- https://PayPal.Me/lukeisback
"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: yom tov
The Loss Of Privacy
Ziona Greenwald writes for The Jewish Press: Anthony Weiner is the latest in a long line of public figures caught by surprise at the unveiling of their own closet misdeeds. Weiner (and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the still-presumed-innocent Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
Tagged anthony weiner, arnold schwarzenegger, dominique strauss kahn, fdr drive, south street seaport, yom tov
Comments Off on The Loss Of Privacy
Ushpizin
Rabbi Rabbs recommends this blog post on internet safety for those interested in online blogs about Orthodox Judaism. Rabbi Rabbs writes (and this is a partial excerpt from a discussion): I thought the movie was only so-so. Am I the … Continue reading
Posted in R. Rabbs
Tagged mad rush, melanie griffith, partial excerpt, rabbs, sharim, ushpizin, yom tov
Comments Off on Ushpizin
Marrying A Convert
It does not make sense to me why somebody Orthodox from birth would want to marry a convert or a baal teshuva (penitent). I figure the more you have in common, the better. There tends to be a naive wide-eyed … Continue reading
Posted in Conversion, Orthodoxy
Tagged baal teshuva, heshy, jews in america, orthodox conversion, orthodox jew, orthodox judaism, yom tov
Comments Off on Marrying A Convert
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
Comments Off on Don’t Let It Fester
This Week’s Torah Portion – Emor 5769
Steve Brizel writes: Kedushas Kehunah and Kedushas Am Yisrael R. Aharon Lichtenstein explains why non-Kohanim can and should emulate the Kohen in our everyday lives: link R. Yisocher Frand illustrates why the Halachos of Tumas Kohanim, even for a minor, … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged aharon lichtenstein, berel wein, dovid gottlieb, kohen gadol, shlomo riskin, yom tov
Comments Off on This Week’s Torah Portion – Emor 5769
I Love Therapy
I walk in filled with shame and despair. I see my life squeezed of hope. There are so few options. I’m doomed to repeat my sins. Then I speak and stammer and close my eyes and shift in my seat … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
Tagged american nanny, lashon hara, luke ford, orthodox jews, rabbi yisrael, yom tov
Comments Off on I Love Therapy
Reforming Orthodox Judaism
Joe emails: 1. No second day of Yom Tov. 2. Davening should be shortened to just the shema, the shemonah esreh and the psalm of the day. The rest of the time alloted should be for communal and interactive torah … Continue reading
Posted in Orthodoxy
Tagged forensic justification, orthodox judaism, shabbat prayers, study talmud, talmud study, yom tov
Comments Off on Reforming Orthodox Judaism
New Torah
Rabbi Gil Students writes: Meorot Journal 7:1, September 2008/Tishrei 5769 (link) Introduction to the Tishrei 5769 Edition by Dr. Eugene Korn "Dat Ha-Emet" in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah by R. Chaim Rapoport Maimonides’ "True Religion": For Jews or All Humanity? A … Continue reading
Posted in Torah
Tagged chaim rapoport, marc angel, mishneh torah, orthodox judaism, shlomo riskin, yom tov
Comments Off on New Torah
Time Off From God
This morning the rabbi said there should be no time off from God. He bemoaned how kids in his religious school were unaware of the Torah portions between the middle of Bamidbar (Numbers) and the beginning of Devarim (Deuteronomy) because … Continue reading
Posted in God, Orthodoxy
Tagged observant jew, orthodox judaism, religious observance, summer respite, torah portions, yom tov
Comments Off on Time Off From God
It Was Long And Hot
I’m referring to my Passover. Like all Jewish holidays with the extra day of yom tov (holy day) because we live in the diaspora, it was more of an endurance test than a spiritual uplift. I want to join Dennis … Continue reading
Posted in Passover, Personal
Tagged cult, Dennis Prager, diaspora, endurance test, holy day, jewish holidays, Jews, orthodox judaism, Passover, rigor, sheni, spiritual uplift, yom tov
Comments Off on It Was Long And Hot