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"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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- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
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- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
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- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
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* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
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* 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)
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* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
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Tag Archives: gil student
Equality In Shul
I think people who feel secure with themselves find most shuls to have a large amount of social equality, about as much as is desirable. For those with a chip on their shoulders, Jewish life revolves around the rich, blah, … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged blah blah, communal leader, economic circumstances, gil student, social inequality, yeshivish
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Provocative New Book On Orthodox Jewish Philosophers
Rabbi Gil Student writes: When I first opened R. Ira Bedzow’s recent book, Halakhic Man, Authentic Jew: Modern Expressions of Orthodox Thought from Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits, I was surprised. I had expected to find summaries … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
Tagged gil student, jewish philosophers, joe schmoe, joseph b soloveitchik, rabbi eliezer, rabbi joseph b soloveitchik, thought structures
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Gay Marriage Battle Lost
Rabbi Gil Student writes: Our interest is in the cultural atmosphere. As Orthodox Jews, we believe that homosexuality is not the norm. While we do not want to legislate what people do in their bedrooms and we certainly oppose discrimination … Continue reading
Posted in Homosexuality, Orthodoxy
Tagged family purity, gil student, mainstream view, orthodox jews, religious couple, secular jews
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Papal Infallibility And Its Parallels In Orthodox Judaism
Rabbi Gil Student writes: There is a review in the new issue of First Things of a book by a Protestant scholar on papal infallibility (link – subscription required). To my surprise, mainly due to my ignorance of Catholic history, … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim, Marc B. Shapiro, Orthodoxy
Tagged catholic dogma, catholic history, gil student, orthodox judaism, papal infallibility, psak, roman catholic church, Torah
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Using Torah For Secular Songs
Orthodox rabbi Gil Student blogs: The Forward has an article about a recent trend of mainstream Israeli singers using passages from the Bible and other religious texts in songs (link). While it is not clear to me how much of … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim, Music, Torah
Tagged gil student, jewish tradition, orthodox rabbi, religious texts, sacred verses, sarit hadad, secular songs, shma yisrael, youtube
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Was Bible Scholar Nechama Leibowitz A Feminist?
Rabbi Gil Student writes: The main question discussed is Nehama’s relationship with feminism. On the one hand, she was a female Torah teacher long before they became common, as they now are in some communities. And she was such a … Continue reading
Posted in Feminism, Orthodoxy
Tagged bible scholar, blu greenberg, gil student, nechama leibowitz, nehama, religious emotion
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The Religious Zionist Approach To Jewish Law
Rabbi Gil Student writes: When I look at the halakhic writings that have emerged from the Religious Zionist sector in Israel, I am sometimes highly uncomfortable. In a recently published Orthodox Forum book, Religious Zionism Post Disengagement: Future Directions, there … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim, Israel
Tagged forum book, gil student, halakhah, national question, orthodox forum, religious zionism
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Can The Homosexual Be Cured?
Rabbi Gil Student writes: When I mentioned in an earlier post (link) that I had received a copy of Light In The Closet: Torah, Homosexuality and the Power to Change by Arthur Goldberg, there was an almost immediate negative reaction … Continue reading
Posted in Homosexuality
Tagged arthur goldberg, false arguments, gil student, homosexual acts, jewish attitudes, sexual orientations
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Equality Is A Goyisha Value
Rabbi Gil Student writes: Jewish law has Jews treat other Jews in a somewhat more favorable fashion, e.g. forbidding a Jew to charge interest on a loan to another Jew but permitting him to do it on a loan to … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism
Tagged aliyot, Dennis Prager, different fashion, gentile, gil student, jewish law, keith obermann, preferential treatment, relevant standards, worst person in the world
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A New Prayer Book From UK Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Rabbi Gil Student writes: Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks at a New York luncheon celebrating the publication of the new Koren Sacks Siddur (link). R. Shaul Robinson of Lincoln Square Synagogue arranged … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim, R. Jonathan Sacks
Tagged chief rabbi, ezras torah, gil student, lincoln square synagogue, rabbi jonathan sacks, sir jonathan
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