Chanukah…a celebration of the courage to fight our enemies. It sounds so much nicer on paper. It is not nice in real life. I have always taken self-defense seriously…on paper. I never actually followed through on getting an education in it, not even a basic class when we had one every few weeks on my […]
Being a Maccabee Is Harder than It Sounds Read Post »
Chanukah starts today, a very early Chanukah this year. So I hope you enjoy hearing “Happy Hanukkah!” from every Tom, Dick, and Harry for weeks after Chanukah, until December 26! I used to correct people, but now I just accept it with a smile and move on. I guess you mellow out as you get
Happy Chanukah! And Go Check Your Smoke Detectors. Now. I’ll Wait. Read Post »
It is beyond time to update my links and blogroll pages. Can you help? What are your favorite online Jewish resources, Hebrew resources, conversion blogs, and anything else you think would be useful to a conversion candidate? Just drop them in the comments below! The internet is a very big place, as I’m sure you’ve
Can You Help Me Update the Resource Pages? Read Post »
The title really speaks for itself, right? I couldn’t NOT get this book. I’ve owned it for years, and it never fails to make me guffaw. This is the best possible title for a book on this topic. It remains one of my favorite books in my (ginormous) book collection. But in all seriousness, it’s
Book Review: Mommy Never Went to Hebrew School by Rabbi Mindy Avra Portnoy Read Post »
Welcome back to the real world, post-chag! Do your co-workers and classmates still remember you? I bet you have so much free time in those hours you’ve previously been spending prepping for yom tov each week. Sure, you could spend that time catching up on real life or learning Torah… or you could brush up
New Jewish Movies Available Online! Read Post »
Going mainstream, y’all. Before digging into the details, I just want to say it’s nice to see conversion as the cover story in something as mainstream as the free magazine you pick up in shul to read when you need a break from davening on the chagim (I’ve heard people read them at home too,
Pick Up the Orthodox Union’s Magazine this Chag for Stories on Conversion! Read Post »
Ah…the fall chagim. When everyone (including you) eventually starts to get tired of hearing, “it’s a holiday again.” This is especially problematic in the school and workplace. When you become an orthodox Jew, you suddenly have a lot of holidays. Holidays that involve you not working, not driving, not answering your phone or emails,
“Oh, You’ve Got All Those Days Off!” How to Navigate Work and Jewish Holiday Observance Read Post »
Hefker is a “term of art” in the Talmud, as we say in the legal world. That means it’s a word with a very precise meaning that may not line up exactly with how it’s used colloquially; not a word to throw around lightly. You mean exactly what it says. For instance, trespassing has a
Word of the Day: Hefker Read Post »
Ah, summer. When perfect strangers start getting very “concerned” about your clothes if you dress in a tznua way (“tznius” is the most common way to say that, but that’s technically the wrong grammatical form – it’s about time I used it correctly on this blog). This happens to both men and women, though it’s
“Aren’t You Hot Wearing All Those Clothes?” Read Post »
An interesting controversy has hit the media this week that might be confusing to you, if you’re new to the orthodox community. The Israeli wine maker Barkan was outed as moving their Ethiopian-Jewish workers out of the parts of the wine process where they might touch the wine. It turned out this was a requirement
Controversy You Should Understand: The Calls to Boycott Barkan Wine Read Post »