Jewneric: A New Platform for the Jewish Voice Archives: Halacha
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30 January 2008
Learning About Sex the Yeshiva Way
As secular society becomes more sexually open, the capacity for frum teens to be affected becomes greater. In order to combat this, Yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs have become stricter about the secular influences their students come in contact with. Secular music, entertainment and dress are all taboo, and all because of how they relate to [...]
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23 January 2008
Trembling
I recently came across a review for the 2001 movie, “Trembling Before G-d.” For those of you who are not familiar with it, the movie tells the story of several previously Orthodox Jews who are homosexual, and details their struggles with being gay and Orthodox. Many times, these people were essentially kicked out of their [...]
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16 January 2008
The One Thing
When I hear someone who expresses an opinion that is to one extreme or the other, I tend to roll my eyes and dismiss it. No matter how important an issue, if you see no room for the other point of view you’re probably being led by an emotional or psychological bias. This [...]
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9 January 2008
Genocide and Jews
Last month, there appeared in the Yeshiva University (YU) Commentator an article by Rabbi Aryeh Klapper titled, “Is there a Mitzvah to Prevent Genocide?” The piece talks about different halachic ramifications of allowing a genocide to happen without stepping in and the possibility of going to war over the killing of a community.
A few years [...]
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25 December 2007
Upsherin; It’s Finally Time To Look Like a Boy, Son.
The Before Shot
A few weeks ago I attended a ceremony which celebrated a beautiful custom of some Jews, an Upsherin. For those of you unfamiliar with the upsherin let me break it down. For the first three years of a little boy’s life, we (those who keep this custom) refrain from cutting his [...]
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23 December 2007
The Halachot of Festivus
Festivus is celebrated each year on December 23rd. For the uninitiated, Festivus comes from a Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza’s father creates a holiday because he is sick and tired of the commercialism of the “holiday season,” you can read more about it here. What started as a sitcom plot point is now celebrated [...]
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21 December 2007
The Fast of the Ninth of Tevet
a Medieval Jew carrying wine for the Sabbath
The other day I was reading an article that a good friend sent to me about the fast of the Ninth of Tevet. Although we don’t hold by it these days, according to Prof. Sid (Shnayer) Z. Leiman, “Scroll of Fasts: The Ninth of Tebeth,” Jewish Quarterly Review [...]
