• Welcoming Gay Jews in the Orthodox Community

    In the series of posts that I have been writing about welcoming various populations of Jewish people, I am not purporting to address the halachic (Jewish legal) implications of the lives of populations of Jews, I am rather exploring how we as an Orthodox community can tweak our vision of the world and of people, in order…

  • Changing Attitudes-Engaging Intermarried Jews and Their Families

    What should our attitude be when an interfaith family comes to our Shul or community?  Should we actively try to engage interfaith families or might this give people the impression it is OK to intermarry?  What should a Rabbi do when a couple comes to him who perhaps knows little about Judaism, and may not…

  • Orthodoxy and Diversity: How Open Should Our Communities Be?

    Orthodoxy, in that it is a term coined and way of being formed in response to the European enlightenment’s openness to new ideas, is by definition something that has walls and limits, protecting those inside from potential, and perceived potential evils without.  But what happens when those walls keep out important Jewish values such as…

  • Breadth and Depth, Openness and Passion

    Morethodoxy.  One more label to add to an already thinly divided Jewish world? In subtitling our blog “Exploring the Breadth, Depth and Passion of Orthodox Judaism,” I think we aim to overcome the limitations that labels impose.  To see Jewish life not as it often is seen today as a linear spectrum from insular to…

  • Passover 2009

    Regarding the Seder night Maimonides writes, “In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they, right now, have gone out from the slavery of Egypt.  So does the Torah write, “remember that you were a slave,” meaning it is as if you yourself were a slave and have gone out to…

  • Blog Post on Rabbi Samaet

    Did you go to yshivat charedi?  All in usa? I embarrassed they learned much more than me Lawyer named yaakov I and my family are in Israel for the next 5 months on sabbatical.  Though we are living in Jerusalem I commuttee each day to the city of lod to learn torah in the kollel…

  • The Danger of Autonomy: Balancing Work and Spiritual Purpose in the Land

    This week’s Torah portion, Bichukoti, outlines the national blessings that the Jewish people will enjoy if they observe God’s commandments and the curses that will afflict them if they do not.   The blessings promise proper rain, crop growth and national security, whereas the potential curses depict the converse. The Jewish people at this point…

  • Physical vs. Spiritual Counting

    In the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Bamidbar, the Torah relates that on the first day of the second month, God tells Moses to count the Jewish people.  This is the third time in the Torah that the Jewish people are counted, as Rashi (Rabbi Shlomoh Isaac, 11century French Torah commentator) says, “They are…

  • Sacred Intentions, Dangerous Actions

    In this week’s Torah portion, Korach, we are told of a challenge to Moses and Aaron’s leadership in the desert.   Moses and Aaron’s cousin Korach and 250 leaders of the Jewish people come to Moshe and Aaron and say, “The whole people are holy and G-d is in their midst, so why do you…

  • Passover/Shabbat HaGadol 2006

    In addition to Passover we also celebrate the Shabbat preceding it.  In fact this Shabbat has a special name, Shabbat Hagodol, The Great Shabbat. The Torah writes,  And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron…Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take everyone a lamb,…