God is connected to everyone who reaches out to Him, as the Midrash (Eliyahu Rabbah, 9) teaches, “I call heaven and earth to witness that whether Jew or Gentile, man or woman, slave or maidservant, everything is according to their actions that the divine spirit rests on them.” Every place the Torah and Talmud discuss holiness […]

A few years ago, when my son (then 5) and my daughter (then 8) were playing “mitzvah pirates” – a game they invented where they sailed the seven seas in order to help people  –  my son took one look at my daughter and told her, “Girls can’t be pirates.” (In his world of “pirates,” […]

Dear Jew in the City- I heard that there is some sort of female Jewish Warrior in the Chanukah story that I never learned about in Hebrew School. What’s this about? Sincerely, Female Fan   Dear Female Fan- Great question. Chanukah, as you may be aware, is not overt in Tanach (the Jewish Bible). There […]

Dear Jew in the City, I’m troubled by the mitzvah of Sotah. Is there a way to understand it that’s less troubling? Why is only the woman shamed and there’s no such shaming for a man who is suspected? -Troubled Dear Troubled, People often have issues with the case of the sotah – the woman suspected of […]

  Dear Jew in the City, I heard that the Torah says that a woman must marry her rapist and that a father can sell his daughter into slavery? How can we possibly accept such horrible ideas in the modern world? Sincerely, Biblical Inequality   Dear Inequality, That’s a great question. It is true that […]

People have asked me to write about this topic for quite some time, but I have always hesitated because I knew that the moment I put words onto the screen, I would get complaints from those to the right and to the left of me. It is the perpetual problem of a person who tries […]