The Rebbetzin's Husband

One of the most difficult situations a Rabbi enters is the "end of life"/"quality of life" debate. * Families can be t...

Why did your Rabbi cringe today when you approached him with that ladle? Why does he start to tremble when people mention smoothtop stoves o...

One of the key rules we set up for our Beit Midrash when we started almost three years ago was that no member of the Beit Midrash is allowed...

[ This week's Haveil Havalim is here ] While we wait for post-Yom Tov "Derashah Reviews" ... As we have discussed, I keep a ha...

I first wrote the post below in a different forum, in Sept '06. I still feel much the same. It comes to mind now as I draft my viduy for...

A common rabbinic question: When is it better to speak up, and when is it better to say nothing? If you know that people are doing something...

[ Post I just read: JTA Archives are now digitized and on-line for free , at Michtavim ] The other day, a comment from a friend caused me t...

[ This week's Haveil Havalim is here ! ] I wrote the following in 2007, when I was still in the pulpit. It is a measure of the intimid...

[ This week’s Haveil Havalim is here ] Esser Agaroth notes that an Israeli Knesset member, Michael Ben-Ari, has put forth a bill to immuniz...

In a conversation the other day, someone used me as grounds for permitting a certain leniency, extrapolating from another practice I had onc...

[ A new, excellent edition of Haveil Havalim is here ] One of the most difficult aspects of the rabbinate is the need - job requirement, rea...

One of the policies we established at the outset of our Toronto project is that we are not rabbis creating a shul. Therefore: • No one in ou...

The other day I was reminded of the difference between the beit midrash and the shul. It was an amusing reminder, and it made me think about...

I, personally, do not observe Yom haShoah as a day of its own. Aside from the mourning-in-Nisan issue, I follow what I heard Rabbi Yosef Dov...

This morning, visitors to our shul davened outside of the actual room where we were davening; they believed our mechitzah was too low. My h...

A while back (in response to my post on Choosing a Rabbi ) I was asked: “ for what types of questions do you think a person needs to turn to...

It took me a while to figure out how to write “tchotchkes” in English. I went through a few versions – czoczkes, tshotshkes, chachkas, tchat...

For the past ten years I've been sending out daily "Torah Thought" emails, which I began archiving here one year ago. Occasio...

Chana at Curious Jew has done a great job here providing a sense of the September 14th “End of Life” medical ethics conference held by Yesh...