Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 18

What a Way to End the Year

The year started off like any other. But on the last day of the year, seven people were killed in a terrorist attack, while the rest of the country miraculously survived a traumatic attack from Iran of 180 ballistic missiles. And meanwhile there are countless thousands of soldiers in Lebanon, not to mention the soldiers still in Gaza, and the hostages whose fate is still unknown. It’s all quite disturbing and surreal.

Then I saw someone tweet saw that the fact that Israel is rejoicing that no civ...

It's a Strange, Unpredictable World

What a year. And many people though that Covid would be the biggest event of our lifetime.

The year started with the greatest horror since the Holocaust. Unimaginable pain and suffering and death. And it’s far from over - indeed, for some people, it may never be over. But meanwhile, in the last two weeks, we’ve witnessed miracles that nobody saw coming. Even the IDF is taken aback at how much Hezbollah is in disarray.

Many different lessons have been learned this year. But there’s one overaching...

My Ridiculous and Amazing Idea

Recently I had an idea - one of the most amazing and important ideas I've ever had in my life. But I can't be proud of myself, because it's an idea that in retrospect is ridiculously obvious, and I cannot remotely justify why it took me so long to think of it.

The idea is that I should write a book about animals and Torah.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Didn't I already spend much of my life doing exactly that? Didn't I publish The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom, a monumental work th...

Torah vs. Daas Torah

The pretext that this Sunday’s prayer rally in Lakewood is about anything other than railing against the draft of charedim has been largely abandoned. Torah u’Mesorah - that’s the organization behind hundreds of Orthodox day schools, community kollelim, “Partners in Torah,” project SEED, etc. - sent out a mailing featuring not just the letter paying lip service to the war and the hostages (which was intended to encourage larger participation), but also the flyer I posted yesterday which was only...

The Trojan Tefillah

After last Sunday’s planned American charedi battle against the State of Israel was defeated by the State of Newark, there were also rumors that even within America’s charedi community, there was considerable opposition to it by the less extreme flank. And so this Sunday, there’s a different type of event that is being announced as taking place in Lakewood.

The headline at Matzav announces:

Thousands Expected at Monumental Atzeres Tefillah in Lakewood to Support Acheinu Bnei Yisroel

Wonderful!

Wit...

Are You Sick Of It?

Some people tell me that they’re sick of reading me post about charedim avoiding IDF service. I’m sure that they’re busy with lots of other things. Torah. Life. Work. Family. Getting ready for the Yamim Nora’im and Sukkot. Besides, it’s been a year of discussing these topics. Enough already!

Ha.

Today, the IDF mobilized two reserve brigades for a forthcoming invasion of Lebanon. My son’s hesder yeshiva emptied out. My nephews were called up. They have Torah and life and work and family. They’ve sp...

Crocodile Conflicts

On Sunday I was inside a large freezer room, inspecting a new exhibit being prepared for the Biblical Museum of Natural History - a large crocodile that had died at the wonderful zoo in Jerusalem. This particular crocodile’s enclosure had led to a very strange phenomenon a few years ago: an anti-Israel academic was triggered by the sign on the exhibit to launch a literary attack on the State of Israel.

You might recall my post on this from two years ago, Weaponizing Crocodiles Against Israel. The...

Yeshivish vs. Charedi

I was taken aback to receive the following newsletter from Mishpacha magazine:

Regardless of where you live and who you know, the events of last Simchas Torah had an indelible impact on us as a nation.
We want to hear how you got through this year.
 
“Since the war broke out, I’ve personally raised thousands of dollars in aid for military families. It’s so incredible to see how we are one nation”
 
“I may live in Lakewood, but my heart is in Eretz Yisrael”
 
“I haven’t slept through the night since my s...

Is Celebrating Beep Beep Moral?

Following the extraordinary operations last week with the beepers and the walkie-talkies, attributed by (almost) everyone to the Mossad/IDF, there was much celebration in Israel. In at least one yeshiva, there was dancing. The jokes and memes were endless.

Some people were bothered by this. Is it consistent with Judaism to react in such a way? Does it not say in Proverbs that one should not rejoice in the downfall of one’s enemy? Is it not said that God protested the angels singing over the drow...

UPDATE: Torah Defeated

An update to the previous post: It turns out that Sunday’s 150,000 person charedi battle in New Jersey against Israel has been cancelled/ postponed. The given reason is that the necessary state permits could not be obtained.

Apparently Torah is strong enough to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and the West Bank Palestinians and Iran, but it’s not strong enough to overcome the state of New Jersey.