Jewish Blogs

Why Women Can’t Even Say Thank You – it’s the Beruryah Code

illiam Kolbrener lives in an Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Israel. Writing in the Forward he expresses his frustration that his neighbors are not polite to him. In his essay, “When Women Can’t Even Say Thank You,” he is surprised, and he is sad, and finally he decries that the, “Stifling Modesty Code Prevents Everyday Acts of Civility.”As his article explains further, ...

Why We Fast on Yom Kippur

It’s only a few hours until Rosh Hashanah, and I am well into my predictable freak out about having enough food for the holiday. Tonight I am hosting a very large group, and again on Friday. In between I’m attending meals where I’m bringing a contribution. This means a lot of cooking and chopping and baking and washing and rewashing ...

Why Tony Danza Should Stay Out of the Classroom (& Reality TV)

One evening in the summer of 2000 when I was working as a chaplain intern at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, I walked into one of those family waiting rooms outside of the patient unit. The television was turned on to a new reality TV show called “Survivor.” I watched for about ten minutes and then promised myself that I ...

Why the current use of the term “Torah Jew” is a chillul hashem

Found this interesting piece on the blog To Kiss a Mezuzah and received permission to re-post here.By Susan Esther BarnesWe Jews seem to have a lot of labels for ourselves these days. Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Modern Orthodox, Chasidic, Renewal, Reconstructionist, Humanistic; the list goes on.In some ways, the labels can be useful. If I’m visiting a synagogue for the first ...

Why, on this night, do we include women’s voices?

In collaboration with JewishBoston.com, JWA are putting the finishing touches on a new Haggadah that highlights women’s voices. (Keep an eye out for it next week.) As we’ve been thinking about seders and traditions and the different ways we could include women’s voices in the Haggadah we’re creating, I wanted to hear more from you about your traditions and how ...

Why Lex Talionis Matters?

The latin lex talionis means the law of retaliation. Some think this law is a core element of early biblical justice, familiarly expressed as, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an arm for an arm, a life for a life.”Read More: @ tzvee.blogspot.comYou might also like: Times: How did Jewish Actor Kirk Douglas Quit Smoking?4 Things Wrong With the iPadTimes: Do ...

Why kids Who Go to Yeshiva in Israel “Frum-Out”

We have all seen it before, your next door neighbors kid, fresh off the boat from his year in Israel. The different yarmulke, maybe the longer tzitzis, that kissing of his hand after he shakes yours (maybe it’s an immunity thing), his harder more violent kavannah filled shuckeling and the talk of Hashem’s beauty and trying to convince everyone to ...

Why I’m Resistant To All Things Pink In October

Though I’ve never had breast cancer, I think it’s fair to say the disease has shaped my life. My mother was diagnosed at age 32, when I was 5 years old; she battled the disease for 33 years before dying of her sixth recurrence last December. Four years ago, I learned that I carry the BRCA genetic mutation, and I ...

Why I Suddenly Understand Queen Esther

Sometimes I wonder what I would write about if I wasn’t Jewish and my mother hadn’t died. It’s kind of a weird question to ask yourself–what would you be like if you lost the central points of your identity? (I recognize that it sounds weird that my mother’s death counts as a central point of my identity, but to be ...

Why I plan to be a “Student for Choice”

The end of summer marks the beginning of a relatively short but tumultuous season for the high school student: the college application process. The Common Application went up August 1, and with it came a slew of essays that students across the country must finish by January. Topics range from choice of major to hobbies to why you want to ...

Why I Hate Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Dear Breast Cancer:I am aware. It’s not because of the extremely effective marketing, with the pink ribbon campaigns. It’s because I lived in your house, and you lived in mine.It seems that my mother’s breast cancer was just bad luck, and not genetic. Even if my mother didn’t have one of the genetic mutations for breast cancer most common in ...

Why I don’t Shake Hands with the Opposite Sex

I received this in one of the many spam emails I get from any number of friends of mine who run shuls and chabad houses, once in a very rare while do I open them. I liked this one and even though I do tend to shake hands with the opposite sex, I think that anyone who can give over ...