Could you give a brief description of what the academic community currently feels about when and by whom the Torah was written? Does an academic consensus really exist about how the Torah came to be written? Are Wellhausen’s divisions still seen as the foundation of how the academic community divides up the Torah? I have [...]
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In the previous segment, we defined just what Orthopraxy was. Now I will explain what led me to that state. I was born in an Orthodox household, in a large Orthodox community in the New York area. My home life was quite stable, without any sort of stress outside of ordinary growing up, and my [...]
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When I was growing up, there was no Holocaust remembrance day. My parents, all my relatives, and all my parents’ friends were Holocaust survivors. Almost all of my friends’ parents, and even a couple of my teachers at Yeshiva, were survivors. In the fourth grade, I ran home excited to tell my father, “Rabbi Greenberg [...]
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I have a problem with ultra-Orthodox Kiruv. I have a problem with the full-color glossy Kiruv, sold with carefully worded posters, programs, videos, and double standards. I have a problem with the Kiruv that loudly declares that they welcome all Jews, but then denigrates their backgrounds when they think that nobody is listening. That’s the [...]
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When dealing with the topic of Kiruv, there is always a little bit of a double-edged sword. Back in high school, I remember that a Rabbi once described NCSY to me as, “Mekarev HaRechokim Umerachek HaKrovim“: it brings closer those who are far [from Orthodoxy] and pushes away those who are close. While my experiences [...]
ReadNo. it wasn’t the restrictions; it was more than that. It was like being imprisoned. I walked around my house feeling trapped on all four sides. I walked outside feeling ambushed by my community, my ultra- Orthodox community. Wherever I went, it was like there was a rope tied around my neck, blocking my blood [...]
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It was spring semester for the Yeshivot in Israel. The Ohr Sameach in Jerusalem had just been donated a full set of Artscroll Talmud. Many students cooed at the freshly printed books lining what was formerly a completely barren shelf. Only a handful dared touch the sacred tomes. Some days they simply sat there, gathering [...]
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TRIGGER WARNING: This content deals with an account of an individual with anorexia and may be triggering to those struggling with an eating disorder. It couldn’t be. Those doctors were wrong; they had to be. After all the tests I took, the pain I went through, and the tears that were shed, this was the [...]
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TRIGGER WARNING: This content deals with an account of an individual with bulimia and may be triggering to those struggling with an eating disorder. —–The identity of the person interviewed has been changed for purposes of privacy.—- We’ve just finished bentching and are about to go on our Shabbos afternoon walk. It’s our shana rishona, [...]
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Jewish education in America is facing a crisis. Ever since the economic meltdown in 2008, publication after publication, from venerable weekly newspaper to personal blog, has declared that the sky is falling and day school tuition has reached the point of unaffordability for the average Jewish family. Jewish communities across America are finally doing some [...]
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