My parents made me a big bat mitzvah – like black-tie-affair-on-a-yacht-cruising-around-Manhattan-harbor-with-a-hundred-and-fifty-of-our-closest-family-and-friends big. But they weren’t just the people that planned the party and paid for it. They saw me through all my years of Hebrew school and bat mitzvah lessons. They helped me write my speeches and made me practice them. And although we had […]
“Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16). As an Orthodox Jewish woman, the first time I saw this verse in the Torah, where Eve is cursed with her husband ruling over her (as a result of having eaten from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), […]
After two months of Yomim Tovim, why do we have one more holiday in Shemini Atzeres?
The Mishna in Sukkah relates that “He who has not seen the rejoicing at the Place of the Water-Drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life.” The Siloam Spring in Jerusalem, pictured above, was the source of water for the Simchas Beis HaShoeva, or Rejoicing in the House of Water Drawing, a ceremony which took […]
Dear Jew in the City, I know that I’m supposed to resolve my differences with people this time of year, but I don’t know what to do. There’s someone I know who will do a perfunctory apology like they do every year, but it will be insincere. This individual has a history of hurting me […]
Isn’t dipping one sweet thing into another sweet thing redundant? Here’s why the apple’s sweetness is different than the honey’s.
