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 [...]
Read(Part 1 can be found here) Halakha encompasses what are known as the Hukim – laws which seem to be purposeless – and the Mishpatim, laws which seem to be purposeful. Had the Halakha only consisted of Mishpatim, Leibowitz’s position would be untenable. The Mishpatim are laws which conform to our own intuitions about morality [...]
Read“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9). Man is born. Man dies. The world takes its natural course and nothing new occurs. If Solomon is correct in this dictum, then how can miracles be possible? [...]
ReadGod commands mankind to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and conquer it, and have dominion over the entire animal kingdom (Genesis 1:28). We listened to God. The world population is now seven billion people and growing. How long do men and women need to continue growing as a species in order to fulfill [...]
ReadDear readers, The topic of eating disorders in the Orthodox Jewish community first piqued my curiosity after reading this [TRIGGER WARNING: This article deals with the topic of eating disorders and may be triggering to some people] article in Tablet Magazine over the summer. The article describes how prevalent the disorders are in our community [...]
ReadTRIGGER WARNING: This content deals with the topic of eating disorders and may be triggering to some people. When the Amherst Student published an article about rape in October, the article included a disclaimer at the top, “Trigger Warning: This content deals with an account of sexual assault and may be triggering to some people.” [...]
ReadAn Orthodox woman’s level of observance is often determined by the way that she dresses. But is the Orthodox dress code really as clear-cut as people make it out to be? In my local Jewish community, people just look the other way when a woman wears a skirt that is a little too short or [...]
ReadTRIGGER 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 [...]
ReadTRIGGER 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, [...]
ReadTRIGGER WARNING: This content deals with the topic of eating disorders and may be triggering to some people. It was just a regular online chat with one of my best friends, talking about whatever random stuff we always talk about. Teachers. Schoolwork. Gossip. The usual suspects. That’s when she told me that she’d had an [...]
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