Dear Jew in the City, I heard that the Torah says that a woman must marry her rapist and that a father can sell his daughter into slavery? How can we possibly accept such horrible ideas in the modern world? Sincerely, Biblical Inequality   Dear Inequality, That’s a great question. It is true that […]

Dear Jew in the City, Thank you for all of your posts and videos — they have been unfailingly helpful as I have been trying to navigate the often-confusing ba’alas teshuvah process. Here is a question I have for you, though. How do you respond when people claim that Judaism and the “old testament” are […]

Dear Jew in the City, How do I raise my kids to be respectful of Christmas yet not have Christmas-envy? People always seem to go to one extreme or the other, but I’d like to give over a nuanced perspective to my children. Sincerely, Holiday Cheer Dear Cheer, That’s a great question. I’m no parenting expert, […]

Dear Jew in the City, On a recent flight after dealing with hours of a cancelation, a reschedule and then a delay, I finally boarded the plane with numerous other exhausted passengers. I noticed quite a few fellow Orthodox Jews on this flight, the one closest to me was a twenty-something guy with a short […]

Dear Jew in the City, I have a question regarding the belief in the coming of moshiach (the Jewish messiah). That is the simple version. The longer is: I was not born a Jew, but I believe with all my heart that I have a Jewish soul and I am supposed to be Jewish. Because of […]

I started my journey towards Jewish observance when the father of one of my classmates killed his two children and himself when I was eight years old. This tragedy pushed me to search for meaning in life, and at sixteen, I stumbled upon Orthodox Judaism, and realized it was what I had been missing. Like […]