“…denominations are more than just ideas and orientations…”
It seems kind of obvious that, if there is a denominational shakeup and a...
Category Archives: Modern Orthodoxy
“…everything there is to know about the halakhic process and its development can be understood from within it is a claim that is untenable in light of the last thirty or forty years’ of knowledge production in the academy”
The Rav’s words have been traditionally understood as an affirmation of the world-view of...
“…the religious leadership of an institution whose motto is “Torah U’Madda” has frozen its conception of religiously permissible Madda at that with which the Rav engaged at the University of Berlin in the 1920s…”
Yeshiva University faces many challenges, some reflective of broader societal trends and some of...
“We need to believe that Torah U’Madda was not a limited-time offer that expired sometime in the last century…”
Today’s Centrist Orthodox world–the world of Yeshiva University, the world that produces the overwhelming...
“Among the many things that characterize modern Orthodox Jews…perhaps the most-defining is our embrace of the Talmudic maxim hokhma bagoyim ta’amin…”
Among the many things that characterize modern Orthodox Jews: religious Zionism; engaging with the...
“Torah U’Madda, if it stands for anything, stands not for the ability to go to an excellent university, get a prestigious law degree, and make a wonderful living for a family in Teaneck, Woodmere, or New Rochelle”
Torah U’Madda, if it stands for anything, stands not for the ability to go...
“The question is not…whether our Modern Orthodox high school students are prepared to engage with the non-Jewish world…”
The question is not…whether our Modern Orthodox high school students are prepared to engage...
“Unity and comity are good things, but I am not at all convinced that the community is better served by a false front that tries to conceal or patch the deep discord behind it than by frank acknowledgment of irreconcilable differences”
Ultimately, as many areas of common ground as we can find, and as much...
“The rift between centrist and open Orthodoxy is…about the nature of gadolhood and the structure of rabbinic authority…”
The rift between centrist and open Orthodoxy, is thus not only about who is...
“The imputation of unstated motives instantly renders toxic any conversation in which it is inserted”
In any debate over women’s communal and halakhic roles, the Orthodox community’s version of...