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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:
- Morality from Within: The Philosophy of Alan Gewirth
- Adrian Vermeule and the Common Good
- Loïc Wacquant: The Boxer, the Ghetto, and the Penal State
- Hans Kelsen and the Science of Law
- Ken Minyard and the Los Angeles Morning
- Dennis Prager Health Update: June 2026
- Ken Dito: A Life in Bay Area Radio
- Lowell Cohn and the Stories he Didn’t Write
- Bob Grant and the Invention of Combat Talk
- Joe Pyne and the Ranking Nuisance of Broadcasting
- Gloves Off by Lowell Cohn
- NYT: The Secret Reason Bosses Want Everyone Back in the Office, Every Day of the Week
- Dennis Prager Prefers Clarity to Agreement
- Pinsof on Democracy
- Catharine MacKinnon
- Who Rules: The Political Thought of Angelo Codevilla
- The Other Constitution: John Marini on Bureaucracy and the American Founding
- Nancy MacLean and the History of Concentrated Power
- Freedom and Authority: The Work of Christoph Bezemek
- The Not Boring Hero System
BEST POSTS:
* American Epistemics (1-19-26)
* The Most Socially Toxic Inconvenient Truths (1-18-26)
* The Luke Ford Genre (1-18-26)
* The Filkins Pivot: Legacy Prestige and the Fracturing of the Chattering Class (1-16-26)
* Decoding The Trump Doctrine (1-4-26)
* If Tatiana Schlossberg were “Tatiana Smith” (12-30-25)
* ‘I’m So Trained’: How The Credential Society Burned Down the Palisades (12-28-25)
* Status Closure and The Lost Generation (12-25-25)
* The Bondi Massacre (12-15-25)
* Sydney Jews Learn That Their Aussie Social Contract Has Become A Suicide Pact (12-15-25)
* Terror in Sydney: Analyzing the “Chanukah by the Sea” Massacre (12-14-25)
* Decoding Nick Fuentes (11-2-25)
* The Landscape of Emotional Sobriety (10-29-30)
* The Rise & Fall Of Air Supply (10-19-25)
* No Kings, No Results: How Elite Pride Replaced Real Progress (10-19-25)
* You Are An Important Soldier In A Great War (9-7-25)
* The Revolt Of The Masses (8-31-25)
* The Covenant of Ashwood (8-24-25)
* If you can’t trust central bankers, then who can you trust? (8-23-25)
* Why Is The Elite Media Singing From The Same Hymnal About The Trump-Putin Summit? (8-17-25)
* Why Do Smart News Operations Sound So Uniformly Dumb So Often? (8-16-25)
* Nobody Is Coming (8-10-25)
* When Elites Restrict Our Speech, It’s Because They Love Truth, Freedom & Democracy (8-3-25)
Category Archives: Orthodoxy
Yisroel Pensack: San Francisco Orthodox Shul Plans $4.5 Million Building Renovation and Partial Redesign
Congregation Chevra Thilim, which describes itself as "San Francisco’s oldest Orthodox congregation," has launched a $4.5 million fundraising drive to renovate, partially redesign and upgrade its large sanctuary and social hall. The project also includes plans for new classrooms as … Continue reading
Should Orthodox Judaism Have Female Rabbis?
Rabbi Gil Student writes in First Things: Women never served as ritual slaughterers, for example, although an actual prohibition was rejected in the Medieval legal literature. Nonetheless, when the question arose of whether a woman could, in actual practice, be … Continue reading
Whitewashing History
Friar Yid writes on Hirhurim: How can we claim to have an intellectual tradition that values knowledge if we deliberately lie about its history to advance propaganda? Doesn’t this show a tremendous lack of faith in Judaism’s intellectual merits on … Continue reading
Repentance
I can’t remember the last time I made a meaningful apology to someone. I must be a great tzaddik who never does anyone harm. I hate empty ritual. I hate it when someone says, "If I have done anything bad … Continue reading
A Miracle Of Grace
I emailed my Christian mother Sunday: "I finished my Orthodox conversion today [with the Los Angeles Beit Din]…more than 16yrs after finishing my conversion with a Reform rabbi…" She responded: "It’s a miracle of grace." Joe emails: "Welcome to the … Continue reading
Yisroel Pensack: Dead Rebbe As Mashiach
I was invited to a wedding and reception for the son of a San Francisco Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi/shaliach.
Sex In Jerusalem
"Nobody ***** in Jerusalem," says my friend Josh*. "They bring redemption. "You’ve heard of Jerusalem Complex? People go to the Wall and they think they’re the Messiah? They go to Israel and they think they’re some Biblical character. Everything has … Continue reading
Envy
"I had lunch with these great people," said my friend. "You know them. They seem to have it all. They seem to have a great marriage. They have a beautiful home. They have beautiful children. They have a great dog. … Continue reading
Should One Say Gut Shabbos To A Member Of The Opposite Sex Who You Don’t Know?
In my experience, saying "Gut Shabbos" to a member of the opposite sex who you don’t know too often leads to the grossest forms of immorality. As I walk down Pico Blvd on a Shabbos, I only say hello to … Continue reading
Orthodox Life In Northern California?
Michael emails: I stumbled across your site today, and got a sense that you have a good feel for Jewish life in Northern California. Is there no Orthodox life to be found north of SF and Berkeley? Seems so beautiful … Continue reading