Why We Hate Know-It-Alls
In one of the talks of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, nestled in a truly epic Baal Shem Tov story, is the following exchange: He blurted out: “Is it possible to study G-d’s Torah with an uncovered...
View ArticleJudaism Is Crazy And That’s A Good Thing
“Jumbo Shrimp.” “Honest Politician.” “Middle Initial.” “Rational Judaism.” It’s not that we shouldn’t engage our minds in Judaism. It’s not that we shouldn’t struggle to make sense of the tradition of...
View ArticleAll The Good Guys Are Sinners
There are those who think if we stop believing in G-d, He will simply cease to exist. The opposite is true. If we stop believing in G-d, we cease to exist. No, atheists will not vanish in a puff of...
View ArticleNot Again
A year ago: “Again” I don’t even really like my job. It’s tedious and annoying. I live and work in a Jewish academy in the middle of nowhere (it used to be a monastery), and my job is to record...
View ArticleA Bochur In Suburbia
G-d, what I wouldn’t do for a nice communist revolution. The first sign I wasn’t in Israel anymore was when the entrance into the airport had no mezuzah. The bare doorpost sat naked with no anatomical...
View ArticleA Browser Game That’s Good For Your Soul
“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton I’m sitting hunched over my strangely molded slab...
View ArticleHow Transgenderism Points To G-d
Let me take just a minute and talk to my fellow religious Jews about transgenderism. As any user of the (dangerously addictive) site TV Tropes knows, there is a certain type of plan hatched by...
View ArticleThe Video Game Rabbi?
I’m considering it. Elul is coming, you see, and the high holiday spirit is in the air. But all I can care about is video games. Obviously, this is unusual for a Rabbi. I ought to be preparing...
View ArticleTo Every Man A Reason
The yellowed pages of the following missive were found under a pile of old photographs at a yard sale in Carmel, Indiana. A team of international scholars worked for weeks to translate the text, each...
View ArticleTen Ways To Stay Sane This Rosh Hashana
The high holidays are a stressful time for everyone. They demand a lot of thought and preparation, mental and physical. For some, the holidays mean spending time with family, which is annoying. For...
View ArticleA Leaf In The Wind: Three Meditations
“Everything is by Divine Providence. If a leaf is turned over by a breeze, it is only because this has been specifically ordained by G‑d to serve a particular function within the purpose of creation.”...
View ArticleThe Mission Continues
We danced this week in the synagogues and in the streets. In Oregon and in Jerusalem we pulled aside pretty veils and dug into our boxes and took out our scrolls cloaked in majesty. Between the Jordan...
View ArticleThe Mid East And The Mid Lane
The Game To wit: I didn’t plan to watch an Israeli Jew and a Syrian Muslim locked in mortal combat this past Sunday, but G-d likes to remind us that our games are only subroutines. That His is the...
View ArticleMy Rebbe Is An Activist, But I’m Not
Even respectable chassidim agree that talk is cheap. I’ve heard them speak about it for hours at farbrengens. However, every respectable chassid also knows that the three garments of the soul, in...
View ArticleWhen A Non-Jew Asked What I Believe
A friend who is not Jewish recently asked me, “What are your metaphysical beliefs?” This was the best answer I could give him: What do I believe? Well, I’m an ordained rabbi, so that should tell you...
View ArticleMy Question For The Modern American Jew
These are hard times we live in. The West fights the East, and no one knows who will triumph. On the one hand, the West. The West brings freedom to the world. The West is the civilization of...
View ArticleIs Torah Science Fiction or Fantasy?
Science Fiction and Fantasy might be the two most popular narrative forms of our time, surely among thoughtful young adult readers and viewers. While they might seem to be variations within the same...
View ArticleEnough With The Antiheroes
“He’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him. Because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.”...
View ArticleWe Have Too Much College Education In Chabad
This piece is part of the series, “Readers Take Over Hevria.” People wanted me to write about “the lack of college education in Chabad communities.” My reaction was, naturally, to disagree. First, a...
View ArticleDitching Yahweh
Even straight-laced Jews like me can fall into strange cults if they’re not careful. Indeed, thanks to the Internet especially, we are in immediate contact with all sorts of strange folk even in our...
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