Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 17

A New Fleet of Arks

(Today, Tishrei 25, is the official day of remembrance/mourning in Israel for Oct 7th. The date is controversial, and it feels a bit strange, because that terrible day never fully ended here, and it was already “re-lived” on Oct 7th this year, and again on Simchat Torah. I suspect that in future years, Tishrei 25 will feel organically more appropriate. Meanwhile, this post is on a different topic.)

With this week being parashat Noach, I have some exciting news to share. The unique collection of m...

Ten Questions On Evolution And Judaism

(We are coming up to Bereishis, so here's a re-post of an article that I originally published in The Jewish Press)

Evolution is feared by many as being heretical. But is this really the case? Here are ten questions about evolution and Judaism, along with brief answers. This does not substitute for the detailed discussion that this topic requires; it is merely intended as an introduction.

1) Evolution is alleged to have taken place over millions of years. But doesn't the Torah teach that the univer...

A Meeting of Natans

Last week I had the great honor of hosting a truly great man: Natan Sharansky. It was truly exciting for me to meet one of my lifelong heroes.

I told him that we have a lot in common: we're both called Natan, both of our wives are called Avital, and we were both persecuted by an authoritarian regime which tried to silence us!

Of course, the differences end there. Sharansky faced the Gulag, I faced the Gedolim. Sharansky did dozens of hunger strikes; deprive me of my morning cup of tea, and I’d do...

Jewish Obfuscation

To the Editors:

Thank you for another excellent issue of Jewish Action. It would be truly wonderful if your magazine could be a weekly instead of a quarterly; it presents perspectives and voices that are sadly lacking from the existing Orthodox weekly magazines. There is, however, to be some frustrating ambiguity in one important article and some disinformation in another.

Rabbi Hauer’s lead article was about the importance of unity and bemoaning the lack of it. While he did not specify which def...

The Lie of Achdus

Sukkos has a strong theme of achdus. It follows Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur in which we pray that everyone will become agudah achas, one unit. There’s the idea of the 70 offerings on behalf of the seventy nations. There’s the famous Midrash about the Arba Minim representing different types of Jews coming together. The etrog with taste and fragrance represents those with both Torah and good deeds; the lulav with taste (of dates) but no fragrance represents those who have Torah but no good deeds;...

A Different Type of Viduy

Here is a beautiful extract of a speech about approaching Yom Kippur by Rav Melamed, author of Peninei Halacha. He says that we shouldn't only confess and articulate the things that we regret, but also the things that we are proud of. And he says that we, the national-religious community, have a lot to be proud of. We raised our children to love the land, to protect the nation, to combine Torah with work, to care about others - and they are doing it.

Wishing you all a gmar chatima tova.

The Great Torah-Science Controversy

Today marks a significant anniversary. It’s exactly twenty years since the fateful morning when I received a phone call from Bnei Brak, informing me that the “Gedolei Torah” have found my books on Torah and science to be heretical, and warning me that I have until the end of the day to withdraw my books and publicly recant, or face scandal and humiliation. With no legitimate reason whatsoever to do otherwise, I went for option 2.

The rest is history. For those who remember those upsetting yet he...

Torah vs. Daas Torah, again

Who is fighting and winning this war?

The conventional perspective is that the soldiers are fighting it, of course, just like in every war around the world. From a religious perspective, there is also a Divine plan and the potential for special Divine assistance, which in turn depends on the merit of the nation. And this merit is created by a broad picture of the religious and moral state of the nation, not by what a small group of people is doing in a particular aspect of their bein adam l’Makom...

October 7th Reflections

On October 7th, 2023, I happened to be sick with a virus. And so instead of being in shul, I was at home when the sirens sounded. My daughter, who was a commander in the IDF and had to leave her phone on during Shabbat/Chag, was receiving calls about helping organize transportation for soldiers. I looked out of the window and saw the heartbreaking sight of our neighbors hugging their son goodbye as he left for unknown dangers.

For many Jews, even those not directly impacted by the Hamas attack or...

The Perfect Charedi Storm

While a day before Rosh HaShana we were celebrating Iran’s failure to kill anyone or cause serious damage, along with the general success of the war against Hezbollah, Rosh HaShana came in as we heard about six soldiers that had been killed. When I went to shul, which is normally very crowded for Rosh HaShana, I was struck at how many empty seats there were; then I realized that it was because so many young men had been called back into the reserves. My son’s hesder yeshivah is half empty. Durin...