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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)
* 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)
Tag Archives: orthodox rabbis
Is A Jew Permitted To Wish A Goy “Merry Christmas”?
I’ve always wished the goyim a “Merry Christmas” because that’s just the kind of guy that I am — always full of good cheer and bonhomie. Today, I was in shul and I was about to wish the Mexicans cleaning … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Orthodoxy
Tagged baby jesus, cheter, good cheer, judeo christian ethics, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbi, orthodox rabbis, religious festival, religious truth
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I Want To Study Torah With Hot Chicks
On Torah Talk, we answer the goy Casey’s ten questions about God, we get a review of my memoir “XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without A Shul” from the holy Rabbi Rabbs and we discuss this week’s Torah portion. I do a … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged grand rebbe, hot chicks, lukeisback, orthodox rabbis, orthodox shul, questions about god, rabbs, satmars, shul, torah portion
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When Did Thoughts Become Sinful?
In a 2001 lecture on Numbers 21, Dennis Prager fields a question from a Christian woman who said she was raised to regard impure thoughts as destructive to her soul. Dennis: “When Christianity did away with Jewish law, thoughts became … Continue reading
Posted in Christianity, Dennis Prager
Tagged christian clergy, Dennis Prager, impure thoughts, jewish law, orthodox rabbis, thinking thoughts
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The Drift Is Over?
Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky writes for the Jewish Journal: The recently released Statement of Principles concerning homosexuals within the Orthodox community has gotten a great deal of notice, both here and in Israel. The document was authored primarily by my dear … Continue reading
Posted in Homosexuality, Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy, R. Yosef Kanefsky, Rape
Tagged explicit articulation, helfgot, homosexual orientation, orthodox rabbis, paradigm shift, rabbi yosef, vanilla sex
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Where Are The Orthodox?
In the wake of last week’s flotilla mess, numerous non-Orthodox rabbis took to print to critique Israel’s response. Among them was Conservative rabbi Sharon Brous. Her complete lack of expertise in matters of security did not stop her from approvingly … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager, R. Bradley Shavit Artson, R. David Rue, R. Sharon Brous, R. Yehuda Bukspan, Rabbis
Tagged bradley shavit artson, conservative rabbi, Dennis Prager, flotilla, israeli policies, mossad, orthodox clergy, orthodox rabbis, security methods, torah scholar, torah scholars
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Rabbi Avi Weiss’s Bridge Too Far On Female Orthodox Rabbis
Rabbi Avi Weiss miscalculated. He thought he could get support on this issue without talking to anyone. His approach was the opposite of Chana Henkin‘s. She created a limited semicha (rabbinic ordination) for women to rule on Jewish law. She … Continue reading
Posted in Chana Henkin, Haredi, Orthodoxy, R. Avi Weiss, R. Yosef Kanefsky, YCT
Tagged chief rabbi, family purity, marc angel, orthodox rabbis, purity laws, rabba, rabbi avi weiss, rabbi weiss, s bridge, semicha
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You Shouldn’t Read Blogs
From a Torah perspective, blogs just don’t seem kosher. I have an instinctive reaction against women as Orthodox rabbis. It just doesn’t seem right. Similarly, blogs that talk about other people, it just doesn’t seem right. That’s what the goyim … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, Gossip, Los Angeles, New York, Orthodoxy, Personal
Tagged ghetto mentality, instinctive reaction, orthodox jew, orthodox rabbis, physical attributes, rate women, social mores, strange fire, torah perspective
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The Orthodox Rabbis Of Los Angeles
Andy* emails me: Dear Luke: I have sent to you a thank you note over the years but I never told you why. I went through hell in LA when the rabbis there mainly of chabad but also agudah and … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Orthodoxy
Tagged agudah, beverly hills high school, breslov, kitzur shulchan aruch, orthodox rabbis, talmudic scholar
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Why Doesn’t The Great Sin Of Pre-Marital Sex Get More Attention In Orthodox Life?
When I was growing up in Seventh-Day Adventist Christianity, the sin of fornication aka pre-marital sex received more attention than any other sin. It was the biggie. To do it, was to deny Christ and his love. I’ve never heard … Continue reading
Posted in Adventist, Christianity, Orthodoxy, Personal, Rabbis, Sex
Tagged Dennis Prager, flag football league, monogamous heterosexual marriage, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbis, pre marital sex, saturday night fever, shabbos afternoon
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The Ordination Of Women As Orthodox Rabbis
I’m told: There are many aspects to this and I do not believe that any one or two people can change things on their own. Orthodox Judaism is a religion of consensus. Sometimes ideas are discussed for decades before they … Continue reading
Posted in Modern Orthodox, Orthodoxy
Tagged avi weiss, ordination of women, orthodox judaism, orthodox rabbis, rav, sephardic world
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