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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:
- Vox Day
- Page 261
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- Live Questions in Torah
- Another Exciting Scold About AI From A University Professor!
- Sociologist Philip N. Cohen
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- Live Questions in Philosophy
- The List Problem
- Fred Luskin: Forgive for Good
- James C. Weidmann and the Making of Chateau Heartiste
- If the Populists Gain Power, Who Will be Their Favorite Economists?
- Live Questions in Psychology
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- The Second Apprenticeship: What the Public Record Shows About Middle East Studies, and What it Would Take to Know More
- Live Questions in Middle East Studies
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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)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
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Category Archives: Marc B. Shapiro
Marc Shapiro: ‘Abraham Rosenberg, R. Chaim Heller, R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach on Conversion, Abortion, Mercy Killings, and new pictures and videos of R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg’
March Shapiro writes May 8, 2024: I discussed the enigmatic plagiarizer Abraham Rosenberg. As we saw, in 1923 and 1924 Rosenberg published articles on the Jerusalem Talmud in the Orthodox journal Jeschurun, and he later published Al Devar Tikunei Nushaot … Continue reading
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The Documentarian Inside the Coalition: Marc B. Shapiro and the History He Will Not Write
Historian Marc B. Shapiro keeps finding things strange. A photograph of the Chazon Ish wearing a tie. A passage from Rabbi Kook removed in a later edition. A biography of a haredi gadol that omits his secular education. A halakhic … Continue reading
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Marc Shapiro: ‘Franciscans and More; “Repulsive” Practices; Saul Lieberman, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and R. Jehiel Jacob Weinberg’
The post has the same tripartite structure Shapiro often uses, but the load-bearing section is the one in the middle on “repulsive” practices. Read carefully, that section does something the Kook book argues theoretically: it documents the operation of natural … Continue reading
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The Langer Affair
1-29-25 Shapiro lays out the case well but the analytical payoff sits in what he leaves implicit. Halevy’s dissertation thesis cuts against the surface story. On the surface, a halakhic dispute escalates because R. Shlomo Goren is reckless and his … Continue reading
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Marc B. Shapiro: ‘Neturei Karta; ArtScroll, Arius, and Orangutans; Suicide and the Law of Rodef’
The post repays close reading because it shows Shapiro stepping outside his usual historical-method bracket and applying his documentary technique to a present coalition. The Neturei Karta section is the most direct moral judgment in his recent output. He calls … Continue reading
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Marc B. Shapiro’s YT Series On Rav Kook: ‘Renewing the Old, Sanctifying the New’
9-9-25 The YT video catches Shapiro doing in real time what the book does on the page. Rav Kook is a founder figure who needs to break with the standard rabbinic coalition technology of humility theater. The technology requires that … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, R. Kook
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Marc B. Shapiro: ‘Two Books by R. Bezalel Naor, R. Meir Simhah of Dvinsk, Michael Lerner, and More’
The most consequential thread runs through Shapiro’s third section on the king’s power to kill innocents. Earlier authorities give startling positions. R. Levi ben Gershom recommends executing a captive enemy of the Jewish people. R. Zvi Hirsch Chajes says a … Continue reading
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Marc B. Shapiro: ‘The Aderet (part 2); Sonya Diskin and R. Yitzhak Yeruham Diskin; Zvi Glatt; and a New Letter from R. Herzog’
Several threads here repay close attention. The R. Kook censorship discovery stands out. R. Kook excises three paragraphs from his father-in-law’s autobiography when he reproduces the passage in Eder ha-Yekar. The middle paragraph speaks of hatred for sinners. The flanking … Continue reading
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The Convenience of Catechism: Why Principle 8 Survives Its Own Refutation
Stephen Turner’s framework on convenient beliefs gives us tools that fit Shapiro’s 2011 book, The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised. The framework holds that beliefs in many domains are not held because they track truth. They are … Continue reading
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Marc Shapiro: ‘R. Moshe Zuriel, the Aderet, Sonya Diskin, and ChatGPT’
The haskamah self-endorsement material gives a clean window into how the genre operates. The Aderet writes approbations for his own anonymously published works and feels awkward calling himself ha-ma’or ha-gadol, but the convention requires it. Had he used plainer language, … Continue reading
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