Topics

All posts organized by subject, parasha, and moadim

Topics

(for parshios see below)

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Moadim

• Why Do We Say Selichos?

• Selichos...A Follow Up

• Why Do We Recite Hataras Nedarim?

• Why Blow 100 קולות on Rosh Hashana?

• Who Would Want to Keep Two Days of Yom Kippur?

• Should I Buy a Chazon Ish Esrog?

• The Four Species: waved but never shaken

• Do You Really Own Your Own Lulav?

• Building the Perfect Esrog

• You Will Eat Raw Meat and You Will Enjoy It

• Visualizing Traditional Yom Tov Davening

• Mechiras Chometz: Overselling a Mitzva

• Wine, Vinegar, Barley, and the Providence of Chametz

• When Haggada Numbers Aren't Meant to be Taken Literally

• Guiding Fools: the Jerusalem Talmud's Haggada

• Growing From Sefira Isn't Easy as It Looks

• Women Working on Rosh Chodesh

• What Are We Supposed To Be Doing on Tisha B'Av?

The Tzedaka Industry

• The Economics of the Modern Tzedaka Industry

• How Modern Tzedaka Organizations Can Be More Effective

• Adding Transparency to Tzedaka Organizations

• Tzedaka Emails and the Criminal Misuse of Public Space

• Whatever Happened to Those Frum "Life Insurance" Programs?

• Shekalim, Financial Controls, and Mosdos HaTorah

• Government Funding vs. Torah Ideals

Chinuch

• Is More Torah Always Better?

• Who Should Control Torah Education?

• Are Yeshiva Programs Planned?

• Thinking About What We Teach

• Are We Getting Close to Robot Rabbis?

• Where Does Torah Greatness Come From?

• What's the True Value of a Mitzva?

• Are We Sure We Know How to Read Torah Sources?

• Torah Study and the Value of Scholarship

• Tried Getting Your Kids Into a Lakewood School Recently?

• Finding God in Natural Law

Kabbala

• Strange Stories and Reverse Allegories

• Just What Are You Singing About?

• Why Do We Recite Hataras Nedarim?

• Must One Believe That the Zorah is Authoritative?

• Struggling to Understand the Nefesh Hachaim

Jewish Economics

• Making Sense of the Sheitel Industry

• The Mystery of Jewish Economics

• What Does It Really Cost To Be Frum?

• Pre-Pesach Frum Consumer Price Index Update

• Retail Product Pricing and Halacha

• Torah Observance and Financial Stability

• Private Economies and the Public Tax Burden

• Diamond Engagement Rings and Successful marriages

• Do You Really Own Your Own Lulav?

• Surviving (and Winning) the Coming Fertility Crisis

• Are There Limits to How Much Profit Your Business Can Earn?

• How an entire category of Torah law actually fell out of practice due to changing economies

• Some Data Analysis Methodologies From the Gemara

• Whatever Happened to Those Frum "Life Insurance" Programs?

The Kashrus Industry

• Understanding the Evolution of Kashrus in North America

• What Does the Torah Say About Checking for Bugs?

Jewish Society

• What Can't be Said: social engagement in the Torah world

• Frum Opinions: Analysing the Survey Results

• Should Insurance Companies Run the World?

• Web Search Patterns and Jewish History

• More Jewish Web Search Patterns

• Coercion and Torah

• Does This Insight Perfectly Capture the Contemporary Frum Consumer Spirit?

• Civil Infrastructure and a Torah State

• How Was the Mishkan Actually Designed?

• Measuring Charedim

• Adjusting Strategy for Changing Demographics

• Is Analyzing Jewish Population Numbers Even Permitted?

• Is There a Shidduch Crisis?

• The Value of Specialization

• Has the Prohibition of Mesirah Changed?

• What we can learn from the huge dating/marriage problem in non-Jewish society

• An Important Update to the Shidduch Story

• Resolving the Shidduch Age Gap Theory Debate

• Addressing Alienation in the Torah world

• Smartphone Rejection and Bad Middos

Career Education

• How to Plan Your Career Preparation

• Career Prep: Self-Directed Learning

• Are Frum Career Colleges Worth the Cost?

• Frum Career Colleges: Reflections on the Survey Results

Financial Education

• All the information needed to avoid a lifetime of pain can be acquired in a half an hour

• But It'll Be Cheaper if You Pay Cash

• Articulating the Obvious

• How Much Should a Chumra Cost?

Health and Security

• Understanding Digital Privacy

• Is It Possible To Overdo Medical Care?

• Responding to Abuse

• Thinking About Road Safety

• Testing the Limits of Medical Free Choice in the Orthodox Community

• Halacha and War

• Understanding Violent Crime

Minhagim

• Why Do We Say Selichos

• Selichos Follow Up

• Why Blow 100 Kolos on Rosh Hashana

• The Four Species: waved but never shaken

• Should I Buy a Chazon Ish Isrog?

• How Should We Think About Halacha?

• Visualizing Traditional Yom Tov Davening

• Women Working on Rosh Chodesh

• Who Would Want to Keep Two Days of Yom Kippur?

• Keeping Track of an Ever-Changing Siddur

• Visiting the Dead

• Mixed Swimming and Halacha

• How Should We Respond to Tragedy and Crisis?

• What's Really Behind Yeshivishe Hats?

• Beards and Payos: When Fashion Drifts Away from Halacha

History

• Why Did Ramchal Write Mesilas Yesharim?

• A History of Torah Observance

• Your Soul Ain't What It Used To Be

• Is the Text of Our Torah Scrolls Accurate?

• Lost In Translation: was the Septuagint actually a good thing?

• Wine, Vinegar, Barley, and the Providence of Chametz

• So There's Actually No Connection Between Rome and Edom?

• Where Middos Make the Difference: remembering Rav Naftali Friedler z”l

• Thinking About God

• You Will Eat Raw Meat and You Will Enjoy It

Torah Study

• Is Derush Part of Torah?

• When Is a Proof Not (Really) a Proof?

• God Really, Really Wants Us to Understand. But What? And Why?

• Adjusting Torah

• Which Jews Go to War: Torah and Derush

• How Did Chazal Want Us to Think About the Stuff They Taught Us?

• Does Torah Necessarily Lead to Wisdom?

• Whatever Happened to Daas Torah?

• Strange Rumors About Bitachon and Talmud Torah

• What Exactly Is Talmud Torah?

Torah and Government

• Leadership, authority, and transparency in public life

• Divine right of kings and other ways to understand social authority

• What's the ideal population from the perspective of good governance?

• How the state has no business being kind to its citizens

• Balancing the instinct for power against the dangers of overconfidence

• Government, the Rule of Law, and Applying David's Tehilim to the Real World

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Topics by Parshios

Beraishis

• The search for consensus in defining Jewish approaches to "nefesh" and "neshama"

Chayai Sarah

• Are We Sure We Know How to Read Torah Sources?

Toldos

• Guiding Fools: the Jerusalem Talmud's Haggada

Vayeshev

• Do derashos add light to their sources, or does it really work the other way around?

Vayishlach

• So There's Actually No Connection Between Rome and Edom?

Yisro

• How Should We Think About Halacha?

• The Value of Specialization

Titzave

• The Four Species: waved but never shaken

Ki Sisa

• Is Analyzing Jewish Population Numbers Even Permitted?

• Selichos...A Follow Up

Shemini

• Applying the Hirschian System to Taharah

• Taharos and the Modern World

Emor

• Growing From Sefira Isn't Easy as It Looks

Kedoshim

• Should Torah sources be misrepresented to promote innovative halachic positions?

Behar

• Torah Observance and Financial Stability

• Retail Product Pricing and Halacha

• Are There Limits to How Much Profit Your Business Can Earn?

• How an entire category of Torah law actually fell out of practice due to changing economies

Bechukosai

• Is It Possible To Overdo Medical Care?

Balak

• Is it possible to reliably decipher ambiguous midrashim using intellectual tools?

Matos

• Which Jews God to War: Torah and Derush

V'eschanan

• How Much Should a Chumra Cost?

• Thinking About God

Re'eh

• Torah Observance and Financial Stability

• Not every popular story is true. And not every popular story even makes sense.

Ki Tzatzai

• What Does the Torah Say About Checking for Bugs?

Ki Savo

• Who says the Torah should never have been translated to other languages?

Nitzavim

• God Really, Really Wants Us to Understand. But Understand What? And Why?

Vayelech

• A History of Torah Observance

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