Category: Other

Parashah Vayerá – Where the tent opens to the Other, there the Eternal appears

“The Eternal appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day” (Genesis 18:1).

Vaierá is not just…

A Hasidic Reflection on Creation, Courage, and Compassion

There is a rabbi in the Talmud who is rarely quoted from the pulpit. His name is Rav Papa. He was not a mystic or miracle-worker but a realist — a sage who saw the Divine not in…

Much has been written and contested about him, his positions, the threat he does or doesn’t pose to Jewish life in New York and beyond. The mayor of New York has no say in…

The New Old Normal: Jew-Hatred Reloaded

The world has changed or perhaps, it has simply shown its true face again.
The moral compass of our so-called “civilized” society is broken beyond repair. What began as a dangerous attempt to mix…

The issue of ultra-Orthodox army service has become a very hot topic once again. So hot, in fact, that Yair Lapid – leader of the Opposition and head of the Yesh Atid party, normally a middle-of-the-road politician – announced that when…

Two years ago, soon after I began my time at Yeshivat Har Etzion, I met a fellow student who introduced himself as a resident of Chevron, and was a bit surprised to learn that there was a full-fledged Jewish community there. “Isn’t it…

What was so great about Abraham?

Abraham passed ten tests, including, most notably, the near sacrifice of his son Isaac. Even so, despite these magnificent accomplishments, he might be defined by actions that are not even counted among…

Tucker Carlson’s recent conversation with Megyn Kelly reveals something crucial about our moment: the moral vocabulary of the West has become so diluted, so self-absorbed, that it can no longer tell the difference between genocide and war,…