Cross-Currents
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We post about issues of the day and issues of our days, representing our perspectives. Cross-Currents is a journal of thought and reflections, from an array of Orthodox Jewish writers. Our writers are accomplished, public speakers. We hope you'll find Cross-Currents to be helpful, informative, and above all an enjoyable read.
Cross-Currents
4d ago
My Ami column for the Purim issue can be read here. And a piece I wrote for Religion News Service is here. A happy and meaningful Purim to all! AS
The post Two Purim Pieces appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1w ago
A famous palindromic word in the Torah is venasnu, in the second pasuk in the parsha. It means “and each man must give,” in the context of contributing the machatzis hashekel, which the Torah...
The post Parshas Ki Sisa – Wealth Recycles appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
2w ago
The imperatives of civility and refined speech are strongly stressed in the Talmud and in halacha. Yet, like all ideals, even those have their limits. An exception – the only one – to the...
The post Tetzaveh – When Obscenity is Apt appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
2w ago
The word mikdash in the pasuk “They shall make for Me a mikdash so that I may dwell among them” (Shemos 25:8) should, by reason, be mishkan, as various meforshim point out. It is,...
The post Terumah – Sanctifiers appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
3w ago
There’s something puzzling about the law prohibiting a judge to take a bribe (Shemos 23:8). The law, of course, is aimed at ensuring that a decision will be made without prejudice. As the pasuk...
The post Mishpatim – A Puzzling Prohibition appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1M ago
I’ve long fixated on a phrase Yisro uses. When he rejoins Moshe and joins Klal Yisrael, he declares why, although he had been a guru in countless cults, he came to the conclusion that...
The post Yisro — Iron and Irony appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1M ago
I’ve always found it delightful that the term we use for when the amniotic sac ruptures, releasing the fluid within and beginning the birth process, is “breaking of the waters.” Because the birth of...
The post Bishalach – The Nation Newborn appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1M ago
The dogs in Egypt were still as they watched the Jewish people leave the land (Shemos, 11:7). The Midrash contends that, in keeping with the concept that “Hashem does not withhold reward from any...
The post Parshas Bo – The Sound of Silence appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1M ago
It’s all too easy to disassociate the beginning of a parsha from the end of the preceding one. But Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, in LaTorah UlaMoadim, sees Hashem’s declaration at the opening of Vo’eira...
The post Vo’eira – The Seed’s Decay is All We See appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more
Cross-Currents
1M ago
I thank Rabbi Michael Broyde for his illuminating response to my recent article about geirus standards. It seems that my article sparked serious interest and provoked much thought, which is of course a good...
The post Conversion Conundrums – Response to Rabbi Michael Broyde appeared first on Cross-Currents ..read more