All in Editorial

Some Musings On The Upcoming Holidays

R. Moshe Shure
Yom Ha’atzmaut, Lag B'Omer, Editorial, Asarah B'Teves

Before we begin let me take a moment to note that the following essay is not meant to be taken as a Halachic ruling one way or the other, nor to criticize anyone who observes these holidays, but to raise some issues that some may not have formerly been aware of. Conclusions are for each reader to draw for himself. It is beyond the scope of this essay to go too much in depth…

Between Wisdom & Election: Leo Strauss On The Binding of Isaac

Dovid Schwartz
Editorial, Machshavah

For those who have heard of him, Leo Strauss generally suffers from a negative reputation. To some, he is a political philosopher who rejected modernity in favor of classical antiquity. To others, he was the father of the Iraq war. To yeshiva students, Strauss is the heretic who disgraced the Mishneh Torah and made eternal The Guide of the Perplexed. However, I would like to study Strauss in another light…

Sports Is Idolatrous

Anonymous
Machshavah, Editorial

Recently, hundreds of people gathered in downtown Detroit to watch two cats fighting over a piece of meat. Individual participants painted themselves to represent respective cats, alcohol was in abundance, fights broke out, and endless dollars were spent on being able to witness this incredible display of sociality and achievement. By the time the blue-eyed calico cat had won, all felt much better about themselves, the calico, and the general state of the universe...

Candle Of Suburbia

Eliezer Berger
Machshavah, Editorial

In Jewish circles, there is a huge upper-middle-class contingent (if not the majority) that resides in suburban America (like many other Americans). Despite being incomparable to the European shtetl, suburbia still manages to give the exilic Jewish psyche room to wander while providing communal insulation. In America, those features act in very different ways than they might have in Europe. The openness and breadth of possibility, combined with cozy separation, has well-nourished the ambiguous creature known as “Modern Orthodoxy”...

Hebrew Isn’t “Sababa”

Eliezer Berger
Israel, Editorial

If you’ve ever tried learning Modern Hebrew, you may have noticed that it isn’t the same as the Hebrew you learn in Tanach or Chazal. In fact, it’s far from being that Hebrew. The vocabulary is partially made up and borrowed from other languages, the grammar is more limited and in some cases innovative, and the pronunciation is supposed to be kind of like Sefaradi for European Ashkenazim...