Rabbi Moshe Grylak’s op-ed in last week’s Mishpacha calmed the frayed nerves of a community with the instant effectiveness of a double espresso on the weary. He owned up to the existence of something...
The essay below was written for, and published by, Haaretz.com. I offer it here with that paper’s permission — and with my apologies to readers who may feel that enough has been written about...
by Avrohom Gordimer When an Orthodox rabbi’s actions cross into the realm of the non-Orthodox, the rabbi’s actions are typically defended by his sympathizers as being “within the outer bounds of Orthodoxy”. And when...
[To my recollection, which might be errant, I have never asked that anything I have written be circulated. The following is an exception, for reasons that I hope will be obvious.] The latest issue...
We cannot see the tens of thousands of mazikin, or “harmers” (often translated as “demons”), that the Talmud teaches surround us always (Berachos 6a). Were they visible, says Abba Binyamin, they would utterly terrify...
With sincere apologies to those who loyally read these pages in search of something new or inspiring, I offer none of those here. Some of the suggestions that follow have been made before; some...
My previous post which had nearly an identical title has generated a batch of nice comments, including a number that do not like what I wrote. That’s fine. For the record, nearly all of...
The other day, waiting to board a bus, I was moved to think about empathy. Unfortunately, the prod came in the form of the opposite, crass selfishness. A young woman approached the group of...
For months, as the Women For the Wall fought for the right of women to pray at the Wall undisturbed, we have heard from many, even within the Orthodox community, that really W4W should...
A rejoinder to my recent essay on Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and “Open Orthodoxy” was published here . Below is my response to that posting, written in my capacity as Agudath Israel of America’s spokesperson....
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