Not long ago, I received a halachic inquiry from a concerned congregant. His daughter was married a few days earlier in a supposedly Orthodox ceremony, but there occurred a serious breach in the tradition of Jewish weddings. The father wrote that everything was meticulously arranged: the hall was paid for, the chatan’s tisch was properly […]
Dear__________, You ask me why a normal person, one who has the option of living either in the United States or in Israel, would choose to live in Jerusalem at such a time of conflict and danger. After all, you ask, does it not make more sense to live in the US, at least until […]
The notice in the papers was innocuous enough. Under new regulations, all those who had been driving in Israel under foreign driver’s licenses are now required to obtain an Israeli license, after taking a simple test. Where bureaucracy is king, nothing is simple. I called the Motor Vehicles Bureau to find out details. After 14 […]
My mother used to admonish us with her favorite saying: “Not everything that one thinks should be spoken, and not everything one speaks should be written.” She tried, not always successfully, to teach us to be careful with words. These days, after WikiLeaks, my mother’s words turn out not to be just an old wives’ […]
Photo: Vosamo Photography The Story of the Robe When I first arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, in the fifties, the president of the shul immediately suggested that I wear a black robe on the pulpit on Friday nights and Shabbos. Why? He was open about it. Ours was a small Orthodox […]
I will never forget old Jake. A likable and generous contributor to our Atlanta synagogue, he was invited one Yom Kippur to mount the pulpit and open the Holy Ark during the recitation of the awesome Unetane Tokef prayer. There he stood right next to me, his rabbi, solemnly intoning the words “Who shall live […]
Ruminating about the economic turndown, I came across a fascinating article in the June 1, 2008 issue of the New York Times, “It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich.” It describes the financial travails of Manhattan’s super-rich. Although their investments once engendered huge annual incomes, these incomes have now shrunk to as low as $2 […]
A recently issued study by the American Jewish Committee suggests that American Jewry is in for a stunning and almost shocking surprise. The study notes that Orthodox Judaism in America is on the ascendancy, and that in the decades to come it is destined to exercise major influence on the quality and direction of American […]