Of course I believe in Hashem, but he’s the Boogey Man waiting to strike me down. These horrifying words were uttered by an attendee at the first Makom shabbaton several years ago during dinner. Where did such an abhorrent idea come from? How could a person possibly have a relationship with God if she felt […]
My family didn’t know any Orthodox Jews personally was I was growing up, but we knew “of” them. They were “extreme,” “closed-minded,” and “chauvinistic.” Then, when I was 16, I met some for the first time up close, and something surprising happened. These people were educated, open-minded, and kind. The women were empowered and the […]
Sometimes a complete stranger will send a message to one of our platforms and beg me to cut my wig. Which is always so surprising because I can’t help but wonder: Shouldn’t someone who begs another person to cut one of her belongings at least meet her first? Thankfully, we now have staff in place to screen […]
This past Friday night I did something I haven’t done in twenty years. I drove a car on Shabbos. Wait, wait – it’s not what you think. I had an infection in my arm that my doctor told me to watch closely. He gave me an antibiotic to treat it. If it got worse he said […]
When I was 13 years old, my family took our first trip to Israel. We were not the least bit observant in those days. It was the first time I ate kosher food for a sustained period (by default), the first time I saw a mechitzah (divider) when we when to the Kotel, and the first time […]
When one person hurts another, even if she did so unintentionally, she should still apologize. That’s why I’ve decided to write this post. Because I didn’t understand the pain that some people who grew up Orthodox experienced until pretty recently, and not understanding made me not sensitive enough. During my proud secular Jewish childhood, I […]
