It is important for men and women together to seek halakhic solutions and build halakhically committed communities with an emphasis on seeking greater partnership between the sexes. This will perpetuate the integrity of a living Torah that continues to infuse and inspire our lives with the sense of the divine.
In 1966, the Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to S. Y. Agnon. This was a major event for the Jewish world at large and for Israel in particular. Agnon was the first Israeli to win a Nobel in any field, and he remains the only Hebrew-language author ever to have received the Nobel Prize in literature.
Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks was the Chief Rabi of the British Commonwealth.This excerpt is from his book, To Heal the World, and is reprinted by permission of Schocken Books, a division of Random House. This excerpt appeared in issue 2 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
These are excerpts about Rabbi Yaacov Huli (1689-1732) drawn from Rabbi Marc D. Angel's book, Voices in Exile. Rabbi Huli originated the Me'am Lo'ez, a Ladino biblical encyclopedia that reached many thousands of readers throughout the Sephardic world. In recent years, the Me'am Lo'ez had been published in Hebrew translation. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, of blessed memory, translated the Me'am Lo'ez into English.
We applaud the historic decision of Israel and the United Arab Emirates to establish full diplomatic relations. We pray that other nations will have the courage and the wisdom to follow their example, and bring lasting and genuine peace to the Middle East and beyond.
Questions of genealogy are so vital because our ancestry is often a key element in our social structure, the axis on which many of our social interactions, obligations, loyalties, and emotional sentiments, turn. Although we like to believe in meritocracy, that individuals are self-made, our identities can be deeply tied to those from whom we descend.
How does the Torah and Jewish Thought relate to the rest of humanity?
Join National Scholar Rabbi Hayyim Angel for a three-part series on
topics such as The Chosen People, Judaism and Racism, The Resident
Alien in the Bible, and other pertinent discussions pertaining to a
Jewish outlook toward Israel and the Nations.
Wednesdays August 12, 19, and 26, from 12:00-1:00pm Eastern Daylight Time.
The classes are open to the first 100 registrants, so please register here
Even as I contemplate the evolving role of women’s Torah study in Jewish communal life, I never forget that what brought me to this work – and what keeps me there – is not the new, but the ancient and eternal. I am here because I love Torah and I love teaching it.
Albert Memmi, a Tunisian-born Jew, became a prominent French intellectual, writing and teaching about anti-Semitism, Colonialism, and racism. He died May 22, 2020, at the age of 99. He suffered greatly as a Jew, and never made peace with his Jewishness. But perhaps his very alienation as a Jew allowed him to understand the predicament of oppressed people everywhere.
The religious establishment is obligated to address cases of intermarriage, children of intermarriages, and people of Jewish ancestry. The key to Jewish unity is for Batei Din to recognize the rulings of others who follow different halakhic opinions, even when they vigorously disagree with their positions.
