Jewish Blogs

Dosh/Sechita Demonstration Part II

The Torah prohibition of Dosh traces back to the times of the Mishkan when wheat kernels were separated from their external shells by threshing. The most common toldah (derivative) of Dosh is Sechita or Mefarek – extracting a liquid from a solid.Can you milk a cow on Shabbat? This appears to be a classic case of sechita, squeezing the cow’s udder, a solid, so that milk can flow out. The Gemara ...

Dorothy Height, Honorary Jewess with Attitude

Like countless other Americans, here at the Jewish Women’s Archive we were great admirers of Dorothy Height, who died on April 20 at the age of 98 and is being buried in Washington, DC today. Given what we know about Dr. Height, we couldn’t help but be struck by President Obama’s statement that “the godmother of the civil rights movement” ...

Don’t Sweat It

Bonnie and I moved from New Jersey to Connecticut just a few months ago to begin the empty nest stage of our lives with some new things to do, people to meet, and opportunities to grab. I wanted new, open scenery where I could walk and jog and try to get back in shape without having to cross the same ...

Don’t Settle: 5 Life Lessons From Your Red Hot Mama

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing the New Rep Theatre’s production of Sophie Tucker: The last of the Red Hot Mamas with our new JWA intern, Gwen. What struck me about the show was that it condenced Sophie’s wisdom into five important life lessons — ones that I found particularly relevant to my life as a single woman today.Read ...

Don’t judge Judaism by the Jews

It’s a classic statement, but after so many messages statements expressing shock at the fact that I’m still religious after seeing and being exposed to all the shit that flows in and around the frum Jewish community, I have decided to add my two cents on this important subject.Contrary to what my critics think, I don’t hate anyone, my good ...

Domestic Violence is Real (Chukat)

In this week’s parsha, Chukat, Moses is once again feeling the stress of leadership. Tired and quickly losing hope following the death of his sister Miriam, the Israelites complain to Moses that they would have rather died in Egypt. They go so far as to wish they had died a horrible death along with those punished for joining Korach’s rebellion. ...

Does your shul ban alcohol?

This is one of the most vague, strange questions I have ever received from a reader – it was strange enough for me to write a post about it.Heshy,I was wondering if you and your readership could help me with this. First of all, if you print this, please don’t disclose my name! I was wondering if you or people ...

Does your Community have a Breakaway Shul?

San Francisco may be a black hole of Orthodox Judaism, but the lackluster numbers of shomer shabbos and shomer kashrus Jews have never stopped them from dissing one another for not being as frum as they can be. In fact, San Francisco is home to a very interesting breakaway shul in the Sunset District. The Young Israel of San Francisco ...

Does This Book Actually Exist?

Besides being one of our our favorite guest bloggers, Lavie Tidhar is a great science fiction author. His books hop the realm between thoughtfully philosophical and totally bizarre. He also captures — maddeningly, hilariously well — a provocative secular Israeli‘s take on religious culture (did I mention he was Israeli?). And, with a little bit of the science fiction, a ...

Does skepticism help or hurt religious Jews?

It’s been a question on my mind for sometime, but I have refrained from writing about it because I am not a philosophically in tune guy, I don’t read philosophy much and when the comments section fills up with A. Nuran, Yankel and FrumGer going at it with this philosophical arguments I generally tune out, but I am a skeptic, ...

Does Place Matter?

In today’s globalized world, it’s easy to say that place doesn’t matter at all. With a few clicks of a mouse, I can skype with friends and relatives all over the world. If I choose tomorrow to move to Fiji, I can do so. If I wanted, I could hire a secretary in India, outsource data entry to Cambodia, and ...

Does Hashem Want to Hear From Me?

I’ve learned that Hashem gives nisyonot to those who can grow from them and to those whose prayers he longs for. B”H my life is running smoothly. Does this mean that Hashem doesn’t want to hear from me? I thank Hashem all the time but I also can’t help constantly feeling that something bad may be looming on the horizon. ...