The Side of Aspiration

Along time ago, when there were still  newspaper readers — i.e., way before the Kichels — I once read that most readers of newspapers and magazines  will turn first to the letters to the editor. I know that’s true of me: When the new Mishpacha arrives, I check first to see if anyone took note of the previous week’s column.

The letters to the editor are one of the few venues for real debate — even if those debates are often about interpreting the actions of fictional characters. One subject of late has been the proper balance between articles that address challenges facing the Torah world and those that inspire and uplift. My immediate reaction to these debates is relief that I’m not the editor in chief of Mishpacha, who must somehow find the proper balance on a weekly basis.

The truth is that I have dogs on both sides of this debate. The Hebrew Mishpacha first rose to prominence among  the Israeli Torah public because of its willingness to discuss issues that had long been swept under the rug. It was a long article on burnout among yeshivah bochurim that first caught my attention and drew me to the magazine.

And for a number of years, I served on the editorial board of Klal Perspectives, an American journal which sought to address communal challenges across the Orthodox spectrum from a variety of viewpoints.