Monthly Archives: January 2016

My living room features four guitars on various stands, along with a five-string banjo. When I’m listening to recorded music at a high-enough (not necessarily that loud) volume, I hear and can often see the open strings vibrating sympathetically with … Continue reading →

I teach Torah for a living, focusing on trying to empower (mostly) adult students to read and negotiate for themselves the world of seforim which make up a large part of our collective, kaleidoscopic view of the world. Most of my … Continue reading →

An enduring passion for Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, has been taken for granted for two millennia as a universally-shared Jewish trait. Learned or not, Ashkenazi, Sephardi or Mizrachi, yeshivische or chassid, secular or devout, man or woman, those … Continue reading →

I went to a talk Rabbi Shlomo Riskin gave shortly after he made aliyah in 1983 or 84. He compared Shalom Achshav, Peace Now, with Moshiach Achshav, Moshiach Now, and said they were both equally unrealistic. The entire Jewish people, … Continue reading →

Rashi begins his monumental commentary on Tanach with the statement that according to Rabbi Yitzchak the Torah should actually begin 6/7th through Parshat Bo! Shemot, Chapter 12, verse 2 states, …הַחֹדֶשׁ הַזֶּה לָכֶם רֹאשׁ חֳדָשִׁים (HaChodesh Hazeh L’chem Rosh Chadashim….). … Continue reading →

Cultural triumphalism is one of the big taboos of modern liberal thought. The very idea of chosenness, as in our being “The Chosen People” has become anathema to many well-meaning but not so well-informed of our people. This is so … Continue reading →

Celebrating attitudes such as דן כל אדם בכף זכות (Dan kol adam b’kaf zechut), “consider everyone to be worthy”, i.e. the presumption of innocence, as “evidence” of Judaism’s inherent idealism and liberalism only discloses one’s total lack of understanding and … Continue reading →