Jewish Blogs

Is the Dot-Kosher Internet Domain Extension Kosher?

Some rabbis say yes; other rabbis say no.Here’s a both ironic and Talmudic kosher story to end your week from Bloomberg (“It’s Rabbi Versus Rabbi in $17 Billion Dot-Kosher Battle”). “The Internet’s organizing body, called Icann, is meeting this week in the South African port city of Durban to begin a major expansion of domain names. That may include a ...

Parshat Matot-Masei: What is our Journey?

Last week we celebrated July 4th, a day that represents freedom in our American History. Nowadays, we look forward to July 4th as a day when we gather with family and friends, enjoy the weather, maybe bbq and watch concerts and fireworks either in person or on television. We may lose sight of the events that took place which granted our ...

My/Her Tattoo

My Tattooby Emilia DiamantI knew when I went to get my first tattoo that the hardest part wouldn’t be the pain (although it did hurt quite a bit), it would be telling my mother. I had the idea when I was living in Israel, where I fell in love with Hebrew–it’s twists and turns and calligraphy were captivating to me. Chazak, strength, ...

Letter to the Editor: Why Make Fun of Yeshivish People so Much

Hi,I happen to run across your blog in doing a search for Pomegranate Supermarket. I read a few of your posts and I have to wonder, why all the negativity about yeshivish people?Many yeshivish bochurim and men (my husband as an example) will not use the internet as these bochurim and men take the issues of bitul z’man and shemiras ...

To Tattoo Or Not To Tattoo

I am leaving tomorrow for a trip home to LA. Between visiting cousins, friends, new babies, and family, my trips home tend to whiz by in a blur of too-short-check-ins.With all of the wonderful (albeit short) visits I make while I’m home, the most important ones I make are to my grandfather. Papa is my last living grandparent. He is ...

The Tragedy of the Four SEED Boys

Four SEED boys came to Orchard Beach this summer. And the results were not good. They were Shimon, Akiva, Elisha, and another Shimon; students from a small yeshiva in Monsey who were sent to spread Torah “out of town” over the summer.The first Shimon started at the swirly blue marble countertops at the home he was staying in. The home ...

The Incredible Pebble Watch and the Free Caddie Golf App and the Pebble Bike App

I play golf, I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 android smartphone. I started to use the Free Caddie app for determining distance to the green.The problem was that the phone is hard to see in the bright sunlight and it is awkward to keep pulling out your phone to see the distance to green.Then I discovered that the new Pebble ...

Slash Coleman Talks ‘The Bohemian Love Diaries’

Listen, we all have our weird childhood stories.The ones that we tell on the third or fourth date to gauge whether this relationship could get more serious, the tales of familial dysfunction that reveal our own inescapable flaws, those embarrassing yet vital moments in the formation of the imperfect, weird people we are now.I personally could regale you for hours ...

Women and Tallit

Why do some women wear Tallit? Why shouldn’t women wear Tallit? What’s the big deal? If you’re like me, you probably haven’t spent a lot of time pondering these questions. As someone who falls somewhere outside of regular observance, a tallit, or prayer shawl, isn’t usually on the forefront of my thoughts. (Even defining a tallit required a quick search ...

What We Can Learn from Shabbos Davening Times

I have to be honest, I never gave the times people start shabbos morning davening much thought until I realized that the whole world didn’t just start at 9am. In general the orthodox Jewish way is to start shachris at 9am, but in reality once you start to nitpick you will find that the more black hat a shul is ...

Why is Everyone Suddenly Anti-Uman?

Hey Hesh, Just wondering if you’ve seen all of the anti-Uman stuff as of late, as if suddenly the entire frum community has woken up to something that’s been going on peacefully for many years already. Why all of the animosity? No one seems to have a problem with folks going to kever rochel, maaras hamachpeila, or meron, but suddenly ...

What Can We Do About the Tuition Crisis?

Dear Readers, H-E-L-P! I may sound like a broken record to Matzav readers, and yes it is always an issue every year around this time, but so many of us are suffering and nobody is helping us. Please, there is probably no bigger issue facing Klal Yisroel today than the tuition crisis and what it is doing to our families and ...