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Jul 16, 2026, 12:31 PM

Burdens Worth Bearing

The Torah describes itself as a “song.” This is rather telling about the complex structure of the Torah. A song communicates with its listener through multiple means. The words of the Torah are, in the words of the sages,...

Jul 9, 2026, 8:48 PM

The Way Past the Spiritual Plateau

Some observant Jews describe the same experience. There was a period when observance was vivid. And then, some years later, the vividness thinned. The practice continued. The observance continued. But the aliveness was harder to find. This is the plateau. Observance...

Jul 7, 2026, 1:13 PM

Cosmic Moods: Reform Judaism Meets the Space Age

Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof in his younger years. American Jewish Archives. https://www.americanjewisharchives.org; https://press.huc.edu/pittsburgh-book-launch.
Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, New Reform Responsa (Philadelphia: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1980), which included a responsum titled “Halacha and Space Travel.”

In 1970 – soon after the lunar landing – the most prolific respondent in American Reform Judaism and an expert on responsa literature, Rabbi Solomon Bennett Freehof (1892-1990), published an article in the Jewish Book Annual, titled “Recent Responsa...

Sam Lehman-Wilzig

Jul 3, 2026, 1:15 PM

Israel: Four Nations Divided by a Common (Dis)Communication System

The recent news about social media has focused on various countries’ efforts to legislatively prohibit social media use by youngsters. That’s a positive micro-turn, but not the macro-threat that is really undermining social cohesion and even democracy: the characteristics...

Jul 2, 2026, 11:47 PM

A Man of Masks and Mountains

One of the saddest moments in the Torah walks hand in hand with one of its most selfless. In this week’s parasha, after counting the Jewish People who will shortly possess the Land of Israel, Moshe is reminded that...

Jun 26, 2026, 6:52 PM

Treasure Trove: Pin the Pickle on the Jewish People

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by David Matlow.

Over 100 million plastic pickle pins have been handed out by the H. J. Heinz company since they were first introduced as a marketing promotion at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. This particular pin was...

Jun 26, 2026, 3:48 PM

A comic strip that takes a serious look at the Orthodox community

An unmarried woman – an “older single” by the standards of the Orthodox Jewish community, where most women are married by their early twenties – was discussing her situation the other day in the office of Dr. Meir Wikler,...

Jun 25, 2026, 10:09 PM

A Story Not About Jews

It is a story all about the Jews, yet the Jews play no role in it. It contains some of the most common phrases in Jewish life, yet they are not the words of any Jew. This week's Parasha...

Jun 24, 2026, 9:00 PM

Torah Judaism: A Sadness I Never Expected to Feel

Today I watched images of protests, demonstrations, and roads blocked across Israel. What surprised me was my emotion. It was sadness. A deeper sadness than I expected to feel. I grew up in two separate religious Jewish communities in London,...

Jun 23, 2026, 5:22 AM

Who Decides What Is Real?

Who is a Jew? Who Decides What Is Real? Crypto meets religion. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Question of Identity When people argue about Bitcoin, Ethereum, or even questions like “Who is a Jew?”, they often assume there must be a single correct answer hidden somewhere. But in reality, many questions of identity work...

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