Jewish Blogs

I hate body wash

The first time I experienced body wash, I was stunned at the stupidity, what was wrong with a simple bar of soap – did they realize how hard it was to get lather up with liquid that was constantly being washing off and having to keep squeezing more out of the bottle? Body wash is like built in obsolecence for ...

I get by with a little help from my online friends

Two months ago, I moved to a new town 700 miles from home. Because gas isn’t cheap these days and airfare never has been, I decided it wasn’t feasible for me to travel home to Ohio for Passover. That left me in a holiday pickle: Because I’ve not yet become part of a Jewish community near my New Hampshire town, ...

I Am a Wall

I sat in the car, parked at the end of the trail, nervously waiting for my children. We usually did family hikes, but the Yehudiya, Israel’s most popular hike, is “for experienced hikers only,” with several steep ascents. That disqualified me. Our 19-year-old daughter Pliyah and 13-year-old son Yisrael were anxious to do the hike, so my husband and I ...

Hut, 2,3,4

Look at the amazing sukkah El Yenta Man is going to build in our backyard this week!Just kidding. This fancy shanty is one of the finalists of Sukkah City, an international sukkah design competition currently being held in NYC’s Union Square Park. Sounds a little like Chabad Meets Burning Man, nu? The winning hut gets to stand all the way through the week of ...

Hurricane Sandy: Boss Springsteen to the Rescue

On Friday night, while Jews around the east coast will gather together at Synagogues for their first Shabbat davening since the devastating Hurricane, the pop-culture world will be having their own spiritual experience at the Rockefeller Plaza in NYC. Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Sting and “the Boss” Bruce Springsteen, among others, are headlining a benefit concert to help raise money ...

Huff Post: Best Paid Pastors

Jaweed Kaleem writes in the Huffington Post about the top earning pastors in the US. He explains,From church closings and foreclosures of houses of worship across the nation to the limited number of clergy jobs for new rabbis, imams and pastors, the recession has hit religious Americans just as it has affected the tens of millions of the country’s jobless.Even ...

How Would You Help Other BTs Transition?

A fellow BT has been blessed by Hashem with great insight and great financial resources. Looking back at what was missing when he became frum, he has allocated significant funds to provide learning opportunities specifically for BT’s — at this point specifically for BT women who he feels are really under-served!Yes, finally, someone understands that many of us – especially ...

How Well Do You Know Jewish Cities?

Sorry, that title is a little misleading. What I really meant to say was, how well do you know Jewish cities from 1939? There is a reason for my question–and no, it does not involve taking a quiz on MJL (but feel free to by clicking on the image to your left!). Instead, it involves everyone’s favorite quiz website, Sporcle.Today, ...

How to Spot FFB’s

In the Bay Area I am constantly the only FFB (frum from birth) person at meals and other Jewish events I go to. So in my search for FFB’s I have developed several techniques to spotting and weeding out the FFB’s. It’s not the easiest thing to do, since most of it involves table manners, or lack of them, or ...

How To Pray Jewishly

I became Orthodox under the guidance of someone who advised me to run from it. Rabbi Dr. Barry Freundel, the rabbi of the Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. — whose name you might recognize from the 2000 presidential election, when he was constantly quoted as “Joe Lieberman’s rabbi” and asked deeply-thought questions like, “If a nuclear war breaks out ...

How To Observe Holidays Like A Boss

On the door of my local library there’s a sign that says, “Will be closed in observance of Labor Day”. I had to laugh when I saw it. How exactly do you observe this holiday? A solemn barbeque? These aren’t holidays. They’re fun days off. You want to see observance of holidays, go visit an old school religion, like Judaism ...

How To Make Yarn From Sheets

Making yarn from old sheets is a great way to up-cycle something you might otherwise toss, and it turns out that knitting and crocheting with sheets is really so satisfying. So I have to admit, I really need to be cleaning for Passover right now, but when I eyed that bag of sheets my neighbor had given me two years ...