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 […]

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 […]

Dear Jew in the City, I know that the Torah tells us to honor our parents. But what is one to do when those parents are not good parents. When they hardly raise you, possibly resent you and are often distant?  If a child is neglected or even hated by his mother- how is he to […]

Dear Jew in the City, Why does Orthodox Judaism consider some changes – like Maimonides’ approach, kabbalah, or the Chasidic movement as “kosher,” but things like the Karaites’ philosophy and other non-Orthodox movements throughout history as non-acceptable changes? Thank you, Wondering in L.A.   Dear Wondering in L.A. Thanks for your question. It reminds me […]

Dear Jew in the City, Lock the kids up…do not sicken everyone. You have no right to impose your beliefs against vaccination on the rest of society. If you don’t see it this way…advice…leave this country. Go to someplace where ignorance and stupidity are bliss.  America is NOT such a place.  We lose ours, you […]

Dear Jew in the City, Everything is predetermined by Hashem and is gam zu l’tovah (ultimately all for the good), therefore, everything is bashert (meant to be), effectively, even if it appears to be detrimental. But humans (not animals) have free choice in their actions, so how is that reconciled? But if everything is predetermined and gam […]