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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: shabbat
The Guy Next To You In Shul May Well Be Homeless
Unable to pay the rent or to pay their mortgage, some Orthodox Jews I know in Pico-Robertson are homeless. They’re living out of their cars. They have access to somebody’s bathroom where they shower and relieve themselves and charge their … Continue reading
Posted in Homeless, Orthodoxy
Tagged american jewry, divorced fathers, free wifi, jewish america, laptops, orthodox jews, public library branches, shabbat, tv shows
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I Like Strong Women
At Shabbat dinner, a woman turned to me and said, “Do you like strong women?” “Yes,” I said. “How did you know? Because I’m a writer and a teacher of Alexander Technique, therefore I am a sensitive guy?” “I’ve got … Continue reading
Posted in Dating, Personal
Tagged Alexander Technique, sensitive guy, shabbat, shabbat dinner, strong women
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YP: Chassidism ain’t quite what it used to be
Email from [email protected]: “Join us this Shabbat morning, November 13, at 9:30 AM, as we read from the Torah from the Book of Genesis. This week’s reading is about Yaakov’s marriage to Rachel and Leah and the deception of Lavan … Continue reading
Posted in Hasidim
Tagged book of genesis, lavan, shabbat, shabbat morning, wife swap
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Social Anxiety
So I was in therapy the other day talking about the social anxiety I often feel on Shabbat and Jewish holidays because I’m not married with kids and normal. “So what do you say to yourself when you are feeling … Continue reading
Life Is Less Lonely With God
More Wonder emails: I just watched one of your videos when you described how you marginalize yourself and are afraid to be open to others along with other things such as missing out on a “normal” life etc. I hope … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged chassidus, dly, marginalization, rabbi nachman, shabbat
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Yisroel Pensack: Some Thoughts on the Sentencing Hearing of Sholom Rubashkin
A sentencing hearing in the financial fraud case of former Agriprocessors kosher slaughterhouse manager and Lubavitcher chassid Sholom Rubashkin is scheduled to begin tomorrow (Wednesday) in federal court in Iowa. There is a concept in Judaism that each Shabbat “blesses,” … Continue reading
Posted in Agriprocessors, Chabad, Ethics, Fraud, Judaism, Kashrut, Torah, Truth, Yisroel Pensack
Tagged animal slaughter, chillul Hashem, conduit for blessing, confession, egypt, federal court, Iowa, lubavitcher, lubavitcher rebbe, Pesach sheni, Rashi, sacrificing animals, second Passover, sentencing hearing, shabbat, Sholom Rubashkin, wages, weights and measures, yom kippur
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Disturbing Dream
Last night, I dreamt that I befriended Michael Vick. I had him over to Shabbat dinner with some girls and my rabbi. After dinner, I got up on the couch with a couple of girls and mounted them (one at … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged camper van, oy vey, shabbat, shabbat dinner, shul
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Don’t Let It Fester
So when I don’t like things in a relationship, my tendency is to distance myself or to find a new partner or to do passive aggressive things to hurt my partner or to send her a long angry email explaining … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged Alexander Technique, bad feelings, emotional safety, new partner, shabbat, storytelling class, yom tov
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I Hate Waiting For My Calls To Be Returned
It’s Saturday night. Where is she? Does she have cheating on her mind? Is she between another girls’ thighs? I hate waiting for my calls to be returned. I feel unloved. As every minute ticks by, I feel less important. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged accurate perception, manly man, pursuer, shabbat, unloved, yom kippur
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‘Sima’s Undergarments For Women’
I read this new novel straight through last Shabbat. I loved its story about an old life redeemed by a beautiful girl. I interviewed the author, Ilana Stanger-Ross, on March 19. Luke: "When you were a child, what did you … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Literature
Tagged career ambitions, Facebook, high school friends, israeli girl, new novel, shabbat, sima, sound of falling rain, stanger, upper middle class
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