When the month of Kislev comes around – the month of Chanukah – I’m reminded of dreams. In waking life, we so often forfeit our intuition and prefer “logic.” We attempt to accelerate the plot, or perhaps contemplate all the ways something might go wrong. Kislev reminds us that this is a time to trust. […]
November is National Adoption Month and we had the pleasure of speaking with Chavie Bruk, who courageously shares her story with grace, wisdom, and levity. Married in her early twenties in 2006, Chavie Bruk moved to Montana with her husband on shlichus (emissaries of Jewish outreach) to establish a Jewish presence in the vast, picturesque […]
Dear Jew in the City, What are the basic halachic requirements for tzniyus? Sincerely, Teri Dear Teri Thanks for your question. I try to avoid answering “what’s the halacha?” questions because of the lack of universal parameters in matters of halacha. For example, I once made the innocuous observation that the bracha after eating rice […]
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has brought forth heated debates about the rights of the mother vs. the rights of the fetus, but there are other lives that could potentially be affected by this Supreme Court ruling that we’ve heard less about: the desperate parents who are trying to conceive healthy babies. We recently […]
Last week, I answered a question about the difference between Chasidim and Orthodox Jews. Around the same time as I received that question, I was forwarded an email with a lot of questions on that very topic. I had hoped to consolidate both emails into a single Q&A but it became far too long, and […]
Dear Jew in the City- Why do Orthodox Jewish women shave their heads? Thank you, Kylie Dear Kylie- Thanks for your question. To say that Orthodox Jewish women shave their heads is a huge generalization, and not a particularly accurate one. What the majority of Orthodox women do is cover their hair. The parameters of […]
