Jewish Blogs

Zipper Flowers At Last!

I can now finally breathe a sigh of relief. Phew. My daughter is on her way to having a drawer full of fashionable hair accessories! What took me so long you ask? Well, life just somehow got in the way of me and the very popular zipper flower. No reasonable explanation really, especially since these flowers are totally up my ...

Zeek: Ecstatic Pentecostal Prayer Services Derive from the Jewish Siddur

Some articles are so content-laden that they ought to be books.Such is the case with, “How the Jewish Prayer Service Resembles Pentecostal Worship,” by Sharon Alexander in the Zeek e-zine. Alexander says a lot in the article starting from the premises:…The most visible example of congregational ecstatic experience is presently found in Pentecostal, charismatic, evangelical, or gospel Christian churches. “Praise,” ...

YU revises history, shmistory.

Nothing restores my faith in the fine institution known as Yeshiva University when they act more like a Yeshiva and less like a University. This past Rosh Hashanna I had the pleasure to read their latest YU To-Go. This publication shows me why I’m glad I didn’t spend my parent’s money on YU tuition. You can get the same mal-education and krum-scholarship elsewhere.Harsh you say? Consider ...

You’re Covered: God’s Presence is Closer Than You Think

With four kids, ages seven and under, my husband and I have been exhausted for basically seven years straight. We’ve found that the best way to manage our sleep deprivation is by taking shifts and fortunately, the division of labor comes naturally in our house.When darkness falls on nights that he has nothing in particular to do, the moment my ...

Your Holocaust Jokes Aren’t Funny

Most people can’t get away with making Holocaust jokes. And when I say “most people” I include the Prime Minister of Italy. I hate to bring up the Holocaust in my response, but the last time a leader of a European country went public badmouthing Jews…it didn’t go well for the Jews. Or, ultimately, for the leader.So, hey, Silvio Berlusconi, ...

Younger Jewish leaders not so worried about intermarriage

Jewish leaders younger than 40 aren’t as bent out of shape about intermarriage as their older colleagues.That’s a not-very-surprising finding of “Generation of Change: How Leaders in their Twenties and Thirties are Reshaping American Jewish Life,” a new survey of young leaders of Jewish organizations commissioned by the Avi Chai Foundation.Actually, this is hardly the only saddening but unsurprising statistic ...

You’ll Never Look At Brunch the Same Way Again

The interwebs are a’fire with the latest Japanese beauty craze: Bagelheads.In a fairly disgusting process chronicled by National Geographic Taboo, people are paying to have a large lump of saline injected into their foreheads, which is then sculpted with a single push of a thumb to create a coveted bagel shape.Keroppy, the, *ahem*, artist responsible for this body modification-gone-insane, says ...

You say you’re conservative, but you’re pretty frum!

Like most folks who grew up in a frum environment I had very little exposure to other non-”orthodox” streams of Judaism. The entire extended family on my fathers side is frum all the way back, so I never had any conservative or reform bar mitzvah’s that we had to deal with – I say deal with because whenever someone frum ...

You Know You’re Frum and Off the Derech…

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who got into a graduate program far from any major Jewish community. He calls me up ranting and raving about how the only Jews in his town aren’t even real Jews because they’re reconstructionists. I found this odd, coming from a person who keeps nothing in the way of ...

You Can Knit With Sheets!

I don’t know about you, but for me the idea of knitting with sheets is just downright exciting! And look at the gorgeous results! My excitement may have something to do with the fact that I’ve just finished crocheting a nice sized rug from sheets, (I’ll be sharing that soon) and was in the need of something just a bit ...

You Can Crochet With Sheets!

I don’t know about you, but this is my perfect vision of summer! Well of course I’d like to be sitting next to a beautiful lake with an iced coffee, but for now I’m quite happy sitting next to our largish wading pool with a gorgeous mountain view beyond. You see, when you need to watch your kids in the ...

Yonah and the Megillot: Love and Fear in Yonah

Commentators wonder why Sefer Yonah was included in the Tanach. Other prophets devote individual prophecies to other nations but only Yonah consists solely of a prophecy to the people of Ninveh.What makes this story relevant for Am Yisrael?R. David Kimchi advances several theories. Perhaps this story challenges the Jewish people. If Ninveh could transform their society and repent, surely the ...