As we see in the media all too often, homosexuality is one of the most highly debated social issues of our day. At an age when people begin exploring, questioning, and experimenting with their sexuality, I constantly hear different opinions and views on the topic. Growing up in a Jewish community, I’ve been exposed to [...]
ReadSubsequent to the national acclaim achieved by Nate Silver for his accurate predictions of the 2012 senatorial and presidential elections, I was moved to read his recently published book, The Signal and the Noise, to see how a master of prediction looks at the world. Somewhat to my surprise, I found that the book contains [...]
ReadIn 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 [...]
ReadCould 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 [...]
ReadThe Seforim Sale is an annual emblem of Yeshiva University. Inviting hundreds of Jewish shoppers through its doors in the span of one wintry month, the Sale exposes shoppers to a wide-ranging selection of Jewish literature. The cavernous room that is Weissberg Commons houses this eventful place. However many stereotypes persist (and confirm themselves) that [...]
ReadFew topics within the Orthodox world are as instantaneously divisive as Chabad. For most, Chabad represents a slightly weird group that does a lot of good by bringing people closer to Judaism. Most people think of them very highly, even if they don’t have so much to do with the group. For many, though, they [...]
Read(Part 2 can be found here) In light of all the available evidence, I think that despite the presence of Hukim, Halakha is a means for some external ends. There are four basic arguments for this fact which I will detail in the following paragraphs. The first argument is based on the existence of what [...]
ReadPeople are often under the impression that men oppress women by making them into sex objects. Women’s rights movements place media and pop culture on the cross for encouraging this oppressive behavior, since pop culture continues this supposed oppression through its numerous portrayals of women. Women’s rights activists assert that scantily clad women are being [...]
ReadBoston’s renowned Maimonides School was established by Rav Soloveitchik in 1937, and it maintains a reputation for providing some of the most advanced learning Jewish day schools can offer. This past fall, it offered a variety of history courses to the senior class, including AP Government, Art History, and, amongst others, a Minorities in America [...]
ReadWhen 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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