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Where Will it Lead?
Satmar Chasidim inside a Williamsburg ShulI wonder what it will take for the mainstream Charedi world to see that the direction it is educationally going in is not in their best interests materially or...
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Reality Check - Criminalizing Charedi Draft Resistors
Potential criminalsI didn’t think it could any worse. But when I read how R’ Aharon Leib Shteinman reacted to new legislation that no longer automatically exempts all Yeshiva students from army service...
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The Three Amigos Go to Yeshiva
Survivors of Shmad - sort ofMy Rebbe, R' Dovid Soloveitchik asked me to be a Shaliach and emphasize to the public what will happen if Yeshiva Bachurim are drafted into the army. Well, three of my...
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An Unreasonable Attack
No prayers for the safety of the soldiers at the prayer rally - Photo credit: Ha'aretzOne thing Eytan Kobre is not - is a moderate Charedi. He might seem to be since he actually attended law school and...
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When Being a Mentch is the Exception
Rabbi Aaron Fink - Photo credit: ForwardWhen simple Mentchlichkeit (common decency; respecting your fellow man) becomes something out of the ordinary, then there is something terribly wrong with the...
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Irreconcilable Differences?
If only this image was more common...The following two perspectives are, I believe, a relatively decent illustration of the differing mindsets of the right wing Charedi; and the moderate Charedi and...
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Are Rabbinic Leaders Out of Touch?
R' Aharon Leib Shteinman and R' Shmuel AuerbachThere are many people in the right wing world of Orthodoxy that would take strong exception with the following: The Holocaust and the establishment of the...
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Lies, Damn Lies, and the Yated
Rabbi Pinchos LipshutzYated editor Rabbi Pinchos Lipshitz is an anti Semite. I’m sure that sentence will raise some eyebrows. That’s because he really isn’t an anti Semite. But if I were to follow his...
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The Rabbinate's Unreasonable Standard for Conversions
Alin Levy - Photo Credit: Jerusalem PostHow far must a potential convert go to please a court that will convert them? In what has to be one of the clearest departures from common decency regarding...
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A Blow to the New Draft Law
Prayer rally in Jerusalem a few weeks ago. Photo credit: Jerusalem PostCharedim will never be thrown in jail en masse for resisting the draft. This fact of life is already being played out at the...
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Religious Divorce: Where Does Justice Lie?
Meir Kin (right) and his new wife at their wedding - Photo credit: NYTThere are always two sides. That’s what makes discussion of this issue so difficult for me. But not difficult enough to have a...
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Breaking Bad
Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu SafranRabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran is a noted author, educator, and lecturer who often writes articles on issues of our day. Having read my post yesterday, he referred me to an article of...
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Is the Army a Den of Iniquity?
There was a scene in the movie, Godfather III, where Al Pacino’s character, Michael Corleone who wanted to make his Mafia businesses legit said the following: 'Just when I thought I was out, they pull...
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The Ten Rights? Or the Ten Commandments?
R' Hershel Shachter: Partnership Minyanim violate Halacha - Photo Credit: Forward"The motivation behind partnership minyanim is to narrow the wide gap between the relative gender equality that...
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A Godly Man? Or a Mass Murderer?
Dr. Baruch Goldstein How low can a human being fall when a mass murderer is seen as a saint, a hero, and a martyr? No, I am not talking about Osama Bin Ladin. Although he surely qualifies. I am...
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ACHDS and Blessing
ACHDS student Elisha Kirshner (Hamodia)Achdus. Unity. That is a recurring theme for me. The news of our day unfortunately seems to indicate that we are further away from that lofty Jewish goal than...
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Human Filth?
R' Yitzchak Yaacov Reines - Founder of Religious ZionismI have no clue who Rabbi Binyamin Metzger is. But he is a prime example of what is dividing Orthodox Jewry. From the Jerusalem Post: “There are...
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The Shmad Begins. Or Does It?
Placard expresses the views of far too many CharedimHow will Charedi leadership react? I am talking about the upcoming permanent exemption of approximately 28,000 Charedi men in Israel from serving in...
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Can Orthodox Judaism Exist without God?
‘The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.’ This verse from Proverbs (Mishlei - 9:10) is a fundamental tenet of our faith. In order to ‘fear’ God, one has to actually believe in Him. And this is...
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A Charedi Perspective
Guest Post by Menachem Mordechai Frank*Typical look of Charedi Yeshiva students The following was submitted to me in the form of an e-mail by a American Charedi who describes himself as a ‘moderate’....
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