The Torah mandates (Exodus 25:15) that the staves used to carry the Ark in the Beit Hamikdash never be removed. Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains that we must not allow the Torah and its mission to become place-bound and stationary. We must be perpetually ready to transport them, to carry them to whatever destination Divine […]
Where to find God was never much of a concern to Jews, armed as we are with the Torah’s very specific maps and directions. When to find Him is a different matter. As Western Civilization spread to more exotic places, Torah scholars took note of the halachic issues that arose. A comment by Rabbi Yisrael […]
Old age must be setting in. I have clear memories of people walking around with Sony Walkmans, listening to music etched onto plastic CDs. Sobering, isn’t it, how last year’s cutting-edge technology quickly becomes this year’s coffee cup coaster? Chances are that some of our readers even remember—gasp!—audiocassette tapes! For the moment, MP3 players are […]
At first glance, a book review might be considered an odd choice for this section. However, this article by Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is less of a book review and more of a deeply stirring essay—even more relevant now than it was when it was first published—about the importance of engaging in outreach with our unaffiliated brothers and sisters at this pivotal moment in Jewish history.
Three women, all widows, walked hand in hand. Although they were united by the specter of a bleak, shared future, their past differed greatly. Naomi longed to return to a land she knew well, but not really to find the happiness that had been tragically wrenched from her on the foreign soil of Moab.
Answering the questions of non-Jewish guests poised expectantly around my Shabbos table has forced me to examine and re-examine its place, meaning and purpose. Having to explain it in fifteen minutes got me to finally understand it.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, kindly agreed to be interviewed for this special section of Jewish Action exploring our responsibility to the broader community. The Chief Rabbi has spent his life in the public arena, influencing society at large and providing a living example of the Torah’s universal […]
From the Boardroom to the Beit Midrash—And Back Again In the pages ahead, we profile an unusual group of talmidei chachamim; unusual because they combine an extreme devotion to Torah even while immersed in the corporate and business worlds. In Parashat Ki Tavo, the Torah warns that terrible evil will befall the Jewish people “because […]
Some people reclaim the past, while others are reclaimed by it. Bernie Rosenberg has gone both ways. His connection with an illustrious forebear changed his connection to Torah learning. He then used his skills and motivation and paid back a debt of gratitude to someone he had never met, but who had become a key […]
While some people were trying to make a killing in the nineties dot-com explosion, Jacob Gubits was quietly trying to kill the Internet. Not all of it, mind you. Just the parts that don’t belong in observant homes. While dot-coms fizzled unceremoniously, Gubits’ Koshernet operation has taken off. No topic we’ve dealt with in Bytes […]
If God ever needed a PR person to handle the foreign account, He found it in Binyamin Jolkovsky. We all know who is in charge of the domestic part of the PR operation for Torah interests. If we wanted to showcase Judaism to Jews who know little or nothing about authentic Judaism, we would send […]
If you can’t find the old sefer you are looking for at your local beit midrash, try Starbucks. Actually, it doesn’t have to be Starbucks, unless you need a caffeine buzz to help you through a difficult text. Through the cutting-edge work of HebrewBooks.org, you can now access a growing number of Torah works for […]
The young Rabbi Yonatan Eibeschuetz watched from his front yard as a drunken Gentile peasant meandered down the street. Spotting little Rav Yonatan, he faced him down from the walkway. “Hey Jew! What’s the difference between a pig and a Jew?” Our hero responded instantly, “The fence!” For hundreds of years, it was easy to […]