Normality & Abnormality

People intuitively equate "normal" with good. In fact, normal is very bad. A person achieves normalcy when the molecules that comprised his being are in thermodynamic equilibrium with the environment, which is to say he is dust

Two thousand years after all the sages of Israel, both the pessimists and the optimists, agreed that man was a failed experiment, the Rebbe re-opened the question...

I've always felt slightly self-conscious as the only family on the block whose father was a Rabbi and made less than $500,000 a year...

“Why can’t you just be normal?” As someone who grew up in a secular household and later became more observant, I get this kind of question a lot. And while I’m perfectly comfortable with not being “normal,” I also wonder what’s so special about ...

Rabbi Gordon shares an amusing anecdote about how his father—Rabbi Sholom Ber Gordon, of blessed memory—wasn’t taken into the U.S. army in World War II.

For the record, I should state that I value moderation. I try to practice it and I teach it to my kids. So when the reporter blurted out, "You're pretty radical!" I took that as a pejorative comment...

As I watched this gripping video, my recurring thought was how a positive ideal could become absolutely evil if distorted from its proper context or taken to too extreme a measure.

Question: I admit I am attracted to many of the aspects of traditional Jewish life—a beautiful Shabbat family meal, a kosher kitchen, a good Jewish education for my kids. But I don’t want to be one of those religious extremists. I don’t want to go that ...