Hi Jew in the City- Why don’t Orthodox Jews shake hands with members of the opposite sex? Thank you, Lloyd Dear Lloyd- This is a slightly-loaded question in that it makes a number of assumptions and you’re going to meet people who may not live up to those expectations. I agree with the basic premise, […]

Dear Jew in the City- A non-Jewish neighbor asked me out on a date. I said “no,” thinking that that would be it, but it wasn’t. When I saw that he was not giving up, I realized that I had to have a conversation explaining that because I am Jewish, specifically Orthodox, I only date within […]

Dear JITC- Why do Orthodox Jews wear black? Sincerely, Rosie Dear Rosie- The short answer to your question is this. Now, I would love to link to that and be done but, unfortunately, while Allison is cool enough to let me include it, she’s not cool enough to let that be my answer in its […]

Dear Jew in the City- Why do a lot of Orthodox Jewish men have beards? Sincerely, Steve Dear Steve- Thanks for your question, which we intentionally arranged to answer following last week’s question, which was on payes (sidelocks). As we mentioned there, Leviticus 19:27 contains two prohibitions, not to round the corners of the head […]

Hey JITC- Why do Orthodox Jewish men have sidecurls? Thanks, Ivan Dear Ivan- Thanks for your question. Those sidecurls are called “peiyot” in Hebrew, meaning corners. This is commonly Yiddishized as “peiyes” and is usually rendered in English in a variety of less-phonetically-accurate spellings, including “payes” and “peyot.” (By the way, the common English-language term […]

Dear JITC- I heard that people don’t cook food on Shabbos. So do you have to just eat cold food the entire day? All the best, Karen Dear Karen- Thanks for your question. Before we discuss cooking, I’d like to discuss fire in general. To do that, I’ll quote myself, from The Taryag Companion: “The […]