A lot of Jews think halacha (Jewish law) is a dry and boring subject. I can’t say that I blame them. Some of the stuff that you can read about in the papers here in Israel would probably strike any normal person as pretty bizarre. The latest being a rabbi in B’nei Brak who...
Read More »
For the last year and a half I have been struggling with a guilty conscience about what I eat. And I don’t like the feeling. It’s not that I run off somewhere for an occasional secret bacon fix, God forbid. I still follow all the rules – at least the letter of the rules...
Read More »
Can a person call himself whatever he wants to? If you live in America, you can legally change your name to just about anything. As reported in USA Today, a woman legally changed her name to “Cutoutdissection.com.” “Call her “Cutout” for short. Just don’t call her Jennifer.” There are countries in the world that...
Read More »
Im bechukotai talachu…“If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall last to the time of vintage, and the vintage shall...
Read More »
My prayer for Israel is that someday it will be a country where all Jews get along together, where there is respect for religious pluralism and different points of view. Unfortunately, Israel has a LONG way to go. If you agree with the sentiments expressed in my below letter to Israel’s ambassador to the...
Read More »
Why is it that some people who seem to be very frum (Jewishly observant), who no doubt take the mitzvot very seriously, ignore the commandment “v’ahavta l’ra’acha k’mocha,” love your neighbor as yourself? Why do some people take very seriously the rabbinic fences around separation of meat and dairy, yet they ignore the rabbinic...
Read More »
