During the Days of Awe, the blasts of the shofar are meant to awaken our slumbering soul. As Maimonides writes: In the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashana, there is an allusion, as though saying: Awake you sleepers from your sleep, and slumberers arise from your slumbering…All who forget the truth in the follies […]

The culmination of the Three Weeks, an annual time of mourning the destruction of The Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple) is Tisha b’Av. It is the saddest day of the Jewish year and the most calamitous in our history. So great was our pain on this day as a nation, that each year we commemorate it […]

Dear Jew in the City, How will we celebrate Pesach after Moshiach comes? Sincerely, Isaac   Dear Isaac, Thanks for your question, though I wonder exactly what prompts it. I have two hypotheses, which I’ll address separately. It could be that you’re asking whether Pesach will still be a holiday when Moshiach comes. This is […]

Dear Jew in the City, Is the world supposed to be upside down before Moshiach comes? How are people accusing Israel of doing the horrific things Hamas has done?  Sincerley, Oren   Dear Oren, Thanks for your questions. I’m breaking it down into three parts, which I’ll address separately: (1) “Is the world supposed to […]

Dear Jew in the City- I have read your blog many times and usually I enjoy it. I am very disturbed by one post in particular: Dirty, Money Grabbing Parasitic Vermin: Anti-Semitism Is Alive And Well. I am more disturbed by the passage from Deuteronomy than by the baseball-loving Jew hater. As a Jew from Ukraine, […]

We are not supposed to ask to be tested according to Jewish tradition. We learn this from King David who erred by asking for a test. It’s uncomfortable to see good coming out of unimaginable evil, but it seems to be how God created our world. We didn’t ask for October 7 – we’d give […]