Natan Slifkin's Blog, page 6

Are There Any Kosher Frogs?

Everyone is writing about the disgrace of Glastonbury, or about the attacks on Palestinian Arabs and IDF bases by extremists in the settler movement, or about how the government is using the Iran war to distract from paying charedim to avoid army service. I had some thoughts about those topics, but I decided instead to write about something that I’m pretty sure nobody else is talking about: kosher frogs.

Two weeks from today, we at the Biblical Museum of Natural History are running one of our fam...

Zohran and the Zohar

This was an extraordinary week. We saw the US engage in a spectacular act of destruction, that will take years to rebuild, if ever. I’m talking, of course, about New York politics.

Enough has already been written about the Israelopathic socialist catastrophe that is Zohran Mamdani. But I would like to pick up on something interesting that Mayor Eric Adams said in response to Mamdani:

Adams perfectly expressed not only the ideology behind capitalism, but also traditional Jewish values, as reflected...

Half a Century, Two Midlife Crises

Today is my fiftieth birthday. Apparently this is when I’m supposed to have a midlife crisis. But I’ve already had my midlife crisis. Two, in fact, if we’re going to be liberal with the definition, though neither is the conventional kind.

My first was twenty-one years ago, just over midway through my life so far. This was when my books were notoriously banned as being heretical by 24 of the “Gedolim” of the charedi world. Up until that point, I thought that the charedi world represented traditio...

An Age of Rationalist Miracles

The destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities, and American’s show of determination and strength, is a fantastic development. So is the progress of the war against Iran in general. But are these actual miracles? Do they have religious significance?

The mystical, non-rationalist view, which is the one taught in the Israeli charedi and American yeshivish world, is that the Age of Miracles expired long ago. Genuine miracles are wholly supernatural events. Furthermore, miracles are of an extreme natur...

For Whom The Belz Toll

A few months ago, I wrote a positive post about Belz chassidim, The Belz of Change, about how Belz is one of the chassidic groups most open to some amount of general studies. This post, unfortunately, does not have praise.

This week there was a major Belz wedding. Weddings are wonderful, right? Lots of people getting together to celebrate!

Well, not if you’re in the middle of a war, when at just 90 seconds’ notice a ballistic missile could slam into the ground with a hypersonic blast wave that can...

The Rising Lion

Israel's operation against Iran is named "Rising Lion." This is from a Biblical verse: "Behold, the people shall rise up as a lavi-lion, and lift themself up as an ari-lion..." (Numbers 23:24).

Two different names are used for the lion in this verse, the standard name of ari and the additional name of lavi. What does each term mean? There are all kinds of speculations. Some say that lavi refers to a larger lion, some say it refers to a smaller one. Some relate the word lavi to a root meaning "bla...

"Bnei Brak is Protected"

There is no room for schadenfreude. There is no pleasure, no “I told you so.” But there is frustration that an entirely avoidable tragedy was not avoided, due to people ignoring that which I have warned about for years.

Last night, Israel was hit once again with ballistic missiles from Iran. Unfortunately, an elderly man in Bnei Brak was killed by a ballistic missile and dozens of others were injured. Why? Because they were not in a protected room or shelter.

Protected rooms and shelters do not p...

As War Rages

So, what are the important messages to get out while Israel is engaged in the most serious war in fifty years?

It depends who is sending out the message. My shul sent out the following:

To our dear Kehilla,

On behalf of the vaad, we are reaching out to anyone who might be on their own, or whose husband has been called to miluim, or anyone who is struggling with all that is going on and/or has any other needs whatsoever. We are here for you. If you are on your own and would appreciate company, or ne...

The Lions Arise

It’s early days yet in Operation Rising Lion. And while Israel appears to have successfully inflicted significant damage on the Natanz nuclear facility (or, as a friend of mine insists on writing it, “Natan’s nuclear facility”), it’s still unclear how Israel can destroy the Fordow facility, which is buried deep under a mountain. But, as of the time of writing, Israel has managed an unbelievably successful set of preemptive strikes against Iran, while Iran and its proxies have caused exactly zero...

Little Children

Well, that’s unfortunate. The government isn’t falling, after all. Yuli Edelstein managed to stand up to the Kremlin, but he couldn’t stand up to Bibi and the charedim. In addition, the charedim realized that what they have going now is much better than the alternative, since at least Bibi will work to get them as much money as possible and as few restrictions as possible. And naturally all the politicians from Likud and so-called “Religious Zionism” (which happily aligns with anti-Zionists) and...