I was reading a very interesting post on Fink’s blog about Rabbi Louis Jacobs and his bible criticism that placed him out of mainstream Orthodoxy at the time, one of the comments on that post struck a cord with me:…
Tag: God
An Atheist and a Baal Teshuva walk into a bar…
I have this love and hate relationship with Atheists, it just so happens to be that Atheists are almost always interesting and smart people, but sometimes their militant views can get on my nerve, probably the same way religious fanatics…
Rabbis who don’t believe in God
A couple of years ago, a blog surfaced that was written anonymously by an Orthodox Rabbi who didn’t believe in God. It was called the Orthoprax Rabbi and created an interesting conundrum, since your job as a Rabbi is intertwined…
Does hearing the shofar have any effect on you?
I’m fairly certain that I heard the shofar for the first time in my life this morning. Sure, I’ve been trying to listen to the shofar every Rosh Hashanah and elul for 25 years or so, but I’m not sure…
Can Judaism survive the Internet?
Guest post by Rabbi Fink Slate has another article in their unofficial series on orthodox Judaism and specifically on chasidic Judaism. In this article, the Internet is presented as a supreme danger to Hasidism. On this issue, the secular media…
God wants you to wear a hat – the music video
Simply amazing.
Are you just a Jew on shabbos?
For most people, morning minyan is a way of life. Either they find the virtue of starting their day with connection to God, their families force them to go or they feel driven to complete a fledgling minyan. I myself…
When you leave yeshiva, Rosh Hashanah just sneaks up on you
Just last week I was starting to figure out what I was going to do for Rosh Hashanah, when someone mentioned that it was next week, I had no idea, like in the past dozen years since I have left…
Dear Heshy: How could you be frum and support gay marriage?
Someone sent me a real thoughtful message on Facebook trying to figure my opinions on the subject out and I asked if I could reprint our little conversation here. We may be beating a dead horse, but I’ve been kn…
Why are you still frum?
This may be one of the most common questions I get asked from people who read my blog and I really don’t understand it much. The question is usually prefaced with “after all the crap you’ve seen or been through”…
My car was broken into over shabbos and my two bikes were stolen
I had a dream last night that my car was stolen, so imagine my surprise when I went to get my car from shul tonight and found the rear window smashed and two of my bicycles gone. My first thought…
Is work supposed to be this fun?
I’m not sure I’m supposed to be having this much fun at work, the ticket machine doesn’t seem to be stopping and in the zone. I’m sautéing 4 pans at once, I have the sides for 5 Ahi in one,…
Yeshiva Hashkafa Lessons
Guest Post By Offthedwannab This post is going to seem strange for the uninitiated, so let me give a short introduction. To the typical outsider, Yeshivos must seem like Christian Seminaries. You go there to learn theology, to pray, and…
Let’s get spiritual man
Figuring out why something bad is happening to you is dangerous territory, of course I can rock it Agudas Yisroel style and blame it on the gays, but instead I decided to blame it on not giving enough tzedaka. As…
Do you talk to God?
I’ve been thinking about God lately, really since I realized this past Friday night that I had missed rosh chodesh shevat completely, like I had no idea that the event really went down – that’s the domino effect of coming…
I will survive circumcision: Did you have bris late in life?
I remember hearing these stories in yeshiva about kids who found out they weren’t really Jewish later on in life, the stories centered around whether or not the kid or young adult decided to stay the course and convert or…
Does skepticism help or hurt religious Jews?
It’s been a question on my mind for sometime, but I have refrained from writing about it because I am not a philosophically in tune guy, I don’t read philosophy much and when the comments section fills up with A.…
God doesn’t care if you wear a black hat
The RaHaF ZT”L in his sefer nefesh hahesh brings down a story of a man who left his body and went to the beis din sehl mala where he spoke to God about gaining entry into Olam Habah: I saw…
God knew I would hate Far Rockaway
I firmly believe that God knows the future and I’ll tell you how I came to this belief, it all has to do with my father moving to Far Rockway. It’s hard to imagine the horror I felt when my…
Is it our responsibility to publicize a Chillul Hashem?
I kind of feel cool to have made the People’s Court Wiggin out video viral, well sort of viral, when I first received it via email from my friends brother Gabe it had 2,900 views – I sent it to…
Devar Torah Vayishlach: Free Will and Divine Intervention
Vayishlach begins with Jacob receiving word back from his scouts that his brother, Esau, is amassing a small army and closing in for a fight. (Genesis 32:7) In response, Jacob splits his camp into two, figuring that v’haya hamachene hanishar…
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 —…
Atheists seem to have it so easy
Atheists really seem to have it easy. They probably don’t, but when I look at them from afar it seems to be an easy life. A life of non-believing and depending on their personalities they may be ironically called insane…
Wondering and Wandering
I’m lying in my car, I’m wide awake, I just awoke and it’s pitch black, I step outside to pee, feel the cool gravel pebbles on my feet and look up at the stars. I say asher yatzar with my…
4 months in California and loving it
Everyone I have been speaking to on the phone lately has been asking me when I plan to move back to New York and just recently I tell them that as of now I could never imagine moving back east…