Category: Other

Overwhelmed or underwhelmed

When our brains get overstimulated or understimulated, we feel bored. Boredom seems more painful than the heaviest fear. People do anything to escape the feeling. Nature also helps us.

Asleep

After a good (amount…

There are three days of Holocaust remembrance on the Jewish and international calendars.

That seems like a lot.

Except, we need them all.

Why? Because we live in a moment of moral danger. Antisemitism surges with a demonic intensity….

On the evening of November 7, 2024, following a soccer match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, Amsterdam experienced a wave of antisemitic violence that Jewish organizations and public officials later described as unprecedented in postwar…

Songs of ABA: On Contingency and Choice

By Rabbi Moshe ben-Israel

Epigraph

The Torah is not among the sciences.

It stands above them.

The sciences do not stand above it.

They stand beneath it.

Introduction

On Order, Source, and Song

The world…

Two consecutive days, unfolding right now, have reminded me just how fragile the moment we are living in truly is.

January 26 marks Australia Day. The date commemorates the arrival of the “First Fleet” at Port Jackson in 1788—an event…

The Deuteronomic law commanding

the inscription of Torah words on doorposts of the house

foreshows the New Jersey law demanding

that writing without any computer guided mouse

be taught to every child,

in New Jersey styled,

like Biblical…

Rivera is a clothing outlet—a forgettable mix of drapey tops and wide pants—that describes itself online as “your Spanish fashion brand.” Yours, that is, if you live in Andorra, French Polynesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, North Macedonia,…

Meeting people where they are—“Chanoch Lanaar al Pi Darko,” as our sages teach, is more than a pedagogical principle; it is an essential approach to guiding the next generation in a rapidly changing world. Today, this means understanding…

The questions people ask

Friends who visit Israel often ask me the same question. We’ll be sitting at Katzefet, talking, and at some point someone will ask whether I regret making aliyah, or whether I would recommend it.

I understand the…