In Aseih Lechah Rav, vol. 7, p. 174 Rabbi Hayyim David Halevy included a letter that he wrote to Rabbi Efraim Greenblatt, the author of Rivevot Efraim. In his letter, Rabbi Halevy defends himself against Rabbi Greenblatt’s complaint that he doesn’t seem to examine the literature of the Aharonim. Here are the comments [...]
Sometimes you can tell the correctness of someone’s actions by their critic’s statements. Here is a good one. (hat tip)
Their principal objection is based on tznius, modesty, in the understanding of Rabbi Avi Shafran, Agudah’s director of public policy.
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“Tznius isn’t a mode of dress. It includes the idea that women are demeaned and not [...]
See here for details about the retreat from Rabbah. My only comments are that the following song came to mind when I read the letters.
Nathaniel Helfgot has posted at Text and Texture on Women, Communal Leadership, and Modern Orthodoxy. Many people who oppose women in positions of communal leadership cite a statement of the Rambam in Hilkhot Melakhim 1:5. Helfgot’s comments on the reception of this Rambam are worth quoting.
In this context, I would also add a [...]
Bein Din le-Din has a post on halakhic issues discussed in episodes of Srugim. Last week I ordered the entire first season of Srugim on DVD from Sifrutake. (The Srugim DVD’s aren’t yet on their website, but you can call them and order them.) The DVD’s are in PAL and are Region [...]
On the Main Line has posted some very interesting sources about the way in which some Jewish travelers ate kosher food on their journeys. I would add the following from this exhibit (see under “Jews and the Liquor Trade”),
By the end of the eighteenth century about 80 percent of rural Jews in Poland-Lithuania were [...]
Rav Ovadiah Yosef has paskened that if a man dies and doesn’t leave behind any sons, a daughter may say kaddish if there is a minyan that gathers in her home to study Torah or after psalms are read somewhere else. He explicitly forbids a woman to say kaddish in the synagogue. A little opening [...]
Here is the full text describing the decision to change Maharat to Rabbah, with the latter being suggested, after some discussion, by the Academy of the Hebrew Language. One snippet,
And so, after consultation with Rabbi Daniel Sperber, who is signing the klaf with me, we have decided that Sara Hurwitz’s title will now be [...]
Life in Israel mentions that some Haredim are finding fault with the incoming Chief Rabbi of the Army that he doesn’t have a beard. First of all, who cares what the “Haredi Street”, i.e. people who have nothing better to do with their time than to envy a person who can be both a [...]
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