72 544x376 Normal 0 false false false The Genesis story is not merely part of the Biblical narrative in order to teach us how the world came into existence.
It is no surprise that the Bible is the most loved, hated, and best-selling book of all time. The Bible can be metaphorically compared to both water and ice. Although its text rarely changes, each generation and milieu finds different shades of meaning in its content.
As was noted in a recent sihah here in Yeshiva, gays are rapidly gaining acceptance in the non-Jewish world.However, according to a recent (February 10, 2010) poll carried out by CBS News/New York Times, support for homosexuals is not growing quite as quickly.
If you tell a Jew that a horrible thing just happened, beyond the initial “oy” that inevitably escapes him, his natural inclination is to begin to pray.
This is a response to Estee Goldschmidt’s article from the February issue of Kol Hamevaser, the title of which is “Chabad: Issues that Have Not Been Discussed on Campus.”
Recently, I posted a short devar Torah on my Facebook page. It sparked, as I hoped it might, a lively online discussion, rendering Facebook, at least momentarily, a vehicle for holy and honorable discourse. Aside from giving rise to my happy thoughts about using the implements of the secular world for Jewishly noble purposes, the issues raised in the discussion seemed wholly pertinent and important for the Kol Hamevaser community.
Arthurian legend is part of a literary tradition that spans nearly 900 years. While this history may not quite match up to Jewish history and all its accompanying literature, a 900-year tradition is an impressive feat.
Reviewed Book: Hayim ben Yosef Tawil, An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents with Supplement on Biblical Aramaic (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav, 2009).
“As the sun rose upon the earth, and Lot entered Tso’ar, the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah sulfurous fire from the Lord out of heaven. He annihilated those cities and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and the vegetation of the ground. Lot’s wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.”
I write today in response to E. Goldschmidt’s article printed in a recent edition of Kol Hamevaser titled “Chabad: Issues that Have Not Been Discussed on Campus” (February 2010, p. 11).Though her brief argument as to the inconsistency of Chabad messianism with traditional Jewish sources is well taken, she adds little to a point that has not been in serious dispute outside of Chabad.
Translator’s Note: The following is a translation from the Yiddish of the fifth section of R. Soloveitchik’s yortzayt shi’ur entitled “A Yid iz Geglichn tzu a Seyfer Toyre” – “A Jew is Compared to a Torah Scroll.” (Previous sections appeared in prior issues of this paper.) Dr. Hillel Zeidman transcribed and published the shi’ur, with an introduction, in R. Elchanan Asher Adler (ed.), Beit Yosef Shaul, vol. 4 (New York: Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, 1994), pp. 17-67. A Hebrew translation by R. Shalom Carmy appeared in the same volume (pp. 68-103).
The year was 1992.Fifteen years had passed since Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik had given the first Gemara shi’urat SternCollege for Women.Yet, a critical element of advanced Torah learning was still missing from the women’s campus.The heart of the learning environment in male yeshivot, a beit midrash, was completely absent from the Stern picture.
The year was 1992.Fifteen years had passed since Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik had given the first Gemara shi’urat SternCollege for Women.Yet, a critical element of advanced Torah learning was still missing from the women’s campus.The heart of the learning environment in male yeshivot, a beit midrash, was completely absent from the Stern picture.
Continuity is the mark of any strong organization.In order to sustain consistent growth and output, to persist in achieving success, any group must have the ability to outlive each particular circumstance and eclipse any one generation or leader.Long stages of weak leadership can be damaging, even fatal, to an organization, as the realities of the world require it to be perpetually on the move, remaining relevant and vibrant.Yeshivot are no different, and it is not uncommon for a yeshivah to stagnate if it does not properly achieve this requisite continuity.We need only read the first perek of Melakhim about Bat Sheva’s efforts to ensure a smooth transition from David to Shlomo to see that Tanakh is acutely concerned with continuity in transitions between leaders.
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