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![]() Gershon HepnerThe Times of Israel (Blogs) |
A failure, Bernard Shaw declared, can be more interesting than a success. A failure happens when you’ve dared to act in ways that although they are...
Though designated like pius Aeneas to become survivors of the horrendous Hellenistic holocaust of Troy, many Jews no longer see themselves as...
Finding nothing in the whole world in common with himself, Kafka asked why men seemed to expect him to resemble any of his kin or kith or other...
Bar-tailed godwits non-stop fly, Alaska to the South Pacific, curlews with a bristled thigh fly as far, and this terrific distance by the...
With prescience, he sang the about the clash that faces our uncivil civilizations, whose differences might lead to nuclear ash descending from...
When admitted into heaven, Bontshe Shtok told the angels of the favor he wished to receive. “Fresh rolls with butter ever morning.” ...
Specialization calls for the renunciation of universality, replacing it by focusing on what mistakenly might seem to be a detail that may be...
Although chessmaster Sam Reshevsky stated, “Chess is great, but I prefer gemora,” the only thing that makes me as elated as both of them...
Arguing the pros and cons of regulations God prescribes, identifying as black swans false prophets, foolish priests and scribes, ...
Only when we’re recollecting our despair can we communicate it. We don’t ever care to do so when we’re sorely overcome by it. ...
While fascinated by Ostyidden, Eastern Jewry, Kafka by theatrical performances of Yiddish plays became inspired, observing them like...
Two Jerusalems there are, one above and one below; double-named as double star, one a celestial entrepôt, while for the other nations...
Some students, who were visiting Rav Yitzhaq Hutner when he was quite sick, said “We’re glad that you have made us biqur holim mitzvadik.” He...
Since all flesh in the past has slowly turned to dust, and will no more endure when flesh to it has been transformed apocalyptic words become the...
We know subjectively that all is possible after Hitler, Stalin, declared Auden, and should not trust, after this Fall, ourselves, expelled for...
Martin Luther King’s great speeches had three sources. The Bible, and the Declaration of Independence, two great pillars of the third one, the...
My favorite bible book, to tell the truth, is short and sweet and called the book of Ruth. Regarding what she looked like, whether short and...
Harmless short-circuits of uncommon sense that are made by mythological connections between the present and the past unrealistically by means of...
If there is no delight, all knowledge fails, and, cast in thought, perception pales unless the studied rationale of learning delights,...
by those who think his punch lines rather sick, then maybe there is something to be gained by laughing when he does his Godly shtick. ...
If you are wondering if you’ll hear the redeemer when he knocks on your door, perhaps you fear the sound, and keep him out with locks....
Because of the last of the Ten Commandments, wrote Meir Shalev, no one can be by God awarded a perfect score card, the whole world being guilty of...
Reading commentaries before you read Bible text is comparable to reading program notes before you hear a piece of music, or feeling far more...
Posture is important at the seder: every Jew who’s ever gone to cheder knows that at the seder we must lean towards the left, to feel...
The blood is on the doorposts and the signs are very clear for everyone to understand the end is drawing near. The lintel is one...
Said Sandy Koufax: “I could pitch another game,” significantly adding then, “But why?” When you can see I’m writing just the same ...
This brief article suggests that the Book of Esther should be seen as a midrashic explanation of Ezra 4:6, describing the effect of the hatred of the...
The saffron used to stain during pre-Renaissance middle ages’ many gorgeous windows of cathedrals, Gothic, was for...
The Church of England allegedly now plans to put a spanner in God’s gearbox, setting it in permanently neutral gender, a change that’s...
Biblical interpretation may be thought of as a ladder, an ascent for the alleged plain meaning of the text — peshat — often as...
Ross Douthat writes that there is a debate between two cardinals, George Pell and Robert McElroy. Their conflict I most shamelessly can state ...
When Bibi Netanyahu became the Prime Minister of Israel in 1996, Bill Clinton was the US President, John Major the UK’s Prime Minister and Helmut...
The Babylonian Talmud is a work beyond completion, which may help to explain, perhaps, why God invented not just Tosafot, but Aharonim, who...
As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, the forged “Protocols of Elders” were in Exodus foreshadowed, when in Egypt Pharaoh claimed that Israel had...
Like spring when pulling from bare arms of trees once winter has been left behind astounding and perhaps astonished leaves, great scholars carefully...
Christmas is the festival of trees, but Hanukkah’s the festival of lights, each one equally designed to ease, when darkness of the...