Despite my overwhelmingly positive Jewish involvements, choosing a Torah life was the most wrenching decision of my life. I feared the constraints of so many mitzvot, even of losing my individuality. Yet having experienced the compelling truth and joy of this life, I voted for a level of Jewish observance my Cohen grandparents had left in Europe.
Hershcovich is doing what a growing number of other Orthodox Jews are doing on this social media platform: mining humor from the excesses, peculiarities and ironies that abound in Orthodox life.
The hallmark of a Jew should be expressing hakarat hatov on a regular basis, and if we fail to do this for the teachers who work so hard to educate our children, we undermine one of the basic purposes of a Jewish education.
In the mikvah’s waiting room, I am engrossed as I watch my dear friend Jenna, clad in a long robe, face the rabbis who have overseen her geirut process. They ask: Do you realize this step is irrevocable? Do you believe the Torah, both Oral and Written, was given by God at Mount […]
It is 1:15 AM on Seder night. My fatigue is settling in, along with the brisket. . . .