The quest to understand the rationale that underlies the mitzvoth assumes that we should strive to articulate the spiritual messages of the halakha. By affirming our commitment to those laws whose reasons we may find personally or ethically challenging, we ensure that the Torah is, in fact, the source of our value system, and not simply an ancient text that validates the contemporary zeitgeist.
Stephen Neuwirth passed away in January 2023 and we remember him with great affection and respect. He was a board member and major supporter of our Institute since its inception in 2007. He was a well-respected attorney, a community leader, philanthropist…a really fine human being. His wife Nataly and their four sons were the center of Steve’s life and were the sources of his greatest happiness and fulfillment.
On Tuesday evening, January 7, from 8:00-9:00 pm EST, Rabbi Hayyim Angel will give a Zoom class on Parashat Vayhi.
The class is sponsored by Ben Porat Yosef Yeshiva Day School in Paramus, NJ, and is free and open to the public.
Here is the link to the class
Rabbi Zvi Grumet writes and teaches like a High School Yeshiva rebbe, unflinchingly focusing on the received Torah’s text and message[s], as lucidly and probingly as he can, so that his student/reader may understand his content and internalize the Torah’s normative message.
We all can learn from the Joseph model. We can strive to be efficient and pragmatic while also being compassionate and considerate. It’s good to be strong…and emotionally healthy.
The life and works of R. Joseph Messas remain of great importance. He showed that traditional Judaism can encompass a great diversity of thought, and that even in matters of halakha, often thought to be the most "closed" of all Jewish disciplines, there is a myriad of interpretive possibilities to which we can avail ourselves.
Thinking Jews should be standing up for a genuine modern Orthodoxy that insists on functioning in contemporary world-time. While facing modernity has its real challenges, not facing modernity will lead Orthodoxy into a cult-like existence-- out of touch with reality, out of touch with the needs of thinking and feeling human beings…out of touch with Torah itself.
Book Review
Dr. Moshe Sokolow, Pursuing Peshat: Tanakh, Parshanut, and Talmud Torah (Kodesh Press, 2024)
By Rabbi Hayyim Angel
Just as a bride is festooned with 24 trinkets and if she lacks even one, she is nothing, so must a scholar be familiar with all 24 books [of the Bible], and if he lacks even one, he is nothing (Song of Songs Rabbah 4:11).
Book Review
By Rabbi Hayyim Angel
Rabbi Gil Student, Articles of Faith: Traditional Jewish Belief in the Internet Era (Kodesh Press, 2024)
Recent months have seen ugly manifestations of anti-Zionism throughout the world. The haters have distorted the meaning and mission of Zionism. We need to embrace “Bible Zionism” in every forum to set the record straight.