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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:
- What Might Survival Cost For Israel & Jews?
- If Mearsheimer Is Right
- Forty Thousand
- Vox Day
- Page 261
- The Oven
- Table Six
- For Money
- Live Questions in Torah
- Another Exciting Scold About AI From A University Professor!
- Sociologist Philip N. Cohen
- Herb K – Recovery Teacher
- 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
- Live Questions in Jewish Studies
- The Gap
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)
* The City of Private Rooms (5-25-26)
Category Archives: Marc B. Shapiro
The Mask and the Mirror: Antinomian Resentment in Secular and Orthodox Intellectual Life
Edward Shils did not merely argue that intellectuals resent authority. His sharper claim was that they resent dependence while craving recognition from the very center they attack. The modern intellectual wants to be seen as autonomous, even heroic in dissent, … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, R. Natan Slifkin
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The Second Rupture: Marc B. Shapiro and the Loss of Epistemic Innocence
Haym Soloveitchik described the first rupture. Postwar Orthodoxy shifted from a mimetic tradition, where practice was learned through lived example, to a textual one, where authority was grounded in books. That shift was momentous. It changed what counted as legitimate … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
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Entry, Sorting, Reproduction: The Three Control Points of Orthodox Authority
The previous essays in this series examined two disputes. The Lakewood beit din boycott showed how a marriage ruling triggered jurisdictional warfare. The Haredi draft crisis showed how conscription policy threatened the economic and status architecture of an entire community. … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Israel, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
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When The Texts Are the Costume: Coalition Warfare and Halachic Discourse in the Lakewood Boycott and the Haredi Draft Crisis
The Lakewood beit din boycott and the Haredi draft crisis in Israel are not separate phenomena. They are two expressions of the same underlying structure. Lakewood concerns control over who may enter the marriage pool. The draft crisis concerns control … Continue reading
Posted in Lakewood, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
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The Terrain Where They Still Win: Alliance Theory and the Quality of Life Pivot in Modern Orthodoxy
The prevailing narrative in the academic study of Modern Orthodoxy frames the community’s shift from strong epistemic truth claims to pragmatic “quality of life” arguments as intellectual maturation. Educated rabbis, confronted with biblical criticism, archaeology, and historical scholarship, are said … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox
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The Librarian of Epistemic Defeat: Marc B. Shapiro and the Orthodox Intellectual After Sinai
The first essay described what Marc B. Shapiro does. This one describes the world he does it in. That world is Modern Orthodoxy after the collapse of its strongest truth claims, a community where the most intellectually serious rabbis have … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
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Raising the Cost of Simplification: Marc B. Shapiro and the Limits of Orthodox Self-Understanding
Marc B. Shapiro has changed how a living religious tradition understands itself. His career sits at the fault line between academic history and Orthodox Jewish self-definition. His importance lies less in any single book than in the cumulative pressure his … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, R. J. J. Weinberg
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Ten Convenient Beliefs For Scholar Marc B. Shapiro
Stephen Turner treats some beliefs as coordination devices. They hold a group together, lower internal friction, and license continued action without costly self-examination or outside check. Their worth lies in what they do for the coalition, not in how well … Continue reading
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Orthodox Judaism’s Leading Apologists
From age eight to eleven, living at Avondale College in Australia, I had to read thirty to forty pages of Christian apologetics every day but the Sabbath and then type a one-page summary to show my father I had understood … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Judaism, Marc B. Shapiro, R. J. B. Soloveitchik, R. Natan Slifkin
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Marc Shapiro’s Jarring Opinions
Marc Shapiro is a great scholar, and he also has strong opinions on a wide range of matters. He’s like a fast bowler in cricket who’s also handy with the bat. He’s the Mitchell Starc of Orthodox Judaism. He’s 67 … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
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