As a female who still has plenty to learn, I understand that my male readers get somewhat shortchanged because I don’t have experience with some things that concern them. Thanks to a generous offer for a guest post, today you get to read some practical information about tzitzit and tallitot! Women, keep in mind that […]
Guest Post: The Practical Guide to Tzitzit and Talleisim Read Post »
For an introduction to hechshers, read What Are Hechshers and Why Do I Care? Now let’s go more in-depth to hechshers. Conversion candidates and others new to kashrut get hechsher-dependent and get anxious about eating anything without a hechsher because we don’t trust our own knowledge (or may still lack that knowledge). What kinds of products
Things That Don’t Need a Hechsher Read Post »
I apologize for today’s post being a bit late, but I always write my Friday posts on Thursdays instead of scheduling them ahead so that I can write something related to my week. Unfortunately, thanks to a dead car battery, I didn’t get back from my camp Shavuot experience until around 2:30am. But the three
Question of the Day: Women Shaving During the Omer Read Post »
Shavuos is my favorite holiday. Really! I get to stay up all night learning interesting stuff and eating cheesecake. What’s not to like?? And I’m not the only convert who likes Shavuot best! Besides the nerdy, cheesy aspects of the holiday, it is also the holiday for converts. Quite honestly, I don’t understand why Shavuot
Shavuot: The Holiday of Nerds, Vegetarians, and Converts Read Post »
Since I became observant of the kosher laws while living in a largely non-Jewish area, I got a lot of practice in explaining kashrut in a quick-and-dirty way. This is what I came up with, and maybe it will be useful to you! Eating kosher is essentially three levels of paying attention to what you
Explaining Kashrut to the Clueless Read Post »
It’s annoying that so many Hebrew words have multiple meanings in English. Most of the time, this is because multiple Hebrew spellings could have the same sound. Today, let’s talk about the English word “aliyah,” which literally means “ascent.” A. You “receive an aliyah” when you are called up to the Torah to chant the
The Various Meanings of Aliyah Read Post »
It seems that many conversion candidates discover Judaism while in school, whether high school, college, grad school, professional school, whatever. When you already feel overwhelmed (hopefully) by your studies, how on earth could you become shomer Shabbat? In my case, I fell victim to that kind of thought process in college. Just like I thought I couldn’t
UPDATED: Schoolwork v. Shabbat Read Post »
I won’t pretend this is an exhaustive list; it won’t be. However, it will certainly be more than enough to get you started! (In the future, I’ll do a post for men too, but that requires a bit more research on my part!) This post also does not discuss the halachic issue of how much hair
Types of Headcoverings for Women Read Post »
You’ll hear this Hebrew phrase a lot. You may also see/hear it as “yishar koah.” It literally wishes the person strength. “May you have strength!” In short, it means something along the lines of “Good job!” It congratulates someone who has had the merit of performing a mitzvah or some other good Jewish task. Most often,
Phrase of the Day: Yasher Koach Read Post »
An important read from the other convert blogger named Chavi: The Real Danger? Other Converts. From the post: “I don’t know if it’s new, but all of the conversion crises talk has exacerbated this self preservation to the point that converts, in some communities, have become bullies. It is the classic case where the bullied
Bullying Within the Conversion Community: The Enemy Within Read Post »