Ask The Rabbis // The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement
Should rabbis talk to their congregants about BDS?
09
Sep
01
Jul
31
Mar
Ask the Rabbis // Special Passover Edition
Is it permitted to invite a non-Jew to your Seder? And is it a good idea?
07
Jan
Ask the Rabbis // Conversion
How do you decide when a candidate for conversion is ready to become Jewish?
03
Dec
Ask the Rabbis // Arrogance
Are there aspects of Judaism that encourage arrogance—or that help guard against it?
19
Nov
Ask the Rabbis // Happiness
Should Jews strive to be happy?
INDEPENDENT
No. Jews should never strive to be happy.
Happiness should not be something to strive for. It should be solidly entrenched deeply within us, born of a sense of mystery, a sense that defies reason and definition. We are here for the very purpose of not knowing why. And in the not knowing, we rejoice and laugh in the face of every imaginable fate. This is the audacity of Torah, which challenges us to dance on Simchat Torah with numbers etched into our arms, to dream tenaciously about Jerusalem in spite of 2,000 years of exile, to sing joyful melodies on Saturday even if we know a pogrom is pending on Sunday. We are a people that has been subjected to unimaginable tragedy, genocide, expulsion and conquest for longer periods and...
01
Oct
Ask the Rabbis // Sin
“In contrast with other views, we are not born sinners, but by virtue of the human condition and our free will, we are bound to act sinfully from time to time.”
30
Sep
Ask the Rabbis | Gun Control
We ask our rabbis, “Should Jews be for or against the right to bear arms?”
05
May
Ask the Rabbis // Addiction
INDEPENDENT: Addiction is highlighted in the Torah’s account of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, where the One Who Spoke and the World Came into Being instructed us not to get so caught up in our subjective assumptions about God that we would carve out and worship an image reflecting those assumptions.
04
Mar
Ask the Rabbis // Contraception
INDEPENDENT
Judaism does not restrict a woman in regard to her choices concerning pregnancy. She has a choice to bear children or not to bear children (Talmud Bav’li, Yevamot 65b; Mahar’shal in Yam Shel Shlomo 1:8). The injunction to “Be fruitful and multiply,” the ancient rabbis ruled, does not apply to women, because the Torah does not ask someone to do something that might endanger his or her life and health. On the other hand, a man who has not yet brought children into the world (ideally at least one of each gender) may not use contraception unless the woman he is with faces some sort of danger to her life or health. Coitus interruptus in the course of lovemaking, however, is permitted if its intent is incidental and not deliberately intended to prevent pregnancy (Tosefot...