Jeremy Rosen
ARTICLES BY: Jeremy Rosen
Judaism and the Legalization of Marijuana?
Currently, the Knesset is debating the issue of legalizing pot. To be more accurate, it is debating legalizing pot for medical reasons. This"Ž is a position...
Pew Jews: The Future of American Judaism
Oh, dear. American Jewish poobahs are all upset by a Pew Foundation survey that "discovered" that the intermarriage rate in the USA is at 58...
Rabbinic Violence
I can't even begin to express how embarrassed I am by the case currently getting massive exposure in the press and T.V. about a collection...
The Legacy of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
As a young man finding his way forward in the world of Torah study, I was completely bowled over by the genius of Rav Ovadia...
The History of Judaism: An Undivided People
There are several words used in the Bible to describe the Jewish people. At one stage, we were simply tribal. Then we became an "Am,"...
Torah & Norman Solomon
As we approach Simchat Torah, the festival of the Torah, the question of its source and authority remains at the very center of our current...
Israel and the Jews Should Forget the West, and Look East
The anniversary of the Yom Kippur War always reminds one of Israeli fallibility, arrogance, and overconfidence, yet also of its capacity to defy the odds...
Yom Kippur: An Opportunity to Come Closer to God
People are often surprised when I say there is no actual commandment in the Torah to repent. You might compare it to the afterlife. It...
Rosh Hashanah: Pain or Pleasure?
The Torah tells us very little about Rosh Hashanah, not even its name. The three harvest and pilgrim festivals are named: Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukot....
Sexual Choices Amid Evolving Standards
Sexual depravity, like violence, was the natural state of the pagan world, with temple prostitution and human sacrifice going hand-in-hand. Even in the Bible, some...
Henry Shaw & Names
What's in a name? My late father had an only sibling called Henry Shaw. We loved our Uncle Hashy as we called him. He was...
Why Judaism Opposes Torture
Why do we humans inflict torture on each other so much? It is the worst trait of human beings, and we have been doing it...
Politics, Power, and Corrupt Chief Rabbis
I have never been a fan of chief rabbis. Anyone appointed by committees, politicians, or bureaucrats is suspect in my eyes. Perhaps my antipathy is...
The Jews of Pinsk
I have just read almost a thousand pages of the two-volume history of The Jews of Pinsk published by Stanford University Press. It is translated from...
