Satire
Having a Large Family is The Opposite of Valuing Life
We're currently in family therapy, all nine of us and two parents. Even with sessions...
Prepare to Meet Your Macher
He's a macher.
He can get you into seminary and out jail with a well placed...
Der Judenstaat – FINAL (3).doc
Hear me out. (No good idea ever started with that, did it?)
What if the entire...
The Book of Life, or Something
“On Rosh Hashanah, we pray to be inscribed in the book of life,” explains Rabbi...
Jerusalem Flakes
The streets were windy.
Dark.
Grey and overbearing.
Little slits carved into limestone to accommodate passerby.
Endless tunnels, where...
Pimply Kid
“The will of God is so,” explains the The Kiruv Rabbi in the most non-condescending...
Book Covers
With the help of AI, I am now able to attend to my true calling of being a children’s storybook author.
This book is about pride.
Jewish pride.
The best kind.
Some questions I had about Judaism, I got answers that worked, to a point.
There were explanations that fit within a larger framework. And as long as that framework was intact, the answers worked.
"Why does the Torah tell us to do this or that?""Because God said so."
Fair enough.
I can struggle...
I think this one actually best expresses the issue that bothers me the most.
Biography
Philosphy
God Sent Me a Box of Bow Ties
I wrote God a letter.
Dear God. I just want you to know how much you mean to...
“Moral Equivalency”
Much as militant religion is full of contradictory claims, each invoked at the right moment, militant ethno-nationalism...
Fighting from The Rear (aka My Ass)
Growing up, the narrative that Ultra Orthodox Jews (aka "Charedim") had as to why they weren't serving...
Fiction
Accounting
He never learned much math.
Math was limited to two hours a week with a secular studies teacher who spent more time shouting at...
Kiruv
Aish Hatorah, or Aish, as it eventually changed its name to be in order to be more hip with the youths, is an institute and movement with an overt agenda of getting Jews to be more religious than they currently are. Their tactics often result in accusations of Aish being a cult, and in this article, I'll attempt to...
Oh boy, let me fill you in.
The literal definition of Baal Teshuva means "master of repentance/return". The broad implication being that they are "returning" to something they have lost, namely their religion, spiritual identity, etc.
Inherent in the term Baal Teshuva is the implication that one's previous life was sinful, and that one has repented from said sins.
Jewish...