A friend asked an excellent question that has probably occurred to many of you: “Why is the local reform shul charging $200 for holiday tickets, but the Chabad is only charging $25 and that includes a meal??” This contrast doesn’t always exist, but it exists in much of America, especially smaller Jewish communities where there is […]
Why Are High Holiday Synagogue Tickets So Expensive? Read Post »
Gather round, friends. I want to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart: you do not need to “speak Yeshivish” to be frum. If you want to, that’s fine. But I don’t want you spending time beating yourself up over the idea that you “don’t talk like everyone else talks.” Elul
It’s Ok to Not Speak Yeshivish Read Post »
I’m surprised how often this question comes up. After all, what do you think is the alternative? Making them go hungry or having to hire someone else to feed them? We can get so afraid of unusual situations that sometimes we don’t stop to think through them logically first. Fear is common whenever you face
Can I Feed My Children or My Pet on a Fast Day? Read Post »
People tend to fall into two camps: those who don’t advocate for themselves and people who are always advocating for themselves. As a society, we tend to deride that second group of people. But why? Is their behavior really that annoying or are we jealous? I can’t answer that categorically, but in at least some
How to Advocate for Yourself Without Being a Jerk Read Post »
With Pesach fast approaching, I did some research into what chametz means to you and me as an aspect of our personality and character. How can we search for chametz within ourselves? What does chametz come to teach us? Wanna see what I learned and share your own experiences and opinions? You’re in luck! Let’s
Let’s Have a Shiur on Sunday! Read Post »
And that somebody would be me! I never could have seen this a year ago, when I was still waiting to convert and had been waiting for several years. But I was finally in New York and had a great beit din! And things went smoothly, and I converted in January. I met my chosson
Somebody’s Getting Married Today! Read Post »
The Olympics is supposed to be a time of international unity and brotherhood. Unfortunately, the reality falls very short of this ideal. Here are some of the “fundamental principles” of the Olympics, from their Charter [emphasis mine]: The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with
Why I Won’t Be Watching the Olympics Read Post »
I apologize if you received multiple copies of yesterday’s post. Since I’ve been gone, Blogger has completely re-done their site, and I couldn’t make it work right. Sorry 🙁 Shabbat shalom! (And no, I currently have no idea if I’m back regularly. Maybe.)
Management Update: Sorry for yesterday’s technical hiccups Read Post »
Quite frankly, I’m tired of people bad mouthing conversion candidates who are married to a Jew or dating a Jew. When I was converting, it would often come up that I was single for most of the years of my conversion process and wasn’t dating once I formally entered the orthodox conversion process. Once the
In Defense of the Conversion Candidate in a Relationship Read Post »
I’m a lawyer, and that means I try to be precise with my language. I don’t always succeed, but I try. So this means I do a lot of Google searches of “define X” to make sure I’m using a word correctly for the idea I’m conveying. I don’t remember why, but I wanted to