For at least the time being, I will skip Kelemen’s second argument, entitled The Cosmological Approach, instead moving on to his third argument, entitled The Teleological Approach. To begin, I’d like to assert the obvious — more than 80% of…
Author: DRosenbach
Passaic Periodontist
Permission to Deny: Part 1
I’ve re-read Lawrence Kelemen’s Permission to Believe this past week and found it just as unsatisfactory as I did when I read it the first time. For those who are unfamliar with the text, I would suggest reading it —…
Devar Torah Parshas Noach — Maftir Yonah, Ushpizin + Arks
My daughter, Tzipporah, is turning 5 on Sunday and she just started Pre-1A at the local yeshiva. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been faced with my first dilemmas as a parent in terms of being a rational adult and…
Davening Importance Paradox
Being in shul so much over the past week or so, I noticed something really strange that I’ve never noticed before — and I’d like to call it the “importance paradox.” It seems that some of the most important prayers…
Yom Kippur Devar Torah
A few days ago, Heshy commented (satirically, I might add) about trying to do teshuva for things that he knew he wouldn’t stop doing and perhaps couldn’t even wait to begin doing again. I find that this perception is quite…
Devar Torah Rosh Hashana
Rosh Hashana is coming, and I wanted to talk a little about shoes. OK…a lot about shoes.
Devar Torah Nitzavim-Vayeilech
After re-embracing the commitment to follow their religious obligations, Moses tells the Israelites that they are bidden to enforce public allegiance. As Rashi explains the verse (Deut. 29:28), “v’haniglos lanu u’lvaneinu” (and the revealed is for us and our children)…
(Belated) Devar Torah Parshas Ki Savo
Guest post by Dale Rosenbach While Moses was preparing to give up leadership, the Israelites were preparing to enter the Promised Land and participate in a “new commitment” (as ArtScroll puts it) to the Torah at Mount Eival. Moses commands…