We are used to hearing the contemporary return to Judaism by the unaffiliated over the last 50 years referred to as a movement. If we are to define a movement as something which provides a grand idea that has a life of its own and is then picked up by all kinds of people
Rabbi Ysoscher Katz responded to the alleged welfare fraud and arrest of seven Lakewood couples in a timesofisrael.com blog (Understanding Lakewood, Understanding Ourselves). Rabbi Katz essentially claims that Chareidim get stuck on minority halachik opinions from centuries ago which frame their attitudes and lead to their
The Chinuch tells us a great principle: our actions affect and condition our internal, spiritual reality. G-d therefore commanded us to make a place that would be perfectly pure and holy where, both by going there and doing the things we do there, we could purify our own thoughts. For example, the
Until now, things seemed to be getting slowly better in our world. A post-Holocaust world made anti-Semitism a bad word in Europe and America and the Six Day War turned Israel into being a hero. That is no longer the case. Israel is vilified all over the world, and anti-Semitism is back in vogue in Europe. But the terror does not stop on
The Rambam defines a broad range of different transgressors and/ or nonbelievers, such as minim, apikorsim, kofrim, and apostates. These are not all distinct and separate categories, and it is not always clear which kind of sinner belongs to which category. 
