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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:
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- * 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)
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* 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)
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* 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)
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* 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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Tag Archives: Marc B. Shapiro
When Do You Report Child Abuse?
Marc B. Shapiro writes: After my previous post on ultra-Orthodox tolerance of sexual abuse, there were some who doubted that there is any rabbinic support for this. Those who can read Hebrew, please read the following responsum from R. Menasheh … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Agudath Israel, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged agudat israel, Marc B. Shapiro, molester, no doubt, sexual abuser, world time
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Murder For Pious Reasons
Marc B. Shapiro writes: What is new is that parents are now beginning to stand up. Here is a passage from a nineteenth-century memoir from which we see that in the past even murder was covered up. (The case described … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged angry teachers, detroit 2002, knotted hair, Marc B. Shapiro, melamed, orthodox world
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How Should We Deal With Heretics?
Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro writes: For parashat Metzora (p. 231), he quotes R. Kook’s statement in Ezrat Kohen, no. 21, that even if one expresses heretical thoughts, this doesn’t mean that he really is a heretic. Rather, it could be … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged free thinkers, heretical thoughts, Marc B. Shapiro, observant jew, parashat metzora, torah community
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Do Great Rabbis Simply Repeat Talmudic Tractates To Each Other?
Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro writes: R. Avraham knew an enormous amount about the history of great Torah scholars, and while he didn’t have a critical sense, he knew when a story was nonsense.[20] For example, R. Shalom Schwadron told a … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged critical sense, Marc B. Shapiro, schwadron, shefer, torah scholars, tractate
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Was The Hatam Sofer An Extremist?
Here’s some background on the 18-19th Century rabbi the Hatam Sofer. Professor Marc B. Shapiro blogs: The Hatam Sofer is often portrayed as both a religious extremist as well as lacking a critical sense. The first assumption, that he was … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged critical sense, hatam, jerusalem talmud, Marc B. Shapiro, orthodox theology, professor marc
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What If The Sages Are Wrong About Scientific Facts?
Dr. Marc B. Shapiro writes: Neusatz is also explicit that very few aggadot are actually the result of the Sages’ ruah ha-kodesh (p. 32a). He states that Maimonides’ astronomical views in the Mishneh Torah do not come from a holy … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged kodesh, Marc B. Shapiro, mishneh torah, sages, scientific knowledge
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Is The Torah Historically Accurate?
Professor Marc B. Shapiro writes: I summarized R. Eleazar Ashkenazi’s position in his Tzafnat Paneah, pp. 29-30, as follows: He also offers another explanation for the lengthy lifespans [in the Torah], namely, that the Torah recorded what the popular belief … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged conceptual difference, Marc B. Shapiro, popular belief, professor marc, scientific presentation, torah scholar
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What’s The Halacah?
Dr. Marc B. Shapiro writes: Yet my point is that the Jewish people didn’t need any specific halakhic justification, because they knew from their intuitive natural morality what was proper. This is what R. Yehudah Amital meant when he said … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged amital, Hasidim, Marc B. Shapiro, mesorah, modern invention, natural morality
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When The Masses Have Greater Wisdom Than Torah Scholars
Rabbi Marc B. Shapiro writes Let me also return to the issue of the Jewish masses’ natural morality vs. the rabbinically tuned morality of the scholars, and how according to R. Kook the former is superior to that of the … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged jewish masses, Marc B. Shapiro, natural impulse, natural morality, orthodox world, torah scholars
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Why Are Some Biblical Prophecies Written In Ungrammatical Hebrew?
Dr. Marc B. Shapiro writes: Neusatz also has an interesting explanation as to why certain prophecies, in particular those of Ezekiel, are not written in proper grammatical Hebrew. This was already commented on by Abarbanel. Abarbanel simply attributes this to … Continue reading →