• A Hesped (eulogy) for my Mother: Torah and Art a synthesis of worlds

    My mother (hk”m) died last week.  She was a well know artist, committed observant Jew, a deep thinker, and a humble supportive mother.  We are all dying, but to live a life that is dignified, creative, and that brings much insight and light to the world is the goal -and this my mother truly did. …

  • Shavuot 2011 – Seeing the Sincerity in Those with Whom we Disagree

    It is not easy for the Jewish people to see themselves as one. They label each other heretics and fanatics, and deem each other guilty of undermining the welfare, identity, and religious underpinnings of the Jewish people as a whole. Some have noted that unfortunately it often takes persecution to bring Jewish unity.   Hitler…

  • Our neighbors: Jeffrey Dahmer and Osama bin Laden

    “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.” -Proverbs 24:17 “Then Moses and the children ofIsraelsang…Pharos’s chariots and army God has drowned in the sea!” -Exodus 15:1 Should we cheer at the fall of Bin Laden?   The Biblical book of Proverbs would seem to indicate we should not.   On the other hand in the Biblical book…

  • Avoiding the Comforts of Extremism

    Sometimes the middle path is perceived as that which is noncommittal and lacking passion.   But in the realm of religion the opposite is true.  It is moderate positions that require more passion and commitment because they tend to be less black and white and thus harder to balance.  Extreme ideas in contrast are easy to…

  • The French Emperor’s Burka: When Liberalism Leads to Close-Mindedness

    It is ironic when liberalism generates, instead of open-mindedness and acceptance, limitation of others’ free expression and denial of their rights.   France, I think, in dictating the limitations of what Muslim women can wear, has unmasked its liberte et egalite and shown it to be something else entirely.  The French Emperor, it seems, is wearing no clothes.  Liberty and…

  • Heaven and Hell

    When I was a Rabbi at Washington University it was common for students who were not very knowledgeable about Judaism to ask me, “Rabbi, Judaism does not believe in Heaven and Hell right?”  I am not sure where this seemingly widespread impression came from, but my flippant answer was always, “No, but we do believe in heck.”…

  • Is God in the Tsunami?

    …After the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake… -I Kings 19:11 “Where is God now? Where is He?…He is hanging here on this gallows” -Night by Eli Wiesel “The cruelty and the killing raise the question whether even those who believe after such an event dare to talk about God…

  • The Pope’s Exoneration of the Jews: A Step Back from Real Interfaith Encounter

    I was deeply offended by the Pope’s recent book quote in which he freed the Jews from responsibility for the killing of Jesus (I know it’s just a restatement of Nostra Aetate but that was before I was born).   Here is why -consider the following scenario to which, to me, it felt akin: Suppose in…

  • On Modesty and Misogyny by Rabbi Hyim Shafner

    The sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan in Tahrir Square last week brought me to think a bit about the role of modesty in religious countries.   Egypt is a country in which most women are religiously required or encouraged to cover themselves completely.  Yet paradoxically it is also a country in which women on…

  • Passover 2011 – The 10th Plague and the Sanctification of the First Born

    In the past few Torah portions we have been reading of the Jewish People’s Exodus from Egypt.  The 10th plague, the smiting of the firstborn, seems to be the final catalyst which precipitates Pharos’ freeing of the slaves.  Curiously, just after the firstborn in Egypt are killed the Jewish people are told, “…therefore you shall sanctify…

  • Rediscovering Prayer

    Perhaps I speak only for myself but I think generally we have lost the concept of prayer.  The upside of prayer in the Orthodox community is that we do it often.  But this is also the downside.  As a result of the commonness of our prayer I think, at least for me, prayer often can…

  • Does Orthodoxy Change?

    (The following is a message I wrote to my congregation and was also printed in the most recent newsletter of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC).) Recently several Orthodox congregations that have embraced wider roles for women within their synagogues have been in the news and the subject of much internet banter.   Two come to mind.  First,  “partnership minyanim,” in which women…

  • The Theological Implications of Brussel Sprouts

    To be sure as Orthodox Jews we believe that God gave the Torah to be relevant for all times (yemot hamoshiach and the kashrut of bacon aside).   Often it is argued that it can not be the case that something in nature has changed which would render something in the torah to no longer be…

  • Halacha as Business -My Take on the Rotem Bill

    The recent (now tabled)  bill submitted to the Kenesset by MK Rotem expands the range of whom under law in Israel has the authority to perform conversions, and in addition severely limits anyone’s ability to retroactively undo a conversion performed in Israel.   The bill was formulated by Israel Baytenu, a non-religious party, to facilitate the…

  • What is the Purpose of Zionism?

    Although in the modern Orthodox community it is not PC to admit this, I am not a Zionist.   I did not grow up feeling or being taught that Israel, in the modern sense of the term, was essential for the Jews or for being Jewish.  I was taught that though Israel is a holy land,…

  • What is the Purpose of Zionism, Part 2

    Last week I wrote that it seemed from the torah that the goal of the Jewish people to be a “blessing to all the peoples of the world” as God tells Abraham, can only happen by going to the “land which I will show you,” and there becoming a “great nation.”  Why is it that…

  • Why We Need a Reversion of Conversion

    while back I sent a certain Orthodox rabbi a link to Rabbi Marc Angel’s article about conversion which appeared in the Forward http://www.forward.com/articles/11985/ in which Rabbi Angel argues quoting former chief Sephardic Rabbi Uziel, that we should err on the side of accepting converts rather than rejecting them and criticizes the high barriers the Chief Rabbinate of…

  • Religious Zionism, Creativity, and the Future of the Jewish People

    In a recent Jerusalem post article rabbi Daniel Gordis wrote that in his view there is no creativity in the torah of religious Zionism and that indeed since rabbi Solovetchik and rabbi kook there has not been any.   As a result he does not feel that religious Zionism is able to speak to secular Jews…

  • Rav Samet’s Yeshivah in Lod and the Creativity of Talmud Study

    There are several Torah scholars who derive creative philosophical, psychological, and quite modern thoughts from the Tanach and Midrash.  Among these authors is most notably Aviva Zorenberg, and I think she herself would argue, the Midrash itself.  There are also those commentaries that take the same approach to Agaditah, the narrative sections of the Talmud. …

  • More on Rav Samet’s Yeshivah in Lod and the Creativity of Talmud Study

    January 15, 2010 There are several Torah scholars who derive creative philosophical, psychological, and quite modern thoughts from the Tanach and Midrash.  Among these authors is most notably Aviva Zorenberg, and I think she herself would argue, the Midrash itself.  There are also those commentaries that take the same approach to Agaditah, the narrative sections…