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Word of the Day: Shuckle

If you don’t know the word shuckle, you probably still know what it is! In fact, if you have been davening with an orthodox congregation for at least a few months, you probably already do it. Shuckling is a swaying and/or rocking movement Jews tend to do while praying. It apparently comes from the Yiddish […]

Orthodox Inside Jokes: Mixed Dancing Makes Babies

If you really want to pass as orthodox, you have to be able to appropriately use “mixed dancing” in a conversation to evoke the most humor possible. You may think you can be orthodox without this skill, but that simply is not true. But in all seriousness, people have thought I was frum-from-birth based solely […]

Phrase of the Day: Bentching Gomel

Bentching gomel is a special prayer that allows you to thank Hashem for delivering you from danger. (Imagine being at a football game…”Go, Mel!” It doesn’t rhyme with camel.)  You must have actually been in danger. Close to danger isn’t enough. You have defied death, so now you should thank Hashem in public during the Torah […]

Frum and Fabulous in the Office

People have asked for office-appropriate frum fashion choices. Really, frum clothing lends itself easily to the office environment. (Women’s suits may be a very different story, based on the standards of your community.)  After more than a year at my prior job, my co-workers (who were also my classmates and friends) hadn’t realized that I […]

Phrase of the Day: Talmid Chacham

For your post-Tu B’Av pleasure… Doesn’t every man want to be a Talmid chacham? I know every woman wants to marry one. Even more than they want to marry the Old Spice Guy. (Old Old Spice Guy Isaiah, not New Old Spice Guy Fabio.) Talmid chacham just means Torah scholar. An illustration of such a […]

Management Update: Today Begins the Bar Exam!

I know you will all be sad, but there are no posts until Thursday afternoon. Today begins my journey through the New York bar exam, which continues with the multi-state portion on Wednesday and culminates with the New Jersey bar exam on Thursday. G-d willing, that means I will be licensed to practice law in […]

How to Make Button Shirts Tznius

One thing that annoys me endlessly is when women wear button-down shirts and there are obvious gaps between the buttons, exposing the woman’s bra or undershirt. In the Jewish context, this is untznius. In the everyday world, it’s sloppy. I, too, was once a victim of this scourge on fashion. (I didn’t know better. But […]

Phrase of the Day: Beged Ish

I don’t know how it happens, but the phrase “beged ish” pops up in the most random of contexts. Perhaps that says something about the people saying it, but I’ll leave that to you. Beged ish is Hebrew for “a man’s garment.” In short, men and women aren’t supposed to wear the clothing of the […]