Dear Jew in the City, My friend said you can’t be buried in a Jewish cemetery with tattoos – is that true? Thanks, Alexander Dear Alexander- That Jews with tattoos cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery is a persistent myth, right up there with “Jews don’t believe in Hell.” And, like “Jews don’t […]
Approaching Shavuot and counting the Omer–the Kabbalistic process between Passover and Shavuot—I remember my teshuva story. I was an Israelite unknowingly enslaved to a foreign culture, only to break through the goo of exile and receive the treasure of Torah. I returned to myself in isolation. Perhaps it had to be that way. I was living […]
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 […]
Dear Jew in the City, What does it really mean to do teshuvah and how do we do it properly? Sincerely, Noah Dear Noah, Thanks for your very timely question. Taking a page from the sage Hillel, I’ll explain teshuvah “on one foot.” When my oldest child was young, he had a toy car that […]
Just as you have to pass by the thorn to get to the beauty of the rose, so follows the process of teshuva during the month of Elul.
Airline travel in the U.S. this week was shockingly out of sorts. I was supposed to be in LA on Tuesday, at the Television Academy DEIA Summit, but on Sunday afternoon, I got an email from United that due to storms in the Midwest, travel was getting complicated. I tried to change my ticket to […]
