New Jersey: Sussex County
Sussex County, New Jersey is a mostly rural area in the extreme Northwest of the state, having some activities quite different than the rest of the state. This includes tours of the Sterling Hill...
Author: tostien
Out of the Depths; Rav Israel Meir Lau – Book Review
Suffering to Greatness Now Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau (former Chief Rabbi of Israel) epitomizes one of G_d’s answers to Iyov [Job] as to how we’re supposed to take tragedy (see Chapter 40). Why do...
Insular vs. Involved in Secular Society
Looking From the Outside, In From the outside world, Orthodox Jews tend to look sort of . . . monolithic. This tends to be the case about anything one has limited knowledge about. For...
Trophy Wives: Men Never Change – Flood to PR China, It’s All the Same
New Rich Matchmaking in China The New York Times provides more fodder for discussion in today’s article on new matchmaking services in China: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/business/in-a-changing-china-new-matchmaking-markets.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 The catch is, that in China, these services can cost...
Mastering a Discipline; Orthodox Surge – New York Times Article
The New York Times has an extremely positive article about Torah observant Jews, starting off with a discussion about a really nice and upscale supermarket in Brooklyn, called Pomegranate. They’ve got kosher everything –...
Belief – Jewish Basics – Know What to Answer Yourself CD Series
The following audio lectures are available from Ani Maamin, run by Rabbi Dovid Sapirman. These lectures are on the fundamentals of Jewish belief, and are being made available freely thanks to a donation of...
Looking Religious At Work
What is Now Acceptable Rav Samson Roephel Hirsch wrote in the 1800s in Germany that, if necessary, a Jew could shake the hands of the person of the opposite sex in a business setting....
New Hampshire: Loon Mountain; Zipline in Western MA
THE INFORMATION ON THIS ARTICLE IS NOW LARGELY OUT OF DATE – THE MINYAN HAS MOVED TO A NEW LOCATION AS HAS THE KOSHER FOOD. Loon Mountain Ski Resort (directions from New York) in...
Satmar Rebbe Biography
There are two English-language biographies of the Satmar Rebbe. I tried them both, and the clear winner is the publication from Israel Book Shop by Rabbi Dovid Meisels. Some Background The Rebbe was clearly exceedingly...
Seeing the Physical World or Seeing Past the Physical
Rabbi Elozar Ben Pedas’s Complaint and Reward Rabbi Elozar ben Pedas was extremely poor. On one occasion after being bled he found he had nothing to eat to regain his strength. He took the skin of...