By Rav Aaron Rakeffet
Originally appeared in Mail-Jewish, Vol. 26 No. 84, July 27, 1997 (As recorded by Jack Levenstein)
This is one of my favorites. Rav Rakeffet really says things as they are. Its a shame that this type of honest soul-searching of our religious environment does not take place more often.

My company is very sensitive to my religious needs. They are letting me make up all twelve days that I had to take off for chagim without requiring me to use any of my ten allotted vacation days (enabling us to make our pilot trip in a month!). They bought me my very own grill [...]

In a recent email exchange with a chaver from the Areivim mailing list, I was told:
“You’re coming on aliya at the perfect time; shortly after finishing your eductaion, with a bit of experience. Good planning.”
If I am not mistaken, this is one of the only positive things anyone has said to me regarding finding [...]

Translation: With the demise of the wicked there is Glee, Joy and Rejoicing. We are happy to announce the death of the wicked Yasser Arafat, who will be buried in hell. So should all of the enemies of Israel be lost…may it happen speedily, in our days!

It is now 6 weeks until our planned trip to Eretz Yisrael. Although both of us have visited many times, this is the first trip where the primary focus is for aliyah. We hope to really check out as many potential communities as possible, spending two Shabbatot at the front runners. Currently our favorite prospective [...]

Definately not because of domestic policy. I do not really agree with anything at all that he is doing in the United States – Bush’s policies are bad for the environment, favor large corporations that have supported him financially, have caused an extremely large budget deficit, and in general lack any accountability for any logic [...]