There are parts of the Bible that if interpreted literally would be cruel and violent. For example the Bible (Exodus 21:24 — this week’s’ Torah portion) says that a violent attacker should pay “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Another example is the law where…
Category: Religious Politics
Opposition to Female Participation Fear-Based Not Halachic
The debate regarding the role of women in Jewish religious ritual has intensified over the last couple of months. Two Modern Orthodox schools in New York City have now made it their policy to allow female student to don the Teffillin (phylacteries usually only worn by men) if they wish…
Limmud Loses Credibility, Caves to Unfair Rabbinic Pressure
This past week in England, the Limmud conference, which describes itself as ‘dedicated to Jewish learning in all its variety, ‘ disinvited and cancelled the sessions of a representative of the London branch of the Kabbalah Center. The last time I wrote anything even remotely positive about the Kabbalah Center,…
Kudos to Chief Rabbi Mirvis for Taking on the Old Guard
Britain has a new Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, and as any one who knows Anglo Jewry could have predicted, in less than six weeks of his installation, he is embroiled in controversy. For the uninitiated some background might be necessary. In Britain there is an annual conference where laypeople can…
Joining Team Sacks to Expand the Jewish Center
In the Jewish world today, there are few thinkers and communicators more influential and able than the soon-to-retire chief rabbi of the UK, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. This week he made it known that we should not expect him to go into a quiet retirement from Jewish life, but that…
Ordaining Women?
This coming Sunday Rabbi Avi Weiss will ordain a group of women who will serve as clergy members in Modern Orthodox synagogues in North America. Although this group of women will not be formally given the title of rabbi, they will have studied the exact same curriculum as any man…
Women of the Wall Fight – Neither Side Can Win, Yet
The saga about the Women of the Wall, where a group of women are fighting for the right to to pray at the Western Wall (The Kotel) in the same way men do–including reading from the Torah–is a recent and painful example where modern societal expectations and conservative norms have…
MK Rabbi Dov Lipman vs. Ner Israel’s Rabbi Feldman on Haredi Education in Israel
Rabbi Dov Lipman and I have similar ideas when it comes to education. He and his party, Yesh Atid, are in my opinion, fighting God’s war to ensure that all children in Israel have the ability to get a proper education. As it stands many children from the Haredi sector…
Rabbinic Plagiarism and Scholarly Integrity?
There have been a number of serious scandals recently involving rabbis who have been less than honest when it comes to their scholarly work. First the Chief Rabbi for France, Rabbi Gilles Bernheim was forced to resign because he plagiarized work from multiple authors, including famous post-modern philosopher Jean-Franois Lyotard….
The Business of Jewish Outreach
Larry Page the co-founder of Google visited Steve Jobs the co-founder of Apple Computers before the latter died a few months ago. Jobs told Page that instead of trying to be all things to all people he should choose a few key products that Google really wants to develop and…