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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:
- 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)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
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: joseph b soloveitchik
The Rav Was Not A Zionist?
Marc B. Shapiro writes: To give one example of his many polemics, readers of the journal will never forget how he targeted R. Elya Svei. Yet he wouldn’t mention him by name. Instead, and as a way to show how … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, R. J. B. Soloveitchik
Tagged intellectual freedom, joseph b soloveitchik, Marc B. Shapiro, norman lamm, r joseph, svei
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Jewish News
From TorahMusings.com: ▪ Rabbis finally break silence on sex abuse ▪ American Orthodoxy and Its Discontents ▪ RCA Examining Its Guidelines For Individual Membership of Yeshiva Chovevei Torah ▪ Big Brother at a kosher restaurant near you ▪ How do Ashkenazim live long, despite bad … Continue reading
Posted in Jews
Tagged agudath israel of america, american orthodoxy, arlington national cemetery, chovevei torah, joseph b soloveitchik, rabbi joseph b soloveitchik
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The Rav Vs. The Eruv
Dr. Marc B. Shapiro blogs: In Boston, as long as R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik was active, there was no eruv. The Rav publicly declared: I am opposed to the establishment of eruvin. An eruv in American means the abolishment of … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged bostoner rebbe, Eruv, joseph b soloveitchik, Marc B. Shapiro, orthodox world, r joseph
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The Chemical Method Of Studying Talmud
Dr. Marc B. Shapiro blogs: The Ridbaz’ attack on the Brisker method is well known. In the introduction to his responsa, Beit Ridbaz (Jerusalem, 1908), Ridbaz writes as follows: A certain rabbi invented the "chemical" method of study. Those in … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro, Rabbis
Tagged joseph b soloveitchik, Marc B. Shapiro, oral torah, r joseph, responsa, torah study
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The Shabbos Elevator
Rabbi Gil Student writes: A ruling by leading authorities in Israel was recently published in a newspaper, prohibiting the use of so-called "Shabbos Elevators" (I, II). This has led to a big confusion, with people objecting and be unsure of … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged elyashiv, extenuating circumstances, gil student, hotel in israel, joseph b soloveitchik, leading authorities
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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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The Nechama Leibowitz Biography
Rabbi Gil Student writes: In discussing the new 600-page biography by Yael Unterman, Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Bible Scholar, a friend remarked that he didn’t like it at all because it is just a collection of ma’aselakh, stories. I told … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged cafes in berlin, joseph b soloveitchik, menachem schneerson, menahem mendel, nechama leibowitz, nehama leibowitz
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