Why Some Modern Orthodox Jews Are Drawn to Hasidism

Jan. 25 2024

If Orthodox Judaism can be placed on a spectrum, Hasidim with their insular communities, lack of interest in secular education, and strict observance would seem to stand at one end, with the Modern Orthodox on the other. Yet, as Shlomo Zuckier has written, over the past two decades there have been attempts in the latter community to “incorporate aspects of Hasidism for the purposes of spiritual inspiration and revival.” Steven Gotlib reviews a collection of essays on this phenomenon of Orthodox neo-Hasidism, edited by Zuckier:

[G]iven attempts at using neo-Hasidism to reshape halakhic practice, it is hard to say that the concerns raised by [critics] are completely misdirected. On the contrary, one may agree with a point raised by Rabbi Shmuel Hain in the preface of the volume under review, which sees neo-Hasidism as “a potentially destabilizing force.” . . . At the same time, it is undeniable that contemporary Orthodox Jews are missing something that neo-Hasidism has to offer, namely, “to be open to heartfelt spiritual experiences, to talking about God, and to exploring the vast richness of Jewish theology, to reclaiming the emphasis on Jewish life as a quest to stand in the presence of God.”

Neo-Hasidism, then, comes with both great risk and great reward.

Read more at Lehrhaus

More about: Hasidism, Modern Orthodoxy

Donald Trump’s Plan for Gaza Is No Worse Than Anyone Else’s—and Could Be Better

Reacting to the White House’s proposal for Gaza, John Podhoretz asks the question on everyone’s mind:

Is this all a fantasy? Maybe. But are any of the other ludicrous and cockamamie ideas being floated for the future of the area any less fantastical?

A Palestinian state in the wake of October 7—and in the wake of the scenes of Gazans mobbing the Jewish hostages with bloodlust in their eyes as they were being led to the vehicles to take them back into the bosom of their people? Biden foreign-policy domos Jake Sullivan and Tony Blinken were still talking about this in the wake of their defeat in ludicrous lunchtime discussions with the Financial Times, thus reminding the world of what it means when fundamentally silly, unserious, and embarrassingly incompetent people are given the levers of power for a while. For they should know what I know and what I suspect you know too: there will be no Palestinian state if these residents of Gaza are the people who will form the political nucleus of such a state.

Some form of UN management/leadership in the wake of the hostilities? Well, that might sound good to people who have been paying no attention to the fact that United Nations officials have been, at the very best, complicit in hostage-taking and torture in facilities run by UNRWA, the agency responsible for administering Gaza.

And blubber not to me about the displacement of Gazans from their home. We’ve been told not that Gaza is their home but that it is a prison. Trump is offering Gazans a way out of prison; do they really want to stay in prison? Or does this mean it never really was a prison in the first place?

Read more at Commentary

More about: Donald Trump, Gaza Strip, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict