Religious perfection requires transcendence, an encounter with the Ribbono Shel Olam, a presence that does not conform to human categories.
Although as a festival, Rosh Chodesh is not dressed in much external pomp and circumstance, it determines the timing of all the other festivals in our calendar and thus enables our annual spiritual and ritual rhythm.
By Jeffrey Lax
Those same union delegates and officers walk into our classrooms every day. Their attitudes don’t stay behind in the (largely Marxist) union halls – they shape how they teach, what they tolerate from students, and the messages they send about who belongs in American society.
Left-leaning opposition has argued that school choice programs divert funds from and thereby harm public schools.
American Jews did not respond to that freedom by standing apart from the country. They helped build it.
At a time of rising antisemitism and deep polarisation, Rabbi Goldstein, who serves as the Chief Rabbi of South Africa, believes the proclamation offers a rare opportunity for national unity: "Shabbat is above politics. Whatever our differences, whatever our background, whatever our level of observance, Shabbat belongs to all of us."
By Mendi Glik
For thousands of years, throughout the long years of exile, the Jewish people have never forgotten Jerusalem. And indeed, after two thousand years in the Diaspora, Hashem performed a huge miracle and returned Am Yisrael to the land of Israel, and to Jerusalem.
A healthier approach is to adopt a strategy both partners can live with emotionally. The mathematically optimal portfolio is irrelevant if it creates stress or conflict.
By Avi Ciment
Whether it was lies about Jews poisoning wells, spreading plagues, or killing Christian children for their blood, we have always been the target of persecution.
Rising antisemitism from both the left and right (we can argue which is worse, but there is widespread understanding that it emanates from both), fear of danger, and uncertainty about long‑term safety in the U.S.
Between Yaakov and Avraham stands Yitzchak – often the least discussed of the Avot, but nevertheless the most relevant to us.
Financial research shows that wealth, even when substantial, rarely survives more than three generations. What seems permanent in one era often fades in the next.
By Alan Zeitlin
Lebowicz performs across the country for synagogues and organizations that want clean, kosher comedy that still makes them laugh. His comedy is easily accessible, drawing from Jewish laws and customs as well as from some popular culture that everyone is familiar with.
That the injustice was later recognized – and that his name is publicly honored – reflects a society willing to confront its grave mistakes.
After I spoke at my father’s memorial and received that feedback, I knew what I had to do: I was going to write his biography. Then, I could show my family members and future generations the full picture of who their Zaidy was. They would be able to learn from him and emulate his ways.
For me, the dissemination of conversation during services had not, in the past, been so much a violation of halachic decorum, but an annoying impediment to clearly hear the ba’al tefillah and ba’al koreh enunciate each and every word.
Nobody ever started keeping Shabbos because a rock was thrown at them or because they were told that if they do not, they are a bad Jew. People embrace Shabbos because they were lovingly invited to experience it, shown its beauty, exposed to its meaning. They were invited to learn about why it is important and right for them.
For all his caution, Pius XII never suggested that it was wrong to fight Nazi Germany; rather, he operated within a long-standing Catholic moral framework that recognized the tragic necessity of war under certain conditions: the “Just War Theory,” which does not glorify violence; it constrains it.
The editors made one decision and held it absolutely: not a single word was changed, misspellings included, half-finished sentences included.
There is something uniquely powerful about the prayers of a child. Watch a young child daven, and you will see a kind of purity that is difficult to replicate in adulthood.
The outright wrongheadedness inherent in each of these statements needs to be exposed. Not just for Israel’s well-being, but for America’s.
By Alan Zeitlin
Reactions were swift, with some saying it was an offense to our community to no longer have a Jewish Heritage Day and others saying it was not a big deal and there could be innocuous reasons.
Avodas Hashem is shaped not only by obligation, but also by how we understand the human being, by the moral awareness embedded within us and by the way we see the world and our place within it.
Measured globally, the fleet is modest in size. Within the eastern Mediterranean, it ranks among the most capable forces, with clear advantages in technology, training, and readiness. Larger fleets operate in the region, yet Israel’s navy is structured for high-intensity missions and rapid response.
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik famously began his work The Lonely Man of Faith with the stark words, “I am lonely.” He wasn't talking about a lack of friends. He was talking about the inherent loneliness of a person of faith, the realization that your deepest commitments might never be fully understood by the world around you.
It was at that Chabad in North Brooklyn, on Bedford Avenue, where I experienced the kindness of the Jewish community and, during dinner, felt a warmth in my chest that I immediately knew was G-d.
AI can generate, summarize, and analyze. But it cannot become you. It cannot build your character.
Now that he had served out his time and would soon be eligible to rejoin the world, why was he not eager to undergo the purification ceremony to be administered by the kohen which would be his ticket back to freedom?
In both cases, a fanatical regime chose to double down on ideology, sending its own youth to die.
We have just emerged from our shelters, literally and figuratively, after six weeks of war. The air is heavy with mixed emotions shaping how we approach this moment. There is relief, but also grief. Pride, but also fatigue. Nothing feels simple or settled.
There’s no good reason for any Jew who is pro-Israel to resist using the term Zionist to describe themselves. Zionism is a team sport, and the object of the game remains what it has always been: the saving of Jewish lives.
For what it’s worth, there are people who are honest about the use of AI.
Carter’s handling of the Iran hostage crisis was the defining culmination of an administration that never understood the revolution it was appeasing, epitomized by his own U.N. ambassador Andrew Young, who in February 1979 was still serenely predicting that Khomeini would be hailed as “a saint” once everyone “got over the panic.”
Since October 7, hate crimes against Canadian Jews have skyrocketed. In recent weeks, shots were fired at area shuls in two separate incidents. Police have now banned pro-Palestinian protestors from demonstrating in Jewish areas.
Critics of circumcision frequently frame the issue as one of children’s rights or bodily autonomy, but this framing overlooks the reality that parents routinely make irreversible decisions on behalf of their children in many contexts, including vaccination, medical treatment, and education.
By Alan Zeitlin
While at the height of his powers as the host of his top-rated Fox News show, Carlson brought on rapper Kanye West, who said some questionable things about Jared Kushner, but Carlson deleted a portion where West said that he’d prefer his children celebrated Chanukah instead of Kwanzaa for “financial engineering.”
By Mendi Glik
In the concentration camps and the gas chambers, Jews were murdered on the cursed soil of Europe. And while their brothers and sisters in the United States couldn’t do much for them, the little they could do was to shout.
We are not there to reason on behalf of G-d. If G-d promises that something will happen, it will happen. How? That’s not our business. Our business is to fulfill the positive commandment of Kiddush Hashem and G-d will work out the rest as He did with the ram that showed up to save Yitzchak.
That story about the crumpled white shirt deeply changed my life. So often, when I felt confined by circumstances and life’s difficult conditions, I returned to that white shirt and challenged myself to rise above my frustration.
Despite the original Shulamit not being a name (but rather a description), in post-Biblical times, that word came to be used as a personal name given to Jewish girls, and in the last generation or so has actually become quite popular.
Anyone who has gone through a traditional yeshiva education is familiar with this unique aspect of Jewish tradition. Torah study is not just for knowledge, nor is it merely a mitzvah to study, but it is also a redemptive, elevating process.
In that sense, this article is itself an act of haggadah. The goal is to point at what is happening around us and say: look, this is what the hand of G-d looks like in history. That obligation falls on every Jewish parent and teacher…whenever history offers a teaching moment. And this year, history is not being subtle.
Traditionally, we are supposed to limit eulogies in the Hebrew month of Nissan, as it is the season when our people’s liberation from slavery in ancient Egypt was brought about by G-d.
By Yossi Baumol
When one thinks about a miracle, in order to give thanks to the Ribbono Shel Olam, it is insufficient to give thanks only for the miracle itself; one must also understand the means, the circumstances, the causes that He set in motion, how the Ribbono Shel Olam orchestrated events – and every separate reason, every cause, every factor is a miracle in itself.
If we’re asking questions solely for the purpose of receiving answers, we’re missing the point.
As slaves to Pharaoh, our time was not our own. The gift of freedom also granted us the gift of time, and our very first commandment shapes that gift by giving us the Jewish calendar, a framework for our days.
Beginning in 1947, the JRSO searched out heirless Jewish assets and unclaimed property in the American-occupied zone of Germany and distributed them to Jewish institutions and organizations, primarily in the USA and Israel.
Mrs. Klein replied, It doesn’t seem fair that I should pay you for two idle hours when there’s still work that could be done!
Values such as kibbud av va’em and the importance of supporting children as they build their lives are deeply ingrained. These are not obligations people take lightly.
If the Temple Israel shooting isn’t a wake-up call to Congress to get its act together, I don’t know what is.
Before Mamdani’s meteoric ascent to power, October 7, 2023, tore away the last pretense. Hamas named its massacre Al‑Aqsa Flood and proclaimed it a religious war – a summons to Muslims in all Arab and Islamic countries to join the battle.
Unacknowledged stress doesn't stay quiet. It finds other exits. It comes out in how we speak to our children at the end of a hard day, in the walls we build around our hearts, in the subtle withdrawal from connection and meaning.
Other challenges in life can pass through us with resilience, but nothing can replace those we love and can no longer see. The pain remains; we simply get better at carrying the broken pieces of ourselves.
The critique is not merely legal but civilizational: instead of producing, building, or creating, the gambler sits passively, hoping that chance will deliver profit.
While Israel is recognized as a leader in trauma care and innovation, participants emphasized that the central challenge is not a lack of expertise or activity, but that the current system is too fragmented to effectively meet the scale and complexity of the growing national need.
The Mincha is the simplest of all offerings – flour, oil, a measure of frankincense. Ingredients drawn from the rhythm of daily life. Nothing extravagant. Nothing that signals wealth or status. Nothing that would draw attention in the courtyard of the Mishkan.
By Ariela Davis
Despite the desperation of seminary kids and tourists to get out of the country in time for Pesach, those of us who have chosen to build our lives here wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
It is not just that those outside the Jewish community see American Jews as weaklings who cannot defend themselves; it is that too often we see ourselves this way.
By Alan Zeitlin
I thank G-d nobody told me in the 491 days about my wife and daughters, Sharabi said. I think it would have hurt my chance to survive.
Every Jew, regardless of ideology or level of religious observance, is part of this collective project. Continuing to rely on abstract terms such as Knesset Yisrael or Klal Yisrael can lift Jewish peoplehood out of lived reality and recast it in theoretical terms.
The initiative was established to express profound gratitude to the community of scholars who balance intensive high-level Torah study with the rigors of military service.
This arc – frank acknowledgment of failure, followed by unconditional reaffirmation – is not incidental to the haftarah. In truth, it is one reason the whole institution of the haftarah exists.
Back in 1960 bibliography, Yaakov Ya’ari made the first attempt to actually count how many times Jews have published versions of the Passover Haggada, and he came up with an incredible 2,717 different editions.
Sheps comments at the beginning of the Haggadah that we are all teachers on Seder night and we are all students.
There are really two kinds of religious life. The first is built out of inspiration... This second life is not built out of inspiration. It is built out of return.
I’ve always been struck by that phrase “nesa liban,” “their hearts lifted them.” There is something deeply human in it, a quiet rising of the soul toward purpose.
Ashrei is a very important prayer, and the most important pasuk in it is: “Poseiach es yadecha (You) open Your hand and satisfy each living thing according to its need.”
By contrast, the more nebulous offense of fraud and breach of trust, which sits at the heart of the charges in Cases 1000 and 2000, has long been criticized by legal scholars for its vagueness.
From a pro‑Israel standpoint, the danger is not only that Gaza has turned the party leftward; it is that the moral and political reflex to stand with Israel under fire has been replaced by a posture of suspicion, apology, and punishment.
Carlson may have inadvertently done more for Chabad fundraising than any giving-day campaign.
When it comes to selling real estate during war, patience suddenly becomes a national virtue.
Alongside true nuclear explosives, there is also the radiological category – dirty bombs or radiological dispersal devices. Iran’s 60‑percent uranium could be fashioned into several such weapons, dispersing uranium dust or fragments over a city with conventional explosives.
Iran’s enemies feared not open confrontation, but stalling tactics. An agreement that would relieve pressure, allow Iran to regroup, and perhaps wait for a weaker American administration in a few years. From a cold political perspective, buying time was the obvious move.
That outside-the-pale groups Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow would attack Israel and America for bombing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime should come as no surprise.
By Alan Zeitlin
Even more bizarre is that both The New York Times and The Washington Post referred to Khamenei as avuncular. Normal people rarely use that word. I’ve heard it uttered less than 10 times in my life.
November 6, 2026 
