Menachem Mendel

The Beit Hillel inaugural conference (here, here, and here) is just underway. Rabbi Reuven Spolter is hoping to tweet from the conference. See this post of his about Beit Hillel. His twitter feed can be found here.

Posted on February 2nd, 2012 under Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel, Religious Authority, Religious Zionism. Comments: 1

The following article was published in Israel Hayom on December 23, 2011. It describes a new group of national-religious rabbis called Beit Hillel who want to project a more moderate approach to Judaism and Jewish law. (hat tip)

Posted on January 4th, 2012 under Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel, Religious Zionism. Comments Off

Yoav Sorek has started a new blog (Hebrew), לאמיתה של תורה. It seems as if the blog will offer a different perspective and discourse on issues related to Israel and Judaism. The first post is about the fast of the tenth of Tevet.

Posted on January 4th, 2012 under Blogroll, Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel, Religious Zionism, Responsa. Comments: 2

In 2008 the Israel Democracy Institute sponsored a conference on Zionist Halakhah. Below are some videos from the conference. (Hebrew)

Posted on December 28th, 2011 under Halakhic Literature, Israel, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature, Religion in Israel, Religious Authority, Religious Zionism. Comments Off

A few months ago the Israel Democracy Institute sponsored a symposium upon the release of a new book on the rabbinate. Below are two videos from the conference. (Hebrew)

Posted on December 28th, 2011 under Israel, Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel, Religious Authority, Religious Zionism. Comments: 1

The following news report was broadcast on Friday in Israel. To say the least it is nauseating. For those who can’t understand the Hebrew, it is about the situation in Beit Shemesh where some ultra-Orthodox think that it is OK to spit on little girls and to call them and their mothers whores and sluts. [...]

Posted on December 24th, 2011 under Beit Shemesh, Hillul Hashem, Israel, Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel. Comments: 1

At Text and Texture Rabbi Shlomo Brody has a very nice post about “Rabbi Joseph Karo’s Shulchan Aruch and Magid Mesharim.” (hat tip)

Posted on December 22nd, 2011 under Jewish Law, Jewish Mysticism, Kabbalah, Rabbinic Authority, Rabbinic Literature. Comments Off

I just found out that Rabbi Moshe Zemer z”l passed away last month in Israel. Rabbi Zemer was the most prolific author on Jewish law who was affiliated with the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel. A bibliography of his writings can be found here. For anyone interested in a serious book on halakhah from [...]

Posted on December 6th, 2011 under In Memoriam, Jewish Law, Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel, Responsa. Comments Off

In Friday’s Yediot Aharonot there was an interview (Hebrew) with David Hartman. For those who are interested, I have uploaded it to the Internet. David Hartman Interview Yediot Aharonot Dec. 2, 2011

Posted on December 3rd, 2011 under Israel, Rabbinic Authority, Religion in Israel. Comments: 5