Jewish Thought

A Jewish Response to Human Catastrophe

by Harvey Belovski | March 16, 2011 in Faith

More than a week after Hurrican Sandy hit the east coast of the United States, the effects are still being felt. Rabbi Harvey Belovski’s article following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti teaches us… Read more

Preserving Our Mesorah in Changing TImes: Hershel Schachter

by Hershel Schachter | October 29, 2010 in Jewish Thought

What is Mesorah? Mesorah is not primarily a corpus of knowledge to master but a process of accessing a chain of student-teacher relationships that reaches back to Sinai. Moshe received the Torah and… Read more

Preserving our Mesorah in Changing Times: Emanuel Feldman

by Emanuel Feldman | October 29, 2010 in Jewish Thought

Photo: Vosamo Photography The Story of the Robe When I first arrived in Atlanta, Georgia, in the fifties, the president of the shul immediately suggested that I wear… Read more

Preserving Our Mesorah in Changing Times: Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

by Tzvi Hersh Weinreb | October 29, 2010 in Jewish Thought

The Jew who arrives early to the daily synagogue service will soon hear these words chanted: “Ashreinu . . . Happy are we, how good is our portion, How lovely our fate, how beautiful our heritage.”… Read more

Preserving Our Mesorah in Changing Times: Immanuel Bernstein

by Immanuel Bernstein | October 29, 2010 in Jewish Thought

Mesorah and innovation: a contradiction in terms? To understand how these two concepts can coexist, we must first define them. The term mesorah means a number of things. In its broadest sense, it… Read more

Questions, Answers and Silence: Reflections on the Tsunami

by JA Mag | August 5, 2009 in Faith

Writing in The Sunday Times of London on the Asian tsunami, Minette Marrin (who describes herself candidly as “an unbeliever”) quotes a simple aphorism of the leading philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:… Read more

What’s the Truth About…Har HaBayit?

by Ari Z. Zivotofsky | June 1, 2009 in Jewish Thought

MISCONCEPTION: Many religious Jews do not visit Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) today. This is because we are all presumed to be in a state of tumat met (ritual impurity due to “contact” with the… Read more

Reclaiming the Music of Prayer

by Daniel B. Schwartz | June 1, 2008 in Jewish Living

I am a mainstream Modern Orthodox Jew, a product of the Jewish day school movement. I’ve served on the boards of the last two shuls to which I’ve belonged. I enjoy opening up a Gemara and studying its… Read more

Torah Codes Revisited

by JA Mag | June 1, 2008 in Jewish Thought

We received many letters in response to our interview with Torah Codes researcher Harold Gans (fall 2007). Here is a sampling of the letters. Ed. With regard to “Up Close with Torah Codes Researcher… Read more

Knowledge in the Realm of Science and Knowledge in the Realm of Religion: Are They Different?

by Nathan Aviezer | December 2, 2007 in Jewish Thought

It is generally thought that scientific knowledge is characterized by objectivity, observation, experiment and reproducibility, whereas knowledge in the realm of religion is thought to be based on… Read more

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