In Hebrew, the term for being thankful is hakarat hatov, recognizing the good that is done for us. We primarily do this through the recitation of blessings which are so ubiquitous in an observant life. These are really about recognizing that we construct very little of our own lives. Much of who we are —…

Though I have spent some time over the past few years writing in the blogosphere, most of it has been on Morethodoxy.org, a blog I write with three other Orthodox rabbis.   We started writing it because we felt that the center and left of Orthodox Judaism, often termed “Modern Orthodoxy,” instead of bringing together…

One of the tenets of Morethodoxy as I see it is finding as many and as wide a range of opportunities as possible within halacha for all Jews to engage in Judaism and connect to God.   In the case of women this means finding greater room for women’s leadership, women’s learning, women’s expression, and women’s…

I recently went to hear Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski speak of the respect the Torah demands in relationships.  He quoted the Talmud, which says, “a man must love his wife as himself and respect her more than himself.”   He spoke of the fact that the Talmud forbids rape within marriage, something the western world only…

The Mishna in Berachot (53b) states: “With regard to one who ate a meal and forgot to say the bircat hamazon (grace after meals), Bais Shamai says they must return to their place and say the grace, Bais Hillel says they should say grace in the place they are when they remember.” The Talmud on this Mishna…

I and my family are living in Israel for the next 5 months on sabbatical.  Though we are living in Jerusalem I commute each day to the city of Lod to learn torah in the kollel of Rabbi Israel Samet.  It is a small group of mostly young married men who have finished their army…

A congregant of mine was confounded by the reports of Rabbis who were arrested for illegally trafficking in human organs. One person in the group said that some might justify their acts claiming the money would be used for yeshivahs and other important Jewish organizations. They turned to me and demanded to know if there…

October 30, 2013 The Torah describes Sara our foremother’s death by enumerating the years of her life.   Then the verse repeats, “…these were the years of Sara’s life.”   Rash”i is bothered by this repetition, and comments, “All of them were equally for good.” The Rebbe of Tosh, Rabbi Meshulam Feish Segal, may he live and…

Recently I came across a passage in the Misilat Yisharim (Path of the Just) by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Lutzato, that seems so prescient of the times we are living in now as Jews with all our infighting and outfighting and acting out on the right and left.  If we keep in the forefront of our…

Rape is not about sex, it’s about violence.  So too Orthodox Jewish men attacking little Orthodox Jewish girls in Beit Shemesh because they were wearing short sleeves this past week http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/27/3090916/israelis-rally-around-naama-women  was not, God forbid about tzniut, the Jewish notion of modesty (the perpetrated acts were of course anything but modest),  but about power. In Israel religion is…

Recently I met with a young couple whose wedding I will soon perform.  They are both observant and the man was born a Jew.  The woman was converted as a young child since her mother was not Jewish, though her father was.   She and her siblings were converted as children by a very Chashuv Rav…

“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…

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…

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…

…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…

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…

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…