Jewish Blogs

Tomer Devora-Examples of G-dliness

The sefer, Tomer Devora, is based on a verse in Micha, “Mi Kel komocha..”-Who is like you Hashem. It describes how man should adopt Hashem’s Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, transforming himself from a mere human to a G-dly individual. This class focuses on the middah of chesed as expounded further in the verse, “Ki chofetz chesed hu..”-Hashem desires chesed.In the ...

Today Is The Tenth Of Tevet

Today is the Tenth of Tevet, an important day on the Jewish calendar. A day on which in 425 BC (2,436 years ago!) the walls of Jerusalem were surrounded by the army of Nebuchadnezzar. This was the first of a series of events that eventually led to the tragic destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem, so this day is considered ...

Today Could Have Gone Better

For many years my homepage on my computer was the Jerusalem Post, not because I found them to be the world’s best or most accurate news source, but because I had friends and family in Israel, and Jpost would immediately note if there had been a bombing in Israel, and how many had been killed. But there have been a ...

To Teach or Not to Teach?

Yo, y’all! The Family Yenta has finally returned from our mountain sojourn adventure (remind me sometime to tell you how El Yenta Man slaughtered a chicken) and our little Jewish camper loved his three and half weeks away. He now sings the entire Birkat Hamazon after every meal (partly to get out of helping with the dishes, I suspect.) Like ...

To Fur or Not to Fur?

This week’s moral dilemma is brought to you by a bunch of bubbies: I don’t know how this happened, but suddenly my closet contains three fur coats.Well, if you want to get all sartorially technical, two coats and a vest. But still, it’s a lot of animal to be hanging with my J. Crew peacoat and El Yenta Man’s plastic ...

TLC’s Sister Wives: A Closer Look

I returned home from my cousin’s wedding Sunday night, happy and exhausted with barely enough energy to flop onto the couch and turn on the TV. That is how I found myself watching the two new episodes of TLC’s Sister Wives, a reality TV show about a modern polygamous family. I think the expected feminist response to a show about polygamy is ...

Tisha B’Av – Short Idea with A Big Impact

In Eicha, Tisha B’av is referred to as a moed (festival). How can we call the saddest day in the Jewish calendar a holiday?Aleh Shur notes that there are some moadim that are called festivals of closeness such as the shalosh regalim. There are other moadim that are called moed shel richuk, festivals of distance. What is the idea of a holiday of distance?In the three weeks we ...

Tisha B’Av – Repairing the Breach

There are a number of questions that present themselves in regard to Tisha B’Av. Hopefully, asking them and searching for their answers will give us new insights into this day. Perhaps also these answers will direct us as to where our efforts should lie. Chazal tell us that the overwhelming majority of the burning of the Bias HaMikdash occurred on ...

Tisha B’Av: A Holiday of Distance

Rav Wolbe in Alei Shur addresses the famous question of why Tisha B’av is called a moed-festival. Some festivals such as the sholosh regalim are called “Moed Shel Kiruv”- a holiday of closeness, while some festivals are called “Moed Shel Richuk”-a holiday of distance. During the Three Weeks we need to ask ourselves, “Where are we in life? Are we ...

Times Total Hatchet Job: Jonathan Rosen v. Peter Beinart

Jonathan Rosen’s review in the Times, “A Missionary Impulse” of the book ‘The Crisis of Zionism,’ by Peter Beinart, is a total hatchet job.Rosen is the editorial director of Nextbook, which seems at first to give him some credentials to review this book, but he is also the author, most recently, of “The Life of the Skies: Birding at the ...

Times: Review of the “Please Don’t Blow Us Up” Exhibit at the New York Public Library

When you throw together for exhibit a random assortment of diverse religious artifacts from three distinct religions over several millenia, people will wonder, Why? What’s the point?Edward Rothstein writes a comprehensive and sensitive review, to describe and explain the exhibit, “Abraham’s Progeny, and Their Texts” saying, “The sweep of the new exhibition at the New York Public Library — ‘Three ...

Times of Separation, Times of Closeness-Netivot Olam II #5

Shalom is the key to putting the fragmented puzzle pieces of this world together again. The Torah tells us to actively pursue peace because it completes everything including our own piece of the puzzle. A Jew’s purpose is to be mashlim (to make whole) everything he encounters. If you are about to eat a pear, say the bracha with kavanah. If you ...