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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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