The Problem of Too Much Emphasis on Emotion in Judaism

The following article appeared in the Letters to the Editor section of the Summer Issue of the Klal Perspectives Journal. If you would like to contact the author directly, his email is ytalansky@yahoo.com. by Yitzchak Talansky Rabbi Moshe Weinberger’s article, ”Just One Thing is Missing: The Soul,” must strike a chord in anyone concerned with [...]

Why Do Children Die?

The recent death of a young boy in a brutal murder shocked the frum community. This is only one of several tragic, strange deaths of our community’s children during the past few years. In 2009, a nine-year-old boy never woke up on Shabbos morning. The cause of death has still not yet been determined. A [...]

William Kolbrener Talks About Open Minded Torah

As you may know, Beyond BT contributor William Kolbrener earned an MA from Oxford and PhD from Columbia University and is currently a professor in the Department of English at Bar Ilan University in Israel. William is an internationally renowned authority on Renaissance poetry and philosophy, with books on John Milton and the proto-feminist Mary [...]

The Centrality of Appreciating Hashem’s Hashgachah

The Rambam’s 13 principles of faith can be grouped into three: – Belief in G-d – Belief in Prophecy – Belief in Hashgachah The Ramchal structures the first three sections of Derech Hashem along these lines with the fourth section emphasing Serving G-d. The famous Ramban at the end of Parshas Bo details how Yetzias [...]

Stop Playing G-d

By Rabbi Ben Tzion Shafier Eighty percent of our emunah problems and ninety percent of our questions on HASHEM stem from one mistake — we play G-d. Playing G-d means I know exactly what I need. I need to marry that woman. I need that job. I need my child to get into that school. [...]

You’re Covered: God’s Presence is Closer Than You Think

By Allison Josephs With four kids, ages seven and under, my husband and I have been exhausted for basically seven years straight. We’ve found that the best way to manage our sleep deprivation is by taking shifts and fortunately, the division of labor comes naturally in our house. When darkness falls on nights that he [...]

Facebook, Transparency and the Next World

Like everybody and his old chum from 10th grade biology, I’m on Facebook. Thanks to Facebook, reconnecting with people from the past has never been easier. Type in the name of someone you knew at any phase of your life – elementary school, summer camp, your first job out of college – and quite likely, [...]

The Refuah Comes Before the Maka

Since downsizing considerably to move from Pennsylvania to Highland Park, NJ, my husband and I have been sharing a closet in our bedroom for the past six years. Our turf is clearly divided, his belongings to the left, mine to the right, and like wool and linen, never the two shall mix. My husband is [...]

Overcoming the Fear of Being Insignificant

By Rucheli Manville Shalom to everyone here at BeyondBT, my name is Rucheli. I’m a recent graduate of the University of Central Florida and I’m now spending the year at the Mayanot Seminary in Yerushalayim. Over the course of my time here, I hope to share some of the insights gained while at a school [...]

Forks in the Road: Old Divisions, Modern Ramifications

Forks in the Road: Old Divisions, Modern Ramifications Rabbi Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer We Might Be a Little Late! Originally published here . This essay is some one hundred and fifty years late. Events since, some fortunate, most unfortunate, have blurred the differences between the great schools of thought that developed in the late eighteenth and [...]

Question of the Week: Is Different Always Better?

Rivka writes: I have, thank G-d, children of varying ages. I often find that I’m placed in a situation where I have to approve/disapprove or allow/permit certain activities that my children’s friends are engaging in. For example, we do not permit our children to attend movies. From time to time, my 11 year old will [...]

Living with Tension

Yaakov Avinu represents the highest level of perfection among the Avos. Avraham Avinu produced a Yishmael; Yitzchak Avinu produced an Esav. But Yaakov’s progeny became the Twelve Tribes; each one of them entered into Klal Yisrael. Avraham’s defining middah (characteristic) was chesed (loving-kindness); Yitzchak’s was the opposite, gevurah (strict judgment). Yaakov’s characteristic of emes (truth) [...]

Torah, Completeness and Happiness

My 52nd birthday is on Dec 2nd, so I wanted to share a short thought on happiness to mark the occasion. The Mishna in Avos (6:1) says: “Rabbi Meir said, anyone who engages in Torah study for its own sake merits many things. Not only that, but the entire world is worthwhile for him alone. [...]

A Different Sort of Religious Experience

The hard science types out there will disagree, but it really wasn’t what I expected at all. In fact, I wasn’t expecting anything as far as I can tell. Let me go back a bit and lay the groundwork here. My father, alav hashalom, was a very intelligent erudite individual who was also very good [...]

Consumerism and the Overspent Generation

By Rabbi Shafier www.TheShmuz.com ספר דברים פרק יב (כ) כִּי יַרְחִיב יְדֹוָד אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת גְּבֻלְךָ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֹכְלָה בָשָׂר כִּי תְאַוֶּה נַפְשְׁךָ לֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר בְּכָל אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר: רש”י על דברים פרק יב פסוק כ (כ) כי ירחיב וגו’ – למדה תורה דרך ארץ שלא יתאוה אדם לאכול בשר אלא מתוך רחבת [...]

What Must One Believe to Be Considered a True Torah Jew?

Dear Rabbi Weiman: Hi! I read your article “Hell No” on the Aish Website, and that led me to your website, kabbalahmadeeasy.com. Although I am FFB and was fortunate to have a typical Bais Yaakov education, my views on what Hashem is and wants is somewhat unique in my community. Your perspectives were like a [...]

Rabbi Akiva and the Curse of Torah Without Respect

By Simon Synett Rabbi Akiva had 12,000 pairs of students and they all died in one period because they didn’t treat one-another with respect. In Hebrew shelo nahagu kavod ze-lazeh. (Yevamos 62b) The gemara continues that from that time, the entire world was desolate until Rabbi Akiva took on the five apprentices who would later [...]

Am I Still a Baal Teshuvah?

By Shlomo I grew up in a relatively unaffiliated Jewish household. About ten years ago, I began on my path of religious observance. I studied in Yeshivas in America and in Israel, learning what it meant to be an observant Jew. However, I never was able to “fit the mold”. Anyone who knows me knows [...]

Our Fixation on Happy Endings

On Friday night, I heard a story – about a businessman in Baltimore who returned to Judaism late in life. Though he did not have the skills in Torah study of many of his new found peers, he found other ways to express his commitment to Torah and Jewish life – through tzedakah, charity and [...]

A Wholly Life

INTRODUCTION Dr. Moshe Kaplan If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race… Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of… but he is as prominent on the planet as any other people… The Jew saw [the Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans], beat them all, and is [...]

Popular Posts

• Do I need to Reconcile Science and Torah?
• Ultra
• Torah, Completeness and Happiness
• A Brief Introduction to the Works of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
• Rabbi Akiva and the Curse of Torah Without Respect
• What, Judaism Can Actually be Fun?
• Am I Still a Baal Teshuvah?
• Forks in the Road: Old Divisions, Modern Ramifications