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Death Wish
Rav Aharon Leib SteinmanI can hear it all now… again. ‘When are you going to give it up?’ ‘Why do you care what the right says?’ ‘Don’t you realize how much they reject you by now?’ ‘Stop worrying...
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Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood
Muslim Brotherhood member Ayman Al ZawahiriIt’s very difficult to ignore what is going on in Egypt. Daily news coverage of the army slaughtering fellow Egyptians easily engenders sympathy for the...
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Best Wishes and Much Success to R’ Gil
Rabbi Gil StudentRabbi Gil Student has embarked on an ambitious new project. A few weeks ago he has ended his highly successful blog, Hirhurim, and yesterday launched (at the same web address) a new...
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Shas Illuminated – A Disappointment
Rabbi Moshe Elefant - Magid Shiur for the OU's Daf YomiLast year at about this time I welcomed and even lauded a new project called Shas Illuminated. It featured a list of distinguished Talmidei...
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The Internet, Halacha, and Olam HaBah
Rav Chaim KanievskyIt’s simply not possible. I don’t believe it. Nonetheless it is being reported as fact. Rafi’s blog, Life in Israel, has linked to the Hebrew language website B’Chadrei Charedim that...
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Exacting Vengeance on the Gentiles?
Breslover Chasdidm in UmanOnce again we are treated to the sight of very religious looking Jews acting like a street gang. A statue of a cross with a figure of Jesus on it was defaced by a group of...
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Worthless People
Worthless people!I have often been criticized for using term like ‘worthless people’ when it comes to fellow Jews. Especially if they look like Charedim. But that is what these people are. And as...
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The Civil War in Syria - Evil versus Evil
A Syrian man helping a woman as she mourns over the dead bodies of children after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces,Photo credit: APWhat a terrible neighborhood Israel lives...
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Abusing Clout
A sex segregated public bus in New York City - Photo Credit: New York TimesThere is an article in the New York Times that discusses the clout Chasidim in America have achieved. And it does not paint a...
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Whose Fault Is it Anyway?
Sam Horowitz (center), his family, and his rabbi - Photo credit: Dallas NewsIt was 1983 – the year of my son’s Bar Mitzvah. I wanted to throw a party. And I did. It was on the Motzi Shabbos of his...
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Giving More than a Pass to an Alleged Sex Abuser
Eric Anderson as Shlomo Carlebach on BroadwayHow odd it is for the media to celebrate the life of Shlomo Carlebach in the form praise for a musical on Broadway about him– on practically the same day...
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Update. I have removed the photo that originally accompanied this post and I apologize to the copyright holder and to the individual who was in the photo for its use. After reading all the apologetics...
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An Educational Failure
Getty Images via the ForwardIf one wants to the understand the ultimate failure of Chasidic educational systems in places like Kiryas Joel, Williamsburg, and Squaretown - one need only listen to a few...
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Shas Illuminated - Revisted
R' Aharon Sorscher - Magid Shiur at Shas Illuminated...Just a quick note about Shas Illuminated, a website which I had recently reviewed. I based my critical comments on Shiurim given by someone whose...
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Doing Battle with WoW
This picture speaks for itself - Photo credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty ImagesI am truly saddened that this issue has blown up to such an extent. It appears that the fight between the Women of the Wall...
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Winning a Battle – but Still Losing the War
Rioters in Bet Shemesh - Photo Credit: Jerusalem PostI read with a sense of both amusement and disappointment about the compromise reached between Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss and Rabbi Moshe Sternboch -...
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A Time to Act
The President addressing the nation about Syria's use of chemical weaponsYesterday I had the pleasure of listening to OU Executive Vice President, Rabbi Steven Weil. He addressed alumni of the HTC at...
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Putting the Blame Where it Really Belongs
Skverer Rebbe (right) seen here interviewed by R' Frankfurter Photo credit: VINI have to give Rabbi Yakov Horwitz credit. He confronts evil, looks it in the eye, and loudly and clearly tells it like...
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To the Right - To the Left
Guest Post by 'Lakewood Mechanech'2nd graduating class of Beis Yaakov founded by Sara Schenirer - Lodz, Poland 1934The fear of retaliation is ever-present on the minds of some of our finest. Which is a...
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Heads or Tails? Food for Thought
Guest Post by Netanel GertnerDuring the course of the Rosh HaShana evening meals, there is a universal custom to consume the Simanim. Customs widely vary about what they are, from classic apple and...
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