During the past decade, writes Rafi Eis, Modern Orthodox leaders, rabbis, and intellectuals have shied away from making a robust defense of the biblical and talmudic positions on marriage and homosexuality. Thus, while admirably seeking to balance adherence to halakhah with compassion, they have nevertheless ceded too much ground to the views of the culture at large. Eis contends that it is necessary to root the Orthodox position not just in legal principles, but also in the ideas and values they embody. To show how to do so, he begins with the account of mankind in the first two chapters of the Torah:

Last week, Russia negotiated a ceasefire between the Syrian government and rebel forces in the city of Daraa, where the initial protests that sparked the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began. The agreement ended a 75-day assault on the city, located near the country’s southwestern border, by Russian, Iranian, and Syrian forces. Jonathan Spyer explains the significance of these events: