Orthodox Conundrum

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! We constantly talk about Jewish unity, insisting that despite our differences, we're all one family. But what does that actually mean w...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Israel's latest election has raised fundamental questions about the future of Religious Zionism. But the real issues go far beyond elec...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  Hundreds of thousands of Jews live in Yehudah v'Shomron, and the overwhelming majority are law-abiding people who simply want to build...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  What if we've been fundamentally misunderstanding antisemitism? What if the problem isn't simply that people hate Jews, but that power...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  What happens when honoring your parents comes at a significant emotional cost? When a parent is constantly critical, makes you feel gu...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  What's the point of God if God doesn't intervene? Rabbi Yitz Greenberg has spent more than sixty years wrestling with the meaning of f...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  What does it actually mean to make the sukkah our home for seven days? In this special bonus Sukkot episode, I speak once again with R...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  As Yom Kippur approaches, we naturally think about what's wrong: our failures, our mistakes, and the ways that we, and the Jewish comm...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  Fear can be a powerful religious motivator. It can push us to repent, reinforce commitment to halakha, and help communities maintain s...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  The Chareidi draft issue has become one of the most contentious questions in Israeli society, and the established Chareidi political p...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  Rabbi Norman Lamm was one of the towering figures of Modern Orthodoxy in the twentieth century: a brilliant rabbi and orator, a major...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content!  Antisemitism in the United States is getting worse. But perhaps just as disturbing is the growing sense that many people no longer reco...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For many Jews who care deeply about Israel, the past few years have created a painful tension. We know that Israel is routinely judged...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Many Jewish young adults reach their wedding night with almost no real guidance on intimacy and sexuality. Rabbi Scott Kahn and sex and...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Rabbi Dov Landau, who, along with Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, is considered one of the two main rabbinic voices that guide the Degel HaT...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! The relationship between Torah and the State of Israel has always been complicated. Israel is the Jewish state, but what exactly does t...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! This episode was originally recorded before October 7, 2023. At the time, I opened by reflecting on how many of us found it difficult t...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Every year, as the Three Weeks begin, the same questions come up. Can I listen to music? Go to a baseball game? Buy new clothes? Shave?...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last week on the podcast, Rav Shaya Karlinsky presented the case for broad draft deferments for full-time yeshiva students. This week,...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ - and members get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! The debate over Chareidi military service has become one of the most contentious issues in Israel today. It touches questions of nationa...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Last month on the Orthodox Conundrum, I spoke with several guests about the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora. We d...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/ ! Instead of a regular episode of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast, we're releasing a new episode of  Intimate Judaism , which is dropping on that channel today, as well. We hope you find this episode meaningful. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode of the Ortho...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Three women recently took Israel's rabbinate exams after an eight-year legal battle. What should have been a routine academic...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! Most people know Rav Adin Steinsaltz as the scholar who transformed access to the Talmud. But beneath the translations, commen...

Check out Orthodox Conundrum Commentary on Substack and get your free subscription by going to  https://scottkahn.substack.com/  - and paid subscribers get this and other episodes of the Orthodox Conundrum Podcast ad-free and with early access and additional bonus content! For many Orthodox Jews, Judaism is ultimately defined by Torah and halakha. We received the Torah at Har Sinai, and from that...