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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Tournier on Desmond Ford
- The Borrowed Robe: How Antisemitism Dresses in Each Age’s Virtue
- The Fence and the Blessing: How Jews Have Thought About Gentiles
- A Place For You
- Tournier on Luke Ford
- Tournier on The Nostradamus Kid
- An Alliance Theory of Antisemitism
- Tournier on Cinema Paradiso and Desmond Ford
- The Self-Hating Jew
- The Alliance Theory in the Academy
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
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* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
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Category Archives: Prayer
Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?
I’ve heard thousands of stories about the power of prayer to effect divine intervention into your life, but how come there are no cases of prayer causing God to help an amputee grow a limb? We have no evidence of … Continue reading
Posted in God, Prayer
Tagged chemotherapy drugs, Limmud, orthodox jew, power of prayer, sitcom writer, zero evidence
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How To Daven Without Bothering Others
Nachum Lamm posts: Keep it to yourself. Don’t enthusiastically yell out parts of tefillah, say something along with the Chazan (outside of singing) and so on. People should hear the chazzan (or ba’al koreh) and no one else. And yes, … Continue reading
What If Sanskrit Prayers Are The Most Powerful?
I prayed to Jesus Christ for about 20 years and it did jack for me. I was still a virgin. The Dallas Cowboys did not win a superbowl after 1978 until 1992. I was alone. I was deformed morally and … Continue reading
Posted in Prayer
Tagged chronic fatigue syndrome, divine realms, english hebrew, hands and fingers, hot chix, jewish prayers, nice breasts, sanskrit prayers, shaven legs, weird positions
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‘Want Some X?’
I’ve just finished my Mussaf Amidah. I’m standing around looking for a good time. A friend comes up to me and says, "Want some X?" "What?" "Want some X?" "Huh?" He gives me a tract called "Ecstasy for the Soul: … Continue reading
Posted in Prayer
Tagged good times, shlomo carlebach, spiritual ecstasy
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Bnai David Rabbi Urges His Congregants To Emulate The Happy Minyan’s Virtues
This summer, the rabbi of congregation B’nai David-Judea, Yosef Kanefsky, took a two month Sabbatical. He stayed in town but davened everywhere but his own shul. His time at the Happy Minyan was particularly moving and he gave a sermon … Continue reading
Posted in Bnai David-Judea, Happy Minyan, Prayer
Tagged catalina island, chana, nai david, natalie wood, shabbos, shul
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The Secret Prayer Life Of Jews
A man rocked back and forth while reading in shul James Kugel‘s book "How to Read the Bible." "I’m davening to the Documentary Hypothesis," he explains to his friend.
Posted in Prayer
Tagged documentary hypothesis, how to read the bible, James kugel, prayer life, secret prayer
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A Bad Smell
Disconsolate, listless, pathetic davening. For this I converted? I feel like we’re all davening under water. My lips and throat and arms feel heavy. I can barely move. I can’t be bothered to greet anybody and nobody can be bothered … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Prayer
Tagged bad smell, bloke, davening, poor sense, sense of smell
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Dear Rabbi,
…can we recruit her for our shul’s women’s minyan? She would make a great Chazzanit! And this girl too, please. I’d come for every minyan and I’d daven with kavannah.
Why Should I Be Holier Than The Pope?
I was asked today how I feel about davening. I hate it. Is that the wrong answer? I don’t care for ritualized prayer because it is repetitive. You just say the same words over and over again. That’s no fun. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal, Prayer
Tagged amen brother, art work, choirs, cold and flu, evil men, germs, great art, holy father, minyan, mountaintop, negro spirituals, obedience, promised land, shabbat, shul, single women, slutty women, spiritual place, what the heck, wrong answer
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