Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (we hope) It’s the five thousand, seven hundred and eighty second birthday of that fourteen-billion-year-old ball of rock and water we call home (see Happy Quantum New Year for the math). The day is relevant to all humans, not just the Jews. After a year like 5781, everyone should take it seriously. […]

Sexual Violence- Twice a Victim

I’ve been victimized by sexual violence. Lucky me; it’s happened twice, and I was horrified. Let me clarify. I wasn’t horrified when it happened. I thought it was funny back then, and laughed. Rather, I was horrified when told that what happened to me was sexual violence. An educational program I’m taking recently obliged all […]

A Beautiful Morning, or…

My wife was shocked to find fecal matter on our kitchen table. She called me over right away, and pointed to a photo: “ENTRANCED: Gifted Montreal designers Fecal Matter admire the mastery of legendary Manfred Thierry Mugler at the official launch…” There it was: in the Social Notes of the Weekend newspaper. Also in attendance […]

Mocking the destruction of the Temple

The Jerusalem Talmud teaches “The generation in which the Beit Hamikdash, the Temple, is not rebuilt is to be regarded as though the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed in that generation.” Can we establish a corollary that those not working to rebuild it are furthering, or at least mocking the destruction? Those who fast and sit […]

We, the Accused

Holding the Victim to Blame Whenever there is a terror attack against Israel, the world media finds some way to make Israel the accused, whether for provocation or retaliation, for people dying or failing to die, for killing the terrorists, or failing to kill them. This is not a new phenomenon. Two thousand years ago, […]

Remember the Future Holocaust

This Wednesday evening, April 15th, 2015 is Holocaust Remembrance Day. On Thursday, April 2nd, 2015 an agreement was reached between Iran and the United States to lay the groundwork for another Holocaust, one much more technologically advanced, one much more capable of carrying out its goals. On what day will we commemorate the future Holocaust […]

The Face of Evil Today

The Bible Names Its Enemies: The Bible names its enemies: Egypt, Amalek, the Philistines, and many others. For each of them the Bible spells out why they are considered the enemy, and what to do about them. We are told not to hate the Egyptians because we were strangers in their land. We were also […]

Are You A Man or a Mouse?

A More Human Mouse Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently spliced the human gene associated with language into the brains of a mouse. While the rodents didn’t say anything about the experiment, they were better able to find chocolate in a maze then regular mice. This is perhaps another example of science mimicking […]