The Rebbetzin's Husband

( On re-read this post seems kind of dull to me, but it's what's on my mind today. Feel free to scroll down to more interesting mate...

Warning: quasi-rant ahead. The other day, someone told me that he is a “last-minute type of person.” From my perspective, though, he isn’t a...

As always, please read with a gemara in front of you. 42a Note the Rambam on the mishnah, describing a military precursor of the hockey stic...

Reb Gil writes here about noise during davening - noise from talking, and noise from other people who are davening. The former type of nois...

[ Note: This week’s Haveil Havailim is here . ] First came SimCity , a computer game in which players could experiment with zoning and urban...

Lots of very interesting material in these pages of gemara; as always, please read with a gemara in front of you. 38b ( in addition to the n...

In the past year I’ve watched three of my rabbinic peers, all in the 30-40 year old prime of their rabbinate, announce their aliyah. I’ve ch...

First, a question: I’ve been mixing gemara notes and derashot and personal observations on the rabbinate and life in this blog, and I’m not...

[Haveil Havalim is here !] Today I sent my 7-year old daughter to Hogwarts; my 9-year old son goes later this week. For the former, Hogwarts...

After last week's derashah, I just wanted to present a quiet, laid-back dvar torah. Here it is: At least one element of presidential ca...

There's a lot going on in these pages; I've just added some notes on a few of the many issues. As always, read with a gemara in fron...

I’ve probably sat on a dozen boards, as well as many more committees, over the past dozen years. I've been through the meetings from geh...

This series of posts summarizes a non-proselytizing talk I delivered at a Conservative Temple a while back, on “Why I am an Orthodox Jew.” ...

Some interesting points here, both in terms of gemara approach and in terms of philosophy. Enjoy, preferably with a gemara in front of you. ...

[ Haveil Havalim is here ! ] [ Warning: Rant ahead ] I think it’s safe to say that most people are sensitive to, and do not appreciate, cond...

Again: This comes from a non-proselytizing talk I delivered at a Conservative Temple a while back, on “Why I am an Orthodox Jew.” In Part I ...

Most of this is pretty technical and will appeal only to people who are already learning Sotah. Still, there are more general comments here ...

I know this will be a controversial speech, but I've wanted to speak about this for years. So here goes! The forty years we spent in the...

Gil at Hirhurim is running a series of views on Why people choose Orthodoxy, starting here . His theme reminds me of a talk I gave at a Cons...

Most of the notes on these pages are technical in nature. The casual reader may find some of the notes on 22b and 26a interesting, though. A...