Menachem Mendel

Rabbi Benny Lau has written a strongly-worded column (Hebrew) on Ynet, wondering what religious zionist rabbis are doing defending Rabbi Dov Lior and anything having to do with the book Torat ha-Melelkh.

Posted on August 20th, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Law, Jewish Thought, Jewish-Gentile Relations, Religious Zionism. Comments: None

Tomer Persico has a post (Hebrew) discussing Elchanan Shilo’s article, “A Continuous Judaism Between Halakhah and Hiloni”, and some reactions to the original article. See here for a previous post on Shilo’s article.

Posted on August 9th, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Law, Jewish Thought, Rabbinic Authority, Religion, Religious Zionism. Comments: None

Tomer Persico posts about the kabbalist Abraham Abulafia and Amnon Gross, a person who has devoted decades to publishing Abulafia’s writings from manuscripts. Gross’s blog can be found here, along with links to many of Abulafia’s writings in PDF.

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 under Jewish Thought, Kabbalah. Comments: None

New ‘Reflections,’ Hartman Institute E-Magazine of Ideas, Now Online The newest issue of Reflections, the Shalom Hartman Institute electronic magazine of ideas, is now online. Among the articles: Israeli Society and the ‘Society of Learners’ by Professors Shlomo Naeh, Zvi Zohar and Elhanan Reiner who discuss the place of Torah scholars within the Jewish People [...]

Posted on July 27th, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Law, Jewish Thought, New Articles. Comments: None

Some Conservative Jews are probably very offended by Rav Ovadiah Yosef’s latest comments. Those who study in religious schools affiliated with Conservative Judaism do not practice Judaism, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has declared in a recent [pesak halakhah]. Such students “do not follow Jewish religious law”, Yosef wrote, adding that most of them [...]

Posted on July 4th, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Thought, Rabbinic Authority. Comments: 5

The Book of Doctrines and Opinions has posted a summary of an interesting article by Elchanan Shilo, “A Continuous Judaism Between Halakhah and Hiloni.” The entire article can be found here in Hebrew. Here is some of the summary: It is an interesting article and brings together many ideas currently floating around. Yet, I am [...]

Posted on June 2nd, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Law, Jewish Thought, Rabbinic Authority. Comments: None

According to an article (Hebrew) at Kipa, more writings of Rav Kook are making their way out of the vault. Update: More on Rav Kook’s “new” book.

Posted on May 25th, 2010 under Jewish Thought. Comments: 1

An interesting dialogue of sorts has developed between two well-known figures in the religious-zionist camp, Rabbis Hayyim Navon and Yisrael Rosen. The catalyst for this most recent dustup was a booklet which Rabbi Navon wrote for the liberal religious group Ne’emanei Torah ve-Avodah called אתחלתא דתקווה, “The Beginning of Hope.” This is a modification of [...]

Posted on May 17th, 2010 under Israel, Jewish Thought, Zionism. Comments: None

The Jewish Review of Books is about to hit the stands. If both Shmuel Rosner and Azzan Yadin have articles in it, who wouldn’t want to subscribe.

Posted on February 11th, 2010 under Book Reviews, Jewish History, Jewish Law, Jewish Studies, Jewish Thought, New Books. Comments: 3