The start of a new year is a time for resolutions not because there’s anything intrinsic about January 1st that begets rejuvenation, but because there’s an artificial freshness that accompanies the annual changing of the calendar year — as such,…
Tag: questions
Dvar Torah Eikev: I Think, Therefore I Love
This week will be my seventh wedding anniversary, so I figured I’d discuss something related to love.
Dvar Torah Va’eschanan: SzHaAcMhOoRr (b’dibbur echad)
If one takes a moment to consider it, it’s really quite extraordinary that the Torah includes information about the giving of the Torah — it sort of reminds me of an Escher drawing.
Dvar Torah Tazria: Anatomy, Physiology and Rabbis
How fortuitous it is that I can use last week’s lengthy disagreement with Yoreh K’chetz as a springboard for this week’s Dvar Torah. Last week, Yoreh K’chetz (henceforth abbreviated YK) accused me of possessing a “mind [that] is too limited…
Why is this night different from all other nights?
I always found the questions we’re supposed to ask on Pesach kind of annoying. Would children really ask all of those same old questions year after year if they weren’t taught to ask them in school? Would they really say…
Do shuls have a responsibility to be friendly?
I’m a sucker for shuls that are warm and welcoming and I absolutely hate when a shul is filled with cold people who use excuses as to why not one person said good shabbos to me or invited me for…
Yeshiva Hashkafa Lessons
Guest Post By Offthedwannab This post is going to seem strange for the uninitiated, so let me give a short introduction. To the typical outsider, Yeshivos must seem like Christian Seminaries. You go there to learn theology, to pray, and…
Midrash + Metaphor
As a follow-up to last week’s post and subsequent focus of argument, I was trying to think of a Dvar Torah that is so blatantly absurd in literal form that even the most right-wing, closed minded individual will be compelled…
With new technology comes new halachic questions
With recent advances in technology there are bound to be a whole bunch of halachic issues that arise. In order to preempt these issues I have thought about the following issues that may be debated amongst the great rabbis of…
How did keeping shomer negiah become a choice?
How did it happen that keeping the laws of shomer negiah became that one thing that many frum people like to brag about picking and choosing. Frum people don’t brag about eating treife, breaking shabbos or torturing their pets, yet…
4 months in California and loving it
Everyone I have been speaking to on the phone lately has been asking me when I plan to move back to New York and just recently I tell them that as of now I could never imagine moving back east…
What if you found out your husband was gay?
Guest post by Frum N’ Flipping It’s got to be one of the worst fears of an Orthodox girl. How can you tell if the boy you are dating is not attracted to women. Religious men are told to keep…
Is the Torah outdated and irrelevant?
Blogger Israeli Mom made the following comment on the post about the Yeshiva University gay symposium. “The gay issue is one of those things that prove to me just how outdated and irrelevant the torah is as a text to…
What are you doing for Christmas?
What are you doing for Christmas or erev-Christmas? I get that question all the time from Jews, and until recently I never really thought about it. Should Jews celebrate Christmas? It doesn’t make much sense to me.
Breakaway minyanim and yeshivas – are they a good thing?
My old hometown of Rochester, NY has gotten its first breakaway minyan, it was only time in such a politically charged Yeshiva Run town, but it’s a unique case. Someone wanted to start a yeshivish style minyan in the main…
What do you think of kosher restaurants that are open on shabbos?
I ate at Cafe Viva on the upper west side last night, I have heard countless people rave to me about their pizza, and so I decided to pay them a visit before an event I went to at the…
What do you think of Holocaust humor?
For most folks there is no connection between humor and the Holocaust, but it seems to be becoming more widely accepted. The Producers is hilarious and it came out in 1968 – only 23 years after the camps were liberated,…
Do you bribe your children?
The Sweet Life – by anonymous Disclaimer: The following is complete silliness. If you don’t enjoy it, keep it to yourself! Remember, as it says in Pirkei Avos: a fence for wisdom is silence. Bribery with sugar to get children…
Is the UJC Jewish Community Heroes Project a scam?
By now if you are hooked into the internet and have someone who is into shameless self promotion in honor of receiving a $25,000 grant you have probably heard about the UJC Jewish Community Heroes project, in which you can…
Who is a Jew? (according to section 4B)
By Vicki Boykis I play with the idea of making aliyah from time to time, much like kids play with Legos, abandon them, then pick them up, then tear their heads off. But, I’m not religious and plus I was…
What do you think of women’s prayer groups?
This is an excerpt from a Dov Bear post from today – he makes a good point and I know many folks who go nuts when they hear of women’s prayer groups. When a woman wants to daven with other…
Can a Jew go into a church?
I went into a lot of churches in Spain, but not once did I think I was entering a house of worship – to me they were just huge cool looking museums. Then I posted the following video (see below)…
What bracha do transgendered folks say?
If you are transgendered and you aren’t a man or a woman, what bracha do you say in the morning? You cant say shelo asoni kirtzono or shelo asoni isha, so do you say both? Maybe you say niether? Or…
How did “ish” make it into Yeshivish?
If people are from the yeshiva community why are they called Yeshivish, it really makes no sense, you would think modern people with black hats would be called yeshivish, because they weren’t all out yeshiva – but they were a…
Why do kids think shul janitors are so cool?
I was hanging out in the lobby of the Young Israel of Far Rockaway this past Friday night when I noticed a crowd of kids and teenaged boys hanging around the janitor and it got me thinking about the whole…