by Rabbi Joshua Maroof | Oct 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
I’m too distraught at the moment to fully formulate my thoughts…So I will surely have more to say about this tragic event later. In the meantime, let me remark that Rav Ovadiah Z”L was without a doubt the greatest Sephardic scholar of (at least)...
by Rabbi Joshua Maroof | Sep 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
This is a piece I wrote that was published in the Washington Jewish Week a couple of years ago. Although the High Holiday season has passed, I was reminded of the article and present it here: The liturgy of the High Holidays abounds in sublime and majestic poetry....
by Rabbi Joshua Maroof | Sep 17, 2013 | Uncategorized
In Chapter 14 of Avot DeRabbi Natan, we read a fascinating story about consoling mourners in their time of bereavement. Specifically, we are told how Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai, the spiritual leader of the Jewish people in the wake of...
by Rabbi Joshua Maroof | Aug 19, 2013 | Uncategorized
I just rediscovered this essay, which I believe I wrote when I was about seventeen years old (approximately twenty years ago). There is a lot here that I would rephrase/edit/add/subtract today, but I resist the temptation to revise history and...
by Rabbi Joshua Maroof | Jul 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Generally speaking, Jewish law is formulated so as to apply to everyone equally. There are no double standards in halakha. Yet, when it comes to the laws of Tisha B’av as codified by Maimonides (Rambam), it would seem as if there were two completely...
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