What is Lost as We Eliminate the Impossible: Jews and Public Schools by Gidon Rothstein

Sherlock Holmes’ advice, “Eliminate the impossible; whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truth,” made a deep impression on me.  It seemed so logical, so unequivocal, so indisputable1.  In the years since I first encountered the epigram, I have realized some major weaknesses in its presentation; for our purposes, here, some of those weaknesses [...]

Would We Recognize the Ten Plagues Today? by Gidon Rothstein

Thinking of the question raised in the title of this essay, we might instinctively answer, of course, because we’ve seen this movie so many times before. Were Moses to come today and tell us to do—well, whatever, really, but let’s leave it at abandoning the exile—we’d obviously do it.
But that’s a mirage, because it wouldn’t [...]

From Where Shall Truth Be Found? by Gidon Rothstein

On two recent occasions, I have had the similar and unsettling experience of noting the importance of finding the truth, only to have listeners speak of the impossibility, or at least great difficulty, of that task, on even basic issues.
And, incidentally, I do not mean complex or debated truths, I mean ones that should be [...]

Flexibility: The Key to Redemption? By Gidon Rothstein

Around this time of year, we once again face our continuing state of חורבן, of the destruction not only of our Temple, our Beit haMikdash, but really of the national, legislative, judicial, social, and cultural structure that would be ideal for our people.  There are many explanations for why and how this happened, perhaps the [...]

Change and Unity: Navigating the Tension by Gidon Rothstein

It should be unarguable that as times change, our expression of the eternal principles of halachah changes as well.  When cars, computers, and other technological wonders came along, rabbis and poskim had to figure out how those appliances fit within the world of halachah.
In those cases, the process was perhaps eased by the items in [...]

Halacha and Autonomous Religiosity: What’s the Problem? by Gidon Rothstein

I first heard of Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo over twenty years ago, when I was a semicha student and he was already a well-known teacher of Torah in Yerushalayim.  I mention that because as I come to comment on his recent cri de coeur– “The Future and the Spirit of Halacha: Unconventional Thoughts in Relation [...]

Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch’s New Responsa: Worth More Than a Casual Look

The first months I had my Bar-Ilan CD-Rom, almost fifteen years ago by now, I got lost many times, overwhelmed by the multitude of sources the disc contained.  It was not until I learned to play favorites, particularly with Midrashim and Responsa, that I could make any forward progress. Even then, I was repeatedly introduced [...]

Missing the Point of Holidays: Chametz and Kitniyot on Passover & Torah and Bikkurim on Shavuot by Gidon Rothstein

Mistakes are sometimes self-contained, so that they affect nothing other than the issue they address.  Sometimes, though, mistakes—or even just slight misrepresentations of the truth—feed on themselves and end up overshadowing or obscuring important other truths.  Pesach and Shavuot, for me personally, are among the times when the latter is true, when our attachment to [...]

Our Writers Respond: The Component Issues of a Traditional Jewish Womanhood by Gidon Rothstein

You know that moment in a conversation where you begin to suspect that the two of you see the world so differently, it might not even be possible to have an intelligible exchange? I do, very well; I once, years ago, deeply offended a congregant and friend when, in the middle of a discussion of [...]

Purim and the Challenge of Human Sexuality by Gidon Rothstein

At a crucial moment of the Megillah named after her, Ester tells Mordechai that she will go and speak to Ahashverosh uninvited, asks him to pray for her, and closes by saying, וכאשר אבדתי אבדתי, when I am lost, I am lost.  Megillah 15a puts a twist on this phrase that brings it in line [...]

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