Is it enough to believe that the Messiah “might” arrive soon? In this installment of "Unpacking the Iggerot," Moshe Kurtz provides us with a selection of stories and halakhic rulings that reveal R. Moshe Feinstein’s unique approach to living with a Messiah Mentality.

R. Moshe Feinstein is known for his patriotic embrace of his adopted home in the United States. But Moshe Kurtz’s closer look presents a more nuanced and skeptical version of R. Feinstein’s positions on an array of issues, including his many reservations about American public policy, and the fundamental nature of non-Jewish society.

What happens when halakha and kabbala clash? Moshe Kurtz explores how R. Moshe Feinstein either valued or objected to the incorporation of mystical and hasidic concepts into normative halakhic practice.

Responding to a recent column in Moshe Kurtz’s “Unpacking the Iggerot” series, Yitzchak Blau draws our attention to a difference of tone and orientation between rabbis Moshe Feinstein and Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg concerning celebrating a Bat Mitzva and the induction of young women into serious and mature Jewish life and learning.