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Passover Part 26

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:45 PM Passover

As I have noted n the past, the imagery of Kaballah is often of a sexual nature. G-d is the male figure, the bestower, while Man, the Jewish People, the Holy Shechinah (Divine Presence; Indwelling) are the female bestowee. In the menstrual law...

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Passover Part 27

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:45 PM Passover

The Torah, rather mysteriously, commands the Seventh Day of Passover to be observed as "Full Holiday", roughly the same as Shabbat, with the exception of food preparation and carrying outside where there is no eruv. By Rabbinic Law, one day...

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Passover Part 28

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:45 PM Passover

The Eighth Day of Passover has no special rules. It might even seem anticlimactic. But Jewish tradition, and especially Hassidic Tradition, has made it into a climax. As I pointed out in one of my posts about the Seder, although the immediate...

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A Troubling Case

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:26 PM Agunah

An item in today's Israeli news leaves me with very mixed feelings.As I have discussed in previous writings, perhaps the most troubling situation in Jewish law is the "'agunah", the "chained" woman, whose husband either is unwilling, or unable, to...

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Why I Am a Fanatic about Kitniyot

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:22 PM Passover

When I was a child, my parents warned me not to tell my non Jewish friends that there is no Santa Claus. I never did, but somehow, they eventually did find out. Some confided in me that although they were disappointed, what really hurt was that...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 1

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:21 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

As has been written many times, this group is for the discussion of Orthodox Judaism, without reference to non-Orthodox streams. However, in recent days, many members have posted opinions (hurtful to many, including yours truly) critical of...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 2

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:20 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

One of the areas in which the Reform movement differs from the others is in the question of independence of rabbis and congregations. In both Orthodox and Conservative, Although there is some leeway of both action and doctrine, there are still red...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 3

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:18 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

America in the nineteenth century was, Jewishly a waste land. There had been a small Jewish community since the seventeenth century, mostly Spanish and Portuguese Jews, who had fled to Brazil, with some eventually coming to North America. They...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 4

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:17 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

At the end of my last post, I alluded to the fact that an element of German Jewish tradition took on a new meaning in the Conservative movement which put, over time, a considerable distance between it and Orthodoxy.The method of studying,...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 5

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:16 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

Throughout most of the twentieth century, most Conservative rabbis were, for all intents and purposes, Orthodox. The decisions issued by the Committee on Law and Standards were mostly in accordance with Halachah (Jewish Law), and those that...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 6

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:15 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

It is a fact that there are societal fads in terms of the place of religion in various cultures. In the 1920s and '30s, religion in the U.S., and in most Western countries, was seen as essentially irrelevant by most people. In the 1940, '50s and...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 7

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:14 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

We have already seen that in nineteenth century Germany, two powerful non-Orthodox Jewish movements had arisen; Reform, and the Wissenschaft school. To be sure, there was was traditionally Orthodox community as well, that carefully maintained the...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 8

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:10 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

We have seen how the views of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch brought many to accept "culture" as something apart from Jewish Tradition, and the necessity of using Torah for the sanctification of "culture". There were many others who had similar...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judasim Part 9

Saturday December 2 2017, 11:11 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

We have seen in the last installment how the teachings of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch led to the birth of Modern Orthodoxy, which has since morphed into several forms. There is, however, an alternative understanding of Hirsch, which flourishes...

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Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism Part 10

Thursday December 21 2017, 2:32 PM Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Judaism

We have previously discussed the rise of the Lithuanian Yeshivot. The analytic methods of the Tosafot of medieval France and Germany had developed in Lithuania and surrounding areas into a new way of life. Large yeshivot arose in the early...

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