The aspects of this single claim are that (a) the process developed organically from some non-arbitrary point (“revelation”); (b) the process is headed toward some non-arbitrary point (“redemption”); and (c) participation (and non-participation) in the process is self-reinforcing (“reward and punishment”).

When the author of the Mishna Berura writes, as he often does, that “the common practice is such and such, but this is wrong,” Shimen’s response is to credit the author’s claim regarding the common practice and to ignore the admonition.

The problem is that the rabbis he respects were almost all murdered.

A public square and an education system that systematically undermine the virtues required to sustain a society will, unsurprisingly, produce a generation of citizens who lack those virtues.

Solidarity, trust, and cooperation make up the stuff now often called social capital. Without it, a society wouldn’t last long. The creation of social capital among members of a society is possible only if shared norms align their expectations, habituate them to exercise self-control, instill in them a unity of purpose, and incentivize them to

All the fine properties of halakha considered above – robustness, adaptability, intuitiveness, and so forth – are possible precisely because halakha is a communal, rather than a governmental, process.

the crux of these three principles. Each of the three is an aspect of the single belief that Judaism is a directed process linking the Jewish past with the Jewish future.

whatever the fine details of your preferred victimhood hierarchy, one thing must remain sacred if you wish to remain a member in good standing in Amber’s world: you must hate Israel too.

Both his religious beliefs and his family memories are true for him not because of historical research but regardless of it.