Author: Yisroel Isaacs
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Pulse of the Machzor – Simchas Torah 5787: Why Are These People Dancing with a Book?
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A similar version of this article was published in this week’s edition of the Jewish News. Someone who unwittingly wanders into an Orthodox synagogue on Simchas Torah night may wonder what they have stumbled into. Men of every age dance in tight, sweaty circles around the Torah scrolls, singing the…
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Pulse of the Machzor – Shabbos Shuva 5787: Nothing Is Neutral at the Defense Table
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Last week, when London-based Revolut, among the most popular of Europe’s digital “neo-banks,” was duped into handing over sensitive customer data to a scammer impersonating a government agency, the company was immediately thrust into crisis.[1] Standard business operations were frozen as executives scrambled into emergency war rooms to contain extortion…
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Pulse of the Machzor – Rosh Hashanah 5787 | Paradoxical Piety: Passion and Prayer in Pre-War Vilna
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According to satirical news site PreOccupied Territory, a terrorist was recently thwarted when the synagogue service put him to sleep.[1] “The soporific[2] effect of a snail’s-pace Torah reading combined with a droning Rabbi’s address to spare a congregation from disaster this past Saturday morning, when the would-be attacker drifted off…
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Pulse of the Parsha – Nitzavim-Vayeilech 5786 | Michigan Mussar: When the Goyim Get It
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Parshas Nitzavim predicts that when Am Yisrael is exiled, the goyim will explain why. On accepting the truth from any source — except when the source is a Michigan attorney general who gets it badly wrong.
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Pulse of the Parsha – Ki Savo 5786
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Trembling and the Table In chapter 34 of Moby Dick, Herman Melville describes two dining rooms aboard Captain Ahab’s whaling ship, the Pequod. At Ahab’s table, the officers sit in near-paralyzed silence: “They were as little children before Ahab… their intent eyes all fastened upon the old man’s knife… I…
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Pulse of the Parsha – Ki Seitzei
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The Danger of Deserving: Disappointment and Destruction Office politics have a long history. In Shakespeare’s Othello, the antagonist Iago serves as literature’s classic example of revenge sparked by being passed over for a promotion. Believing he was rightfully owed the position of lieutenant, Iago is enraged when Othello promotes Michael…
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Pulse of the Parsha – Shoftim
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Measuring Motivations: Morality, Misdeeds, and the Month of Elul The prohibition against accepting a bribe is not one of the Torah’s laws that anyone accuses of irrelevance. This week, the WSJ reported that since rising to power in 2012, Chinese paramount leader and president Xi Jinping has disciplined more than…