Jewish Blogs

Twins Beat Mets in Kosher World Series

The Minnesota Twins have never played the New York Mets in a World Series, but when it comes to having Kosher food at the ballpark the Twins win.Kosher Sports Inc. had been the exclusive Glatt Kosher provider at Shea Stadium, the former stadium of the NY Mets, since 2006. In 2008, the and Kosher Sports Inc. announced a multi-year agreement ...

Twelve Months of Mensch

Oh, the boys are back and they’re nicer than ever:The 2012 Nice Jewish Guys Calendar is out and ready for you to take it home, pin it up and knit it some socks. You can spend a whole year with these mensches who love their mothers and always wipe down the toilet seat.Of course all the important (and not-so-important) Jewish ...

Tu B’Shvat: Focus on Eretz Yisrael

The Mishna tells us that there are four periods in the year that are called Rosh Hashana. Tu B’shvat is the New Year for the trees. What is the meaning of this quasi-holiday? When the Temple stood the Jews needed a time to count the life of a tree in order to determine Shemita and Neta Ravai, and Tu B’shvat was the day ...

Tu Bishvat – Eat some fruit! Enjoy life!

Some call it Israeli Arbor Day. Others think of it as Jewish Environmentalism Day. Mystics make a symbolic holy meal called a seder at night. Others plant a tree in Israel.Its true name is Tu Bishvat, Hebrew for the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shvat which always comes at this time in the winter, and is known as ...

Tu B’Av: The Morning After

I have always loved Tu B’Av, a holiday that honors the ancient tradition in which maidens, dressed in white, gather and dance in the fields and vineyards, intent on meeting their beshert, their soul mate. Per tradition, the unmarried men of the village came out in droves and watched the women dance. There is a discrepancy regarding who “chose” whom during those ...

Tu B’Av and the Question of Gendered Rituals

Yesterday marked Tu B’Av, the 15th day of the month of Av, a minor Jewish holiday that Wikipedia tells me has become a Jewish equivalent to Valentine’s Day, in that it is an auspicious day for holding weddings and perhaps meeting a romantic partner. The part about weddings makes sense: Tu B’Av comes only 6 after the fast day of ...

TTTT at Mule Creek Prison

Emuna Outreach is proud to be sponsoring the distribution of hundreds of copies of The Trail to Tranquility to inmates in the California State Prison system. Thanks to our friends at the Aleph Institute and Emuna Outeach activists David and Racheli Reckles, The Trail to Tranquility is already all widely distributed among inmates in the Florida and New York State prisons. ...

TSA Issued Lulav Alert for Sukkot This Year

On this blog I’ve written about past incidents on airplanes concerning presumed breaches of airline security when Jewish passengers began to put on tefillin (black leather straps and black boxes known as phylacteries). Like many others I criticized the airlines and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for not educating flight crews that these were necessary parts of Jewish prayer garb and therefore permissible on planes ...

Trying tallit and tefillin: Working on my hyprocrisy

A few months ago, I realized that I wanted to start wearing Tallit and Tefillin. Not because I had some grand change in ideology, but because I realized that doing so actually goes along with the ideology I’ve professed to have for quite some time.I’ve always believed in egalitarianism, the idea that men and women should have the same obligations ...

Tree of Life: Torah-Connecting the World To Hashem

The Rambam writes that the word tov (good) implies three things: pleasure, efficiency, and spiritually good things. Hashem created pleasure and efficiency so that we might pierce the external layer of physicality and focus on its core. The fragrant aroma, taste, and texture of iced coffee arouse a person to wonder who created it. The speed and efficiency of a shiny new car sensitizes ...

Traif Is Going Out of Style

Ask most Orthodox Jews about Kashrus and Reform Judaism, you’ll most likely hear a snicker from the uninformed or a reference to the “Treyfe Banquet” (see: New National Museum of American Jewish History In Philadelphia Apparently Misses the Mark) from the more informed. As far as I know, Reform Judaism has never officially sanctioned Kashrus observance.I remember reading an article 3 ...

Traditional Jewish food given Most Unsexy food award

Traditional Jewish food has been given the most unsexy food award at this years Food Network Awards. Judges tried multiple foods from a variety of cultures, ethnicities and religions. “I don’t get it. Why don’t they just make stew, maybe add some color. I don’t want to sound prejudiced, but eating diarrhea is definitely not sexy” one judge said angrily ...