Posts Along The Way
Torah Insights From The Hirhurim Blog
Volume 1: Shuls

ISBN 978-1-933143-38-5, hardcover, $22
Buy it now


By Rabbi Gil Student

What is this blog thing you keep hearing about? Posts Along The Way is an adaptation of the Torah teachings on the popular Hirhurim-Musings blog. In this book, learn about the halachah and hashkafah of shuls in the quick and enlightening blog format. Take a guided tour of the sources and see how they are relevant to the Judaism you live and experience.

Topics include how prayer works, talking in shuls, who can be a rabbi - a ba'al teshuvah? a convert? a woman?, shuls and megachurches, women's prayer groups, mechitzah and much more.

Hirhurim-Musings is an award-winning blog that has been mentioned in The Wall Street Journal, The Jewish Press and other media outlets.


Praise for the Blog

“Hirhurim provides a valuable service to the Orthodox community, examining issues large and small, in Halacha and Hashkafa, as well as many of the social concerns affecting the Jewish world. Torah sources from across the spectrum are used and quoted with respect, facilitating needed discourse on a higher level.”
—Rabbi Asher Bush, Chairman of the Va’ad Halacha of the Rabbinical Council of America and Rav of Cong. Ahavas Yisrael of Wesley Hills


“Rabbi Gil Student’s Hirhurim blog offers an arresting mix of news and commentary suffused with sharp intelligence and penetrating insight – qualities not always evident on other blogs that fly an Orthodox banner. Anyone whose Judaism is not defined by a near-primitive tribalism bordering on outright racism or, on the other extreme, a slavish devotion to politically correct liberalism at the expense of Torah, will find in Hirhurim an oasis of enlightened Orthodoxy.”
—Jason Maoz, Senior Editor, The Jewish Press


Inside the Book

Table of Contents
  • Praise for the Blog
  • FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: Are Blogs Good For The Jews?
  • Section 1: Praying and Prayers
    • The Problem of Prayer
    • The Opportunity of Prayer
    • Prayer in Hebrew
    • Earliest Time for Tallis and Tefillin
    • Why No Tefillin?
    • Standing During Blessings
    • Amen: Bigger Isn’t Better
    • Facing the Kohanim
    • Facing the Torah
    • Musings on Prayer Texts
    • Words of Prayer
    • Praying For Rain
    • The Manna Passage
    • A New Siddur
    • Listen, Israel
    • Holding Children During Davening
    • Congregational Singing
    • A Kedushah of Roses
    • Responsive Kedushah
    • Shevach in Kedushah
    • Calling out to the Lord
    • Alternative Services: Carlebach Minyan
    • Alternative Services: Megachurches I
    • Alternative Services: Megachurches II
    • Talking During Davening I
    • Talking During Davening II
    • Talking Politics
  • Section 2: Rabbis and Cantors
    • Why Rabbis Do Not Like Cantors
    • Can a Ba’al Teshuvah Be a Rabbi?
    • Can a Convert Be a Rabbi?
    • Can a Woman Be a Rabbi?
  • Section 3: Women’s Roles
    • The Adoption of Heterodox Practices
    • Calling Women to the Torah
    • Calling Women to the Torah II
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. Hershel Schachter’s Position
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. Hershel Schachter’s Position II
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: Rav Soloveitchik’s Position
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. J. David Bleich’s Position
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. Yehuda Henkin’s Position
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. Yehuda Henkin’s Position II
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: R. Eliezer Berkovits’ Position
    • Women’s Prayer Groups: Halachic Values
  • Section 4: Shuls
    • A Destroyed Synagogue
    • Sharing Spaces
    • Mechitzah
    • The Mechitzah Controversy: Fifty Years Later

Excerpts

1) Alternative Services: Megachurches I

2) Can a Convert Be a Rabbi?

3) Women Orthodox Rabbis


About the Author

Rabbi Gil Student is a popular writer who has been featured in The Jewish Press, Jewish Action and other periodicals. His internet writings include a number of websites and his award-winning blog, Torah-Musings.

Rabbi Student is a Yeshiva College alumnus who has acquired private rav u-manhig ordination. He has spent most of his career in insurance and finance but has also founded and run Yashar Books, a small Orthodox publishing house.

Learn more about him at the Wikipedia entry for him: link.



Google

WWW
Yashar Books
2023 © www.yasharbooks.com