There’s always something worthy of discussing.

I don’t have rabbinic ordination, though one of my graduate school professors suggested that I become a rabbi. When a synagogue needs a new rabbi, it generally performs a search. It may invite candidates, each one for a separate visit in order to gauge his level of Torah knowledge as well as his interactions with his potential future flock. There is a story from over 200 years ago about a synagogue in Europe going through this process. One of their standard tests was to give a young rabbi an envelope on the Sabbath. Enclosed was a topic, and he was expected to give a detailed and intellectually inspired talk on the surprise subject just handed to him. So, in the synagogue in question, there were members who did not particularly like one of the fellows who was interviewing for the job. Just before his arrival, they took out the card with his speech topic and replaced it with a blank piece of paper. They figured that they would embarrass him and that would be the end of his candidacy. When it came time for the young fellow’s speech, he removed the paper only to see nothing written on it. Without losing a beat, he declared, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty…” He went on to give a brilliant speech, got the job, and became a well-known rabbi whose books we still study today.

When I sit to write, I work on a couple of assumptions. There is always some topic that is worthy of a few words. Next, if there is a subject that could be of interest to Townhall readers, then I should be able to figure out how to put the subject and relevant arguments to page in a clear and truthful manner. The next step is the writing, which I usually do early in the morning before I get too caught up in work and other activities. In such an amazing world, it’s hard to believe that........

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