Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 25

The Holocaust and Israel

In a year when a mini-Holocaust took place in Israel, and countless people around the world are calling for the genocide of Israel and even of the Jewish people as a whole, Yom HaShoah takes on particular significance. The relationship between the Holocaust and Israel is profound. But it’s not necessarily what people think.

The Holocaust certainly helped the formation of Israel receive international support. After the horrors of the destruction of European Jewry, many people realized that perhaps...

Challah With Keys? Give Me Bagels With Locks.

On the Shabbos following Pesach, there is a custom of some to bake "Shlissel Challah" - challah with the design of a key, or challah with a real key actually baked into it. It is alleged to be a segulah for parnassah (sustenance).

There's a debate about the origins of this custom, with some claiming that it is rooted in Christian and/or pagan practices, while others defend it as having Jewish origins. Yet, unlike certain hyper-rationalists, I'm usually not so fervently opposed to such things even...

The Reform of Agudah

It’s frustrating when your kid says that they “need” a smartphone. Smartphones are very helpful, along with their drawbacks, but until you can only pay for things with smartphones, they certainly aren’t absolutely essential. And that’s obviously true, because all of us over 25 grew up without them!

In the absence of a new situation, it’s logically impossible to claim that something new is essential. And, of course, it’s all the more logically impossible to claim that something new, which is diam...

The Irrelevance of Zionism

There’s a frenzy of talk about the legitimacy of Zionism. On the extreme left of the political spectrum, which has almost fully infiltrated academia, the standard line is that Israel is an illegitimate settler-colonial project (ignoring the fundamental differences between Israel and genuine settler-colonial projects). Meanwhile, on the right of the religious spectrum, many charedi Jews claim that the establishment of Israel was a secular and even anti-religious move, and that it therefore has no...

Rescuing Rambam from Revisionism

Introduction

Charedi polemicists often claim that Rambam legitimizes and even idealizes the charedi lifestyle, both with regard to the financial support of the kollel system and the community-wide exemption from army service. Although this topic is of the gravest national importance, it is not presented with a comprehensive scholarly analysis; even when prominent Talmudists present this argument, they do so in a polemical and superficial manner. A careful analysis shows that Rambam, unsurprisingl...

Just Plain Incoherency

Well, this is disappointing. Mishpacha magazine has evidently decided to go all-out against charedim joining the IDF. Previously, they printed Rav Yitzchak Berkovits’ interview in which he claimed that the Jewish People cannot exist without the (entirely recent) phenomenon of 150,000 charedim in yeshivah, and further said that we should rely on miracles rather than do normative hishtadlus. Now, they published an article by Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, titled “Just Plain Chutzpah,” which adopt...

A Rationalist Pesach

Here’s a catalogue of my Pesach posts over the years. First, the non-kezayis ones:

Seder Historical Realities versus Seder Traditions - A discussion of how several controversies relate to the same basic issue.

Why do we eat Matza on Pesach? - It’s not what you think.

My Big Fat Greek Pesach - When Israelis go to a Chutz L’Aretz program.

The Haggadah You Have to Have - A review of the Koren Graphic Novel Haggadah.

Bentleys, Matzas, and the Chumra Machine - Which is better, machine or hand-made?

Now, th...

Ask Your Local Charedi Rabbi

In light of the report this morning that Aryeh Deri insists that not a single Torah student will be drafted into the IDF, it occurred to me that there is an important research project to be be done - and you can help!

Do you know a charedi rabbi (or MK) who is opposed to yeshiva students joining the IDF, and believes that it is more important for them to stay in yeshiva and learn Torah to protect the nation, and avoid the spiritual dangers of IDF service?

If so, please can you ask him the followi...

Alien Encounters

One of the strange aspects of modern society is that it has become possible to interact with aliens. Yes, that’s right, aliens. Beings from a different planet!

They are appearing here on our planet, disguised as regular people. But when you speak to them, it’s clear that they are from a different planet. (There seem to be, broadly speaking, two races of aliens, with some similarities and some differences.)

Life on their planet is very different from life on mine, here in Israel. There’s no war wi...

Waking Up To A Miracle - Again

I don’t think that anyone in Israel will ever forget last night. To be in fear of attack is one thing; to actually know that hundreds of UAVs and missiles are already in the air, on their way over to you, is another. I doubt that anyone outside of Israel can fully grasp the surreal feeling of dread and helplessness that we experienced.

Almost nobody went to sleep. We readied our emergency rooms and obsessively checked the news as aircraft endlessly flew overhead. We all figured that today would ...