For thousands of years, Jews have wrapped tefillin every weekday morning, paused to make a blessing before eating, and recited Shema before bed — not because we knew that these practices were good for us from a mental and physical health perspective, but simply because Hashem commanded us to do them. We don’t need neuroscience […]

With a worldwide interest in K-Pop, Korean television dramas, and Kimchi, Korean pride is nothing new to Chana Bilek, an Orthodox Jew from South Korea, with equal pride in the cultures she calls her own. “I was born in Korea. When I was just under 2 years old, I was left abandoned in a hotel […]

The imagery of Elul, the month we recently entered, is often associated with a King. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi explains through a famous parable that the King, who is usually high up and away from His subjects (i.e. God) is, “in the field.” As in, He’s close to and among us, available for us […]

I was greatly affected during my recent visit to the mikvah as I thought of the horrors endured by women and hostages since October 7th. I packed my bag and drove to the mikvah. Then I was led to my private preparation room to bathe and prepare. I felt as though a mountain was on […]

While media representation and public opinion of mikvah has been sullied over the years (check out our mikvah video), Naomi Rosenbach, a PhD student at Hofstra, got to thinking about how Jewish women are experiencing the mikvah in real life and what factors might impact their experience. She decided the only way to know for sure was […]

While mikvahs are used by Jewish women all the time for the observance of Family Purity, they are also the special place where a non-Jew completes his conversion, as Rus did in the megillah we read every Shavuos. One of Hashem’s names is Mikvah Yisrael, not only because mikvah means hope and God is our […]