Jewish Blogs

Why are Pesach Hotels so Expensive?

Trudging in the snow, it’s time for many orthodox Jews to celebrate their alleged holiday of freedom by parting with about $4000 per family member for some fancy Pesach hotel. (Do the math: including the flights, rental car, etc.) The experience is unlike anything Moses had in mind when he instructed the children of Israel to celebrate the holiday once ...

Who Would Cynthia Ozick’s Edelshtein Envy Now?

Reading Adam Kirsch’s excellent piece in Tablet on Isaac Bashevis Singer reminded me of my all-time favorite short story, Cynthia Ozick’s “Envy, or Yiddish in America,” wherein the hilariously bitter Edelshtein is obsessed with Yankel Ostrover (a Singer-like figure), consumed by the fact that Ostrover has obtained mainstream adulation through having his Yiddish writing translated into English.Having immersed myself almost exclusively in ...

Who was the MLK of the Jewish world?

I know I’m a day late, but this question was posed on my FB page right before I went to work and 47 comments of bickering and fighting about whether or not Rav Meir Kahane deserves this title along with some of the other nominees really showed me how diverse an audience I have.As usual I expected people to bring ...

Who was Beruryah?

BERURYAH, Second Century C.E., Israel (from our article in the Encyclopedia of Religion)Beruryah was one of the few famous women in rabbinic Judaism of late antiquity. She was the daughter of R. Hananyah ben Teradyon, wife of R. Meir.In rabbinic sources Beruryah appears several times together with the rabbis of the generation of scholars centered around the Galilean town of ...

Who Decides? Judaism says: You & I

We are talking about abortion.Almost 40 years ago, in January 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that a woman’s right to privacy extends to her right to have an abortion up to a certain point in her pregnancy but we are talking about abortion. Still. Again.Who Decides? The issue is not whether abortion is morally right or ...

Who are the Avatars of Hanukkah?

You ask, Who are the avatars of Hanukkah? I will answer that in my new book, as follows……The concept of avatar has several meanings. First an avatar can be an embodiment or a personification of a substantial idea, for instance, “the embodiment of hope”; “the incarnation of evil”; “the very avatar of cunning.” In some respects what I have been ...

Whitesnake, Tunisia, and My Top Ten Favorite Jews of All Time

Michael David Lukas’ first book, The Oracle of Stamboul, is now available. He will be blogging all week for the Jewish Book Council and MyJewishLearning Author Blog.I’ve been thinking a lot these past few months about the year I spent in Tunisia. It was 2003, I had just graduated college and was living on the outskirts of Tunis. Officially, I was ...

White Sox Move Yom Kippur Game for Fans, Youkilis

As an avid Detroit Tigers fan it’s difficult to root for Kevin Youkilis and the Chicago White Sox. However, the team’s recent decision to reschedule an upcoming night game to earlier that afternoon out of respect for Yom Kippur is worthy of praise.I’ve written numerous times on this blog about Jewish Major League Baseball players whose decisions of whether or ...

Where is G-d?

Yesterday at 11 a.m., air raid sirens sounded across the country. Emergency crews went into position, security forces entered a heightened state of readiness and thousands of people made their way to public shelters. It was a chilling scene, as schoolchildren were shepherded to safety, and the innocence of our nation’s youth was disrupted by the din of the alarm. ...

Where Have all the Jewish Fathers Gone?

Thank goodness, it’s almost Father’s Day! Which means the pressure is off, at least for a day, to please mom. Whew! I mean, my mother’s so good at needling me, she’s earned her honorary degree in Jewish acupuncture. Ba dum ching!Ah, yes, the Jewish Mother joke. There is a short hand, a collective understanding of the archetypal Jewish Mother we ...

When Political Correctness Trumps Religion

Despite the encouragement of the Jerusalem Post’s editorialists, and despite several signatures from friends and colleagues in Jewish outreach, I believe that last week’s “Statement of Principles” regarding those “in our community who have a homosexual orientation” was a grave mistake. The statement isn’t entirely objectionable; mostly it is neither new nor newsworthy.Read More: @ cross-currents.com

When Its OK to Bend the Truth

There is a common practice for sales people to tell customers the advantages of a product while ignoring its drawbacks. Torah law demands integrity; covering up a flaw is deceitful and forbidden. The gemara in Bava Metzia tells us that a person may not ask a seller the price of an item if he has no intention to buy it.This is onaat devarim (hurting ...