Yitzchak Blau

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Feb 7, 2025, 6:07 PM

Hope in our Students

Critics claim adolescents raised on TikTok and Instagram have short attention spans and lack the ability to read long books or engage in analysis requiring sustained attention. Detractors who thought that contemporary Israeli teens lack heroism and idealism were...

Jan 16, 2025, 6:06 PM

R. Schachter’s Divrei Soferim: A Review

Rav Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, has, for some sixty years, successfully taught Torah to university students, older working people, and even to high school students in the NCSY summer kollel. His range of knowledge and his...

Dec 3, 2024, 6:07 PM

Trump’s Win: The Blindness of Republicans and Democrats

Armin Rosen wrote a critique of The New Yorker's response to Trump's election victory in Tablet Magazine ("The New Yorker's Cavalcade of Ignorance" 11/26/24) which inspired me to read that issue of the New Yorker. I identified with many...

Nov 14, 2024, 8:30 AM

R. Lopiansky’s Ben Yeshiva: A Moderate Haredi Approach

R. Ahron Lopiansky, Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva of Greater Washington and a representative of the moderate wing of American Haredim, recently came out with a second quality English volume. After previously publishing a guide for b'aal habatim, (Orchos...

Oct 15, 2024, 1:36 PM

Jewish Unity: Getting Beyond the Platitudes

Talk about Jewish unity and loving all Jews often becomes empty platitudes. No one will disagree with these sentiments (It is akin to disliking Mom and apple pie) but they quickly dissolve after utterance without making any impact. The...

Aug 11, 2024, 8:18 PM

Begin and Today’s Politics

I recently read Daniel Gordis's biography, Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul, and was struck by how much contemporary Israeli politics desperately needs a few traits of this impressive person. 1) Avoiding Civil War: Infighting doomed the Second Temple...

Jul 10, 2024, 3:11 PM

The Enduring Relevance of R. Amital’s Wisdom

The recent publication of leOlam Yehe Adam turns our attention back to R. Yehuda Amital (1924-2010) as we approach his 14th yahrzeit. I would like to focus on an older volume, leAvdekha beEmet, a collection of 67 eulogies and...

May 10, 2024, 1:49 PM

The Sugya Approach to Aggada

In Tradition Winter 2021 (53:1), my talented brother R. Yaakov Blau outlines a "sugya approach" to aggadic literature in which the interpreter utilizes other stories and statements of a given sage to fill out a composite picture. This method...

Jan 28, 2024, 2:04 AM

The New Yorker’s Zionism Problem

Though I never purchased a New Yorker subscription, I have enjoyed reading second hand copies inherited from other family members for many years. In particular, I derive pleasure from Adam Gopnik's insightful, learned, and beautifully expressed essays. The magazine's...

Dec 12, 2023, 7:23 PM

A Victorian Novelist Alive Today

I tend to avoid contemporary novels because I am a big believer in a literary canon and the judgment of history and posterity has yet to rule on fiction published five years ago. Additionally, in our postmodern condition, authors...

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About Me

Rabbi Yitzchak Blau is a rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat Orayta and also teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum. He is an associate editor of the journal Tradition and the author of Fresh Fruit and Vintage Wine: The Ethics and Wisdom of the Aggada.