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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: talmud
High Anxiety
I got up at 6:30 this morning, took a shower, cooked some oatmeal and turned on my computer. As I was reading the New York Times, my monitor shut off with the message, “Monitor is going to sleep!” Nooooo! I … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged high anxiety, hp workstation xw4400, left shoulder, oatmeal, safe mode, talmud
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Rabbis At An Exhibition
In a 1996 lecture on Exodus 20, Dennis Prager says: There was a great hesitation to use art for anything but worshipping God [in the Jewish tradition]. The rabbis didn’t sit down, generally speaking, and paint. We didn’t have Hillel … Continue reading
Posted in Dennis Prager
Tagged Dennis Prager, Hillel, jewish tradition, talmud, worshipping god
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Today Was Great Because…
* I studied a page of Talmud. * I talked to people. I let them know my situation. I want to get married. It’s weird being the only one in shul not wearing a prayer shawl (never married men in … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged prayer shawl, prayer shawls, raisin bread, shul, shuls, talmud
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Naming Sources
David writes on Hirhurim: "Maybe the Rambam had a stronger basis on which to be ‘somech’ his methodology of not naming sources, i.e. from Moshe Rabbenu himself. After all, at the beginning of Devari-im when Moshe starts his review of … Continue reading
Posted in Hirhurim
Tagged appointment of judges, moshe, rambam, somech, talmud, tempest in a teapot
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Judaism’s Balance Between Individual Freedom & Communal Needs
My dad would say: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity." Judaism has this balance down. It records minority opinions in the Talmud. Full video here.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Says Conversion Courts Too Strict
Gadi Pickholz emails: "Dude, once again it takes the Sefardi Rabbis like the Rishon L’Zion Ovadya Yosef and Rav Toledano, head of the London & Amsterdam Sephardi Bet Din, to express the voice of reason and tolerance over the charedi … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion
Tagged archenemy, ashkenazi, babylonia, chief rabbinate, concubine, gadi, halachic authority, jerusalem post, litvak, patriarch abraham, rabbi ovadia yosef, rabbi shlomo amar, Rabbis, rishon, sanhedrin, sephardi, talmud, timna, toledano, voice of reason
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I’m Live In My Chat Room With Rabbi Gadol
From my chat room: RabbiG: I’m here to do an audit. RabbiG: Tzitzit – check. RabbiG: Keepah – check RabbiG: Beard – it grows jonnie: But I like his cheeky smile RabbiG: Virtuous women in chat room – check QuixoticLass: … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged aramaic, beard, chat room, cheeky smile, Education, Emma, gadol, grits, hebrew, lulav, nbsp, neighbour, ql, rabbi, Rabbis, resonance, resonant frequency, rooster, talmud, utensil, vibrations, virtuous women, yorkshire, yorkshire terrier
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A Reader Just Sent Me A $1,000 Paypal Donation To Further My Ministry
So I’m on my live cam after a hard night learning Talmud, and I’m chatting on the phone and swigging my green tea and doing countless tasks while paying part-time attention to my chat, and after Guest 117 left, he … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged countless tasks, followers, ford, ford fan, gentiles, going hollywood, green tea, guidance, hillary, Hollywood, live cam, luke ford, nbsp, obama, oy, part time, paypal, silence, talmud, time attention
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Was The Rav Modern Orthodox?
Marc B. Shapiro blogs: Since I mentioned some stories from Halakhic Man that show that the Rav did not have a Modern Orthodox ethos, I will also say something about the following story, which some have wondered about. Once … Continue reading
Posted in Marc B. Shapiro
Tagged adherent, Christianity, elitism, hasidism, Marc B. Shapiro, Modern Orthodox, nbsp, notion, nots, prayers, psalm book, renown, rsquo, saints, seforim, Synagogue, talmud, torah study, traditional judaism, younger generation
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Should Rabbinic Judges In A Business Dispute Have Business Expertise?
Or is it sufficient that they know Jewish law and the Talmud and related commentaries and codes? I’ve heard complaints that the judges on the RCC’s Beit Din have no business expertise and it shows when they try to judge … Continue reading →