Dear Jew in the City,  I am troubled by the mitzvah of seir l’azazel (the scapegoat of the Yom Kippur service). We are taught to believe and hope and pray for a redemption and a third Beis HaMikdash. If these commandments were just for ancient time, why all the daily prayers for and reminders of […]

Dear Jew in the City, I heard recently that an Orthodox rabbi said that Israeli soldiers are allowed to rape women in war. Is this true? If is, it is horribly upsetting! How could that be part of Judaism? Thank you, D.L. Dear D.L., You’re referring to something that the new candidate for chief rabbi […]

The Ghostbusters franchise has come back from the dead, raising questions on what Judaism teaches about ghosts. According to the Torah, do ghosts haunt our society, crossing over from the dead to appear before and communicate with the living? Texts spanning millennia offer two different approaches within Jewish belief. Judaism teaches that death does not […]

Dear Jew in the City, With all the horrific shootings going on recently, it got me thinking about racism in the Jewish world. I’ve heard people claim there are racist sources in the Torah and Talmud. I hope that’s not true. Can you clarify? Do Orthodox Jews who are racist have sources to back up […]

The little-known Jewish holiday of Lag BaOmer starts tonight and goes through tomorrow. This day of late-spring fun interrupts a period of national mourning for the Jewish people. How did this annual pre-Memorial Day festival come to be? Two thousand years ago, the great Torah sage Rabbi Akiva, who was considered to be the best teacher of […]

Dear Jew in the City, What’s the deal with kitniyos? Especially being that we know now it’s not chametz, and some Jews eat it and some don’t… Sincerely, Rice on Pesach Dear Rice, Kitniyos (or kitniyot) is typically translated as “legumes” and the Ashkenazi practice is not to eat them on Passover. This isn’t because we used to […]