העורך Editor

Are You Allowed to Give Your Child a Non-Jewish Name?

Like, say, Aaron. Or, well, Pinchas…

Well, is it permitted or not?

Yes, it is permitted, although not recommended. Unless, of course, this is a way to get closer to non-Jews and their culture.

By the way, as for that known Medrash on Jews not changing their names in Egypt, see Kotzk Blog’s analysis. (And besides, it’s meant as a symptom of the positive. This wasn’t a merit per se for which they were redeemed from exile.)

Great News! Rabbi Meir Mazuz Is Making an Impression on the CHAREDI World!

I most certainly don’t agree with all of Rabbi Mazuz’s opinions, as I already noted in the past.

But his general approach of intellectual honesty, unbound by frozen status quo bias or appeal to false authority, and therefore his willingness to consider wearing Techeiles and ascending Har Habayis, his Rishon-like method of studying historical artifacts to see if they change our understanding of the text, skillful conjecturing of textual variances, like the Vilna Gaon (and the Tunisian Talmudic Technique, generally), his “Kedushas Tzion-like” orientation, his fearless disdain of “Gadolatry”, his battles against giving away Eretz Yisra’el to our enemies (except during Shemittah!), and much more, all make his Torah a breath of fresh air.

How do you know he’s making an impression?

Here’s an image of the title page of a pamphlet titled “אמת קנה” written to stem his influence (and by vainly noting its mere supposed innovation, to boot…!).

I got this by email with the subject header warning of מידע חשוב על השקפות פסולות שמוכנסות לילדכם:

How Antinomian Threads in Chassidus Gave Us Heretics like Nathan Lopes Cardozo

A recent Jewish Press interview quotes meshumad “Dutch-Israeli Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, and Jewish scholar Nathan Lopes Cardozo” rejecting the mitzvah to wipe out Amalek.

When he bloviates irrelevantly about Avraham arguing whether Sedom should be destroyed, the interviewer raises the obvious counter: “And yet shortly thereafter, God tells Abraham to execute his son Isaac, and gives him kudos for the fact that he tried to comply.”

Here is Cardozo’s response:

I am of the opinion that Abraham, by being prepared to do so, to execute his son, failed the test. I think that the reading of the binding of Isaac should be different from the conventional approach as some Hasidic texts indeed seem to suggest. For an excellent overview read: The Fear, the Trembling and the Fire by my dear friend, Professor Jerome (Yehudah) I. Gellman, published by University Press of America in 1994.

It goes on, of course, Afra lepumei.

This isn’t to say there’s no difference between saying a Chassidic homily on the one hand, and pretending, as does Cardozo, this has any bearing on practical halacha, on the other. Still, the earlier imputed authority was a necessary condition for the later perversion. And this assumes it really was all just homilies, after all, of which I’m not so sure.

I found this through Rabbi Grossman’s powerful rebuttal of some sections.