Women, Communal Leadership, and Modern Orthodoxy by Nathaniel Helfgot

I. During the last half century the movement towards greater public, educational, economic, and political roles for women in general society has slowly  affected the reality of Jewish and more specifically, for our purposes, Orthodox society. This has created a sea change in the role of women in the Orthodox and especially Modern-Orthodox society. The [...]

Balancing the Necessity and Abhorrence of Violence: Of Terrorists and Amalek by Gidon Rothstein

Balancing the Necessity and Abhorrence of Violence: Of Terrorists and Amalek  Tu B’Shvat goes by, a holiday that continues to grow in popularity, especially as the environmental movement takes further hold (we hope), as we become more aware of our relationship with the earth.  With its passing, not to be seen again until next year, [...]

Individual and Communal Quests for Holiness: Kollelim, Modern Orthodoxy, and Intellectual Elitism

By Aryeh Klapper Aspiring Saints? Judaism has a natural antipathy to exceptional religious ambition. Law by its nature, Maimonides explains in the Guide (3:34), aims for the good of the majority rather than of the exceptional, and thus the centrality of Halakhah in Judaism is a major challenge to many of the religiously gifted. Halakhah [...]