Rabbi Soloveitchik and the Lonely Man of Faith
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, who lived in the 20th century, was a leader of modern orthodoxy, a Halachic (legal) scholar and a very profound thinker who pursued secular as well as…
The essence of Judaism and religion – orthodox (faith) or orthoprax (good deeds)
There is an ancient debate in the Talmudic tradition concerning the question as to the essence of Judaism and religion - faith or good deeds. Rashi (the great commentator of…
The verse “I am the Lord your God”
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, in his blog on the Torah reading of the week (Va’etchanan 5777), presents two arguments in the Jewish tradition regarding the opening verse of the "10 statements"…
Heresy and moral atheism
Maimonides (the great legal scholar and philosopher of the 12th century) is the first and only thinker in the Jewish tradition to codify a set of principles of faith within…
The source of authority and sanctity of the Torah (the 5 Books of Moses) and Rava’s anti-theological conception
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel points out (God in Search of Man, P. 257-278), that there is a fundamental difference between the concepts of the Torah (the 5 books of Moses)…
The interpretation of texts contradicting orthodox dogma
In traditional rabbinic Judaism we as Jews live not by what is written in the Bible (the Written Torah) but by the Bible as interpreted and understood by the Jewish…
Principles of belief are subject to differing interpretation
From an ideological point of view, the origins of an orthodox conception of Judaism began in the medieval period with the formulation and legal codification by Maimonides (the great legal…
The meaning of Shema – the great declaration of faith of the Jewish tradition
The verse Shema (usually translated as "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one"), the great declaration of faith of the Jewish tradition, is widely understood as…
What is true faith?
I think that it would be fair to say that in the western world the concept most associated with religion would be the concept of faith or belief in God. …
Bridging gaps between Jews of differing orientations and lifestyles
Elie Wiesel in his book on great Chasidic teachers, Souls on Fire writes a truly remarkable dedication in my eyes; and which, in my understanding, is faithful to the orthoprax…