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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 […]

Revisiting the Double Standard

Sometimes conversion candidates can get so frustrated by Jews who are “bad Jews” in their mind. You have to go through hell and back and basically get a seminary/yeshiva education, but people who just happened to be born Jewish can and will drive to synagogue on Shabbat. Women can and will dress tznius in synagogue […]

Revisiting Last Friday’s Post

Last Friday’s soapbox moment got a lot of attention. Worse, it got a lot of sympathy, proving that I’m not alone. However, I want to clarify what prompted me to write that post because of some of the reactions in the comments. As you should all know by now, I’m studying for two bar exams. […]

News: Rabbi Angel on Parsha Hukkat and Conversion

Rabbi Angel, former President of the Rabbinical Council of America and author of Choosing to Be Jewish: The Orthodox Road to Conversion, has written a pretty scathing commentary on this week’s parsha and conversion. Here is an excerpt. The full version is located here. Some years ago I attended a meeting of Orthodox rabbis to discuss policies […]

Are Conversion Rabbis Capable of Understanding the Conversion Candidate’s Emotional State?

Can conversion rabbis ever really understand the emotional issues that face conversion candidates? Worse, maybe even our friends and family can’t understand? I don’t mean to downplay the suffering that other people face. We all have our own challenges, but orthodox conversion candidates face an outside restriction on the most intimate areas of life. Given […]

Lessons in Ahavas Yisrael: Tattoos in the Mikvah

(I’m not so bright, so I accidentally scheduled this for tomorrow’s date. Sorry!) A really nice story to start your day off right! I don’t think any story can really be classified as a “chassidic story” unless it involves a forest in The Old Country, a miraculous job offer, and someone who gets pregnant after […]

Dressing Awesomely and Modestly: The “Fresh off the Boat from Seminary” Look

Here is Tuesday’s awesome and modest look! Calhoun decided to photobomb me, looking for lovin’. The skirt is a black, floor-length (because I’m short) polyester/rayon blend and comes from from Nordstrom’s kids’ section. The t-shirt is from my Birthright trip to Israel, so it has the easily-spotted Birthright logo on the pocket area and a […]

“Funny, You Look More Jewish When You Wear Glasses.”

I hear this one a lot, and apparently so do a lot of other “white” or Middle-Eastern people. If you could possibly “look Jewish,” glasses will make you look even more “Jewish.” Even totally secular Jews have said this to me over the last 7 years. Just like glasses will make you look smarter or […]

Types of Headcoverings for Women

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 […]