Author: Rabbi Dr. Hillel Goldberg

Who was Professor Isadore Twersky?

Rabbi Sacks will not be replaced.

Colors? I thought I knew colors. How little did I know the astoundingly beautiful world, as colors now blaze before my eyes.

What strikes me most about the Rav’s legacy is how deeply he has penetrated the lives and minds of so many people, both those who knew him and those who did not.

A quarter of a century ago, if one wanted to get an inside look into the more traditional circles of the Orthodox community, one would have to rely on hearsay or a very occasional news story in a secular daily or weekly Jewish newspaper. That kind of story aroused a mixture of pride, surprise and […]

What is the legacy of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein? Only too soon, the answer, I fear, will be: It depends on whom you ask.

How to Take Shabbos into the Week It is not my intent to address the issue of Orthodox teens at risk, yet if this article can aid their parents or mentors, so much the better. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik was wont to say that America has many Sabbath-observant Jews, but no erev-Sabbath-observant Jews. Shabbos is […]

I begin, and end, in the same place: decimation. The title of the appendix of this autobiography, Between My Father and the Old Fool, reads,

I was dreaming . . . If only I had an opportunity to think, really just sit and think, without the pressing weight of obligations; If only I had the ability to put out of my mind, really empty it, of financial and business concerns; If only I could spend some time with my family […]

Vision and Valor: An Illustrated History of the Talmud By Berel Wein Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2010 255 pages + xiv     The Oral Law of Sinai: An Illustrated History of the Mishnah By Berel Wein Jossey-Bass San Francisco, 2008 208 pages Reviewed by Hillel Goldberg I can dream. In theory, someday I’ll visit the […]

A moving tribute to the Bostoner Rebbe, on his first yahrtzeit (1921-2009). A very long and productive life came to an end last December—long not just because the Bostoner Rebbe died at the age of eighty-eight (18 Kislev 5770), but because of what he packed into each day. The Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, occupied […]

Many divisions plague the Orthodox Jewish community, and many efforts at solidarity work to unite us. We need one more such effort. It will not be a new organization, a new program or a new publication. It will cost no money. It will require a spiritual reorientation. I’ve davened in a variety of shuls, in […]

His clefs were the pages of the Talmud. His quarter notes were the letters of the Torah. His melody was the Divine song embedded in the sheet music of Judaism.