Jewish Blogs

Is your rabbi in prison? Don’t worry it’s frum there!

So your Rabbi was arrested for stealing millions of dollars, selling kidneys on Ebay or molesting his talmidim, shul may never be the same without his fiery mussar filled sermons, but that doesn’t mean he wont still be religious – for prison may actually be frummer than the free world and here’s why.Why is prison so frum?No women: it seems that ...

Is Yossi Sarid Jewish?

Yes, Yossi Sarid is a Jew. He is, according to Wikipedia, “a left-wing Israeli news commentator and former politician. He served as a member of the Knesset for the Alignment, Ratz and Meretz between 1974 and 2006. A former Minister of Education and Minister of the Environment, he led Meretz between 1996 and 2003.”So Sarid is no lightweight. He is ...

Is Yom Kippur Teshuva Harder Than Becoming a Baal Teshuva?

Like everyone, I have my faults. I spoke a bit of lashon hara last week. I squabbled with my husband because our overdraft is plumbing the depths of our bank account; and I skipped bentching on shabbos because it was just us for lunch and I couldn’t be bothered.But ultimately, I believe that I am accountable for all of these ...

Is Yoga Jewish?

No, yoga is not Jewish, it is Hindu in origin.The Times chronicles a burgeoning controversy over the “ownership” of the practices of yoga in America.We did yoga regularly in the early 1990s at the Northwest Tennis Club in Minneapolis Minnesota. Our teacher was Bonnie West, an American woman from St. Paul with a wicked sense of humor and with no ...

Is Transgender Kosher?

Joy Ladin was once Jay Ladin. Leora Tanenbaum reviews her new book at Huffington Post:On the face of it, “Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders” (just out from University of Wisconsin Press) is the story of how Jay Ladin, the author and an English professor at Yeshiva University in New York City, transitioned into living as ...

Is the Sh’Ma the New Univeral Prayer?

El Yenta Man and I celebrated twelve years of marriage on Sunday, and because we’re kind of weird, rather than throw down for a spendy dinner and champagne, we elected for snacks at Parker’s Market then coffee at the Sentient Bean, where Dan Merchant’s documentary Lord Save Us From Your Followers was showing in honor of World Homeless Day.Maybe that doesn’t sound ...

Is the “Secret” Eliezer Society at Yale University Jewish?

Yes, the secret Eliezer society at Yale University is Jewish, according to Time Magazine.We don’t like the idea of secret societies, Jewish or not. If you have something of value to offer the world, why not let everyone in on it? Perhaps it’s so your members can feel like special elite people.Be that as it may, based on our cursory ...

Is the Rubashkin Trial anti-Semitic?

In a word, no.If you are like me, you have been reading about the Rubashkin saga for months. What began with a Federal raid at a meat processing plant to ferret out hundreds of illegal alien employees is now culminating with a federal and state trial.Read More: @ myjewishlearning.comTags: anti-semtic, Rubashkin, Rubashkin trialYou might also like:What do you think of the Rubashkin case?Friday Night ...

Is the Polara Golf Ball Kosher?

No, the USGA “rabbis” have declared the Polara golf ball is treif, it is not kosher, as the Times reports.The ball has special dimples that violate the rules. “Polara Golf claims to have engineered a ball that will fly straight and resist the most stubborn slice or hook, at least 75 percent of the time.”The Times (Teeing Up a Duffer ...

Is the Orthodox Spell Broken? Is Haredi Gender Segregation Harrassment and Self-defeating?

Is the Orthodox spell broken? Is in fact Haredi gender segregation in Israel both illegal sexual harassment and also totally self-defeating?Such is the claim of Zvi H. Triger of Israel’s College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS) School of Law. He has published a closely argued and well documented 49 page paper with 244 footnotes that you can download and read ...

Is the Internet Asifa a Scam?

I went to Shul in Ditmas Park (near Flatbush) this past shabbos and the related over a horrible story about a 15 year old bais yaakov girl led astray by her friend who pointed her to an unmentionable website. Her mother logged on the computer and had found that her daughter had visited the unmentionable website, not ever learning what ...

Is the Brookings ConText Site a Talmud?

Like Lloyd Bentsen said of Dan Quayle in 1988, “I know the Talmud, I studied the Talmud, and the Brookings ConText site is no Talmud.”The “Center for the Constitution” with the Brookings Institution presents online “James Madison’s Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787″ with commentary that can be augmented by users of the site.The publishers of the ...