I’m not one to make New Year’s resolutions, but this past year, there were two goals that I set my sights on achieving. I wanted to do a pull-up. And I wanted to finish watching Gilmore Girls with my daughter. Both of these goals required…
Category: Other
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A Tale of Two Goals
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Yitzchak Avinu
Parshat Toldot gives us the greatest insight about Yitzchak Avinu. We were given much more information about Avraham and Yakov. The Midrash comments on Yitzchak’s heroic at the Akeida, but his role is not mentioned in the text of the Torah….
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Facts Don’t Care—Unless It’s Ben Shapiro
When “facts don’t care about your feelings” becomes a selective slogan for religious ideologues on men’s issues I’ve been involved in advocating for men’s issues since 2015 — long before it was fashionable, and long before the Red…
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One Tiny Nick Makes It Treif: A Shochet’s Lesson on People over Steak
When a sincere non-Jew coworker begins asking questions about Judaism, he usually does so from a place of genuine love for God. To him, their understanding is life itself. The idea that his beliefs could be avodah zarah (עבודה זרה,…
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Jessica Tisch to stay on as Mamdani’s NYPD commissioner, reassuring some Jewish leaders
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who comes from a prominent Jewish family, has accepted the offer to stay in her current role under Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect announced Wednesday morning.
“Together, we will deliver…
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Kaploun leans on personal story and Holocaust education in bid to become Trump’s antisemitism envoy
Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. antisemitism envoy, pledged to elevate Holocaust education and combat what he called a “global problem” of ignorance-driven antisemitism during…
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Midrashic Musings on Toldot: What if Jacob had been nicer to his brother?
“Isaac loved Esau, because of the game in his mouth.” — Genesis 25:28 But whose mouth? And what kind of love leaves one son hungry for a blessing, and the other aching to serve? It was near sundown. The sky hung low and red over…
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From Moral Certainty to Moral Agony: Why I Support Death Penalty for Terrorists
Before October 7, 2023, I was uncompromisingly, viscerally opposed to the death penalty. I even wrote a blog post spelling it out: You read it all the time in the news: convictions overturned after 20, 30 years. Innocent people locked away for…
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Pluralistic Anti-Antisemitism. A Minifarce
Penelope is visited by a pluralistically conceived action group tasked by the local council with helping to combat antisemitism by going door-to-door. One group member: Hallo, we’re a pluralistically conceived action group tasked by the local…
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Hamas’ preparation for 10/7 was hidden in plain sight by a political agenda
The intel on Hamas attack plan was there, but IDF simply refused to believe it, probe finds I follow David Horovitz but was disappointed by his op-ed of 19 November. I agree with his premise with regards to Netanyahu’s culpability in and…
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