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![]() Jonathan MuskatThe Times of Israel (Blogs) |
As we begin studying Masechet Nazir in the daf yomi cycle this week, many of us are confronted with the very basic question of the Torah’s stance on...
I never met Rav Moshe Kahn, but I feel a tremendous sense of loss by his passing. My daughter, Elisheva, had the fortune of being in his shiur every...
I read an article in the Forward that Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky, rabbi of Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue in the Upper West Side, plans to stop...
I have a lot of respect for Yeshivat Har Etzion and its rabbinic leadership these days. (And, no, I never attended that Yeshiva.) The religious...
As I reflect upon 2022, I feel that I have experienced a year when there has been ever-increasing polarization, animosity and vitriol in our society...
On the surface, it seems that our generation can relate very well to the holiday of Chanuka. After all, Chanuka is the holiday when we defeated those...
Ben Shapiro recently wrote an article asserting that Modern Orthodoxy is in crisis because its leadership is not standing up to Torah values in its...
This past week, I received the following voice message, “Hello. My name is ________. I live in Oceanside. I was driving on Long Beach Road yesterday...
The secret to a strong Jewish education is to find the right balance between joy and discomfort. On the one hand, we want our children to be happy in...
I frequently ask myself the same question almost every holiday. Will it last? Will the lessons that I learned during this holiday leave a lasting...
Last week, I felt like the grinch who stole “hashgacha pratis.” I teach a Contemporary Machshava course to eleventh grade students. In this...
I find myself torn between Kanye, Kyrie and Musk, between antisemitism and cancel culture. I am happy that Kanye paid the price for his long-running...
Well, the Israeli elections are over and it seems that Netanyahu will soon return to power. Many in the religious Zionist community have strong...
This past week, YU announced the establishment of the Kol Yisrael Areivim Club, an undergraduate student club for LGBTQ students “striving to live...
We are done with another season of Chagei Tishrei. I asked someone how the Chagei Tishrei were and he told me that they were exhilarating and...
One of the trickier moments for me as a pulpit rabbi was expressing gratitude to President Trump and his administration for their involvement in...
The Modern Orthodox community wants to have it all. We want to live by Torah values. We want to embrace all the beauty that the world has to...
We now find ourselves in apology season. We are heading towards Yom Kippur, a day when we seek atonement for our sins, and our rabbis tell us that...
In one of his novels, the late Alan Paton has one of his characters say: “When I shall ascend to heaven, which I certainly intend to do, I will be...
In my blog last week, I emphasized the important joint role that parents and educators play in educating each student and I outlined a few key...
Many of our children have returned to yeshiva day school this week and it’s important to emphasize the important joint role that parents and...
There has been much discussion of late about whether YU is an institution with one unified set of values, and if so, who gets to decide precisely what...
This past Shabbat was Shabbat mevarchim, a time when we publicly announce that the month of Elul begins this coming week. When we hear the word,...
This past Shabbat I delivered a shiur on the question of whether we can prove the existence of God and if we cannot, then why we should remain...
I lost my father a little more than twelve months ago and I want to share with you what I’ve been thinking about during my twelfth month of...
We now find ourselves in the Nine Days, a time when we reflect upon the sins that led to the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. We hear calls to end...