Eruv

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Mar 5, 2021, 12:06 AM

Eruv, technology, and the lovely lagoon

To take advantage of this Jewish law, we needed to walk on water: a model airboat did the trick for most of the year, but in the Boston winter, we used a monster truck

Jessica Levine Kupferberg

Nov 22, 2020, 10:21 AM

Pushing boundaries with Eruvin

Checking an eruv in Jerusalem the old-fashioned way. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

I wasn't yet learning Talmud when I campaigned for an eruv in California, but I knew it posed no risk to the local birds - nor to the locals who wanted to keep Jews out

Daniel Friedman

Oct 8, 2020, 3:03 AM

The Courage to Lead (Eruvin 60)

Many years before it became famous for its salmon and beer, Abaye was once asked to build an eruv in a town called Kokanee. But here’s the quandary one faces anytime you’re asked to construct an eruv: it’s impossible...

Mar 23, 2018, 10:13 PM

In a Washington march, seeds of a new Jewish future

Hundreds of high school and middle school students from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia staged walkouts and gather in front of the Capitol in support of gun control in the wake of the Florida shooting February 21, 2018 in Washington, DC. (AFP PHOTO / Olivier Douliery)

Like bygone protests on the Sabbath, the gun violence march ignites a conversation about morality and halacha

Dec 24, 2017, 3:06 PM

The essence of Judaism and religion — Orthodox (faith) or Orthoprax (good deeds)

There is an ancient debate in the Talmudic tradition concerning the question as to the essence of Judaism and religion – faith or good deeds. Rashi (the great commentator of the 11th century) cites a debate between two great Talmudic...

Philip Lefkowitz

Dec 18, 2017, 10:10 PM

Rabbis serving Conservative, Reform, & traditional congregations support disabled Orthodox rabbi’s bid to build sukkah

Jackson, New Jersey has been a hot bed of reaction to the rapid influx of young Orthodox Jewish families. Altering ordinances to limit the building of an eruv and dormitories for a proposed Orthodox Jewish girls' school, attempts at...

Dec 17, 2017, 7:21 PM

The verse ‘I am the Lord your God’

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his blog on the Torah reading of the week (Va’etchanan 5777), presents two arguments in the Jewish tradition regarding the opening verse of the “10 statements” (and the Biblical term is “10 statements” and not...

Dec 10, 2017, 4:17 PM

Heresy and moral atheism

Maimonides (the great legal scholar and philosopher of the 12th century) is the first and only thinker in the Jewish tradition to codify principles of faith within a legal framework as a binding theological dogma in codifying his “13...

Nov 26, 2017, 6:00 PM

The interpretation of texts contradicting orthodox dogma

In traditional rabbinic Judaism we as Jews live not by what is written in the Bible (the Written Torah) but by the Bible as interpreted and understood by the Jewish rabbinic tradition (the Oral Torah) - the foundation of...

Leonard Grunstein

Nov 3, 2017, 7:18 AM

Don’t Sacrifice the Children

Communicating a sophisticated and nuanced message, which resonates with most people and throughout the generations, is no mean task. Mere words may not be the most effective way to accomplish the result. How powerful would a slogan like “don’t sacrifice...

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