Jewish Holidays and Culture

What was your most unique Pesach Seder?

April 24, 2022

What was your most memorable Passover Seder? Ours was in Kathmandu with 1,000 people at Chabad. Here are 10 more stories.

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Welcome to the world, baby boy

December 4, 2021

My wife, Jody, and I joined a club that we really wanted entrance to – the grandparents club. Here’s what I said at the brit milah ceremony.

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Jews are not white: Race and identity in Israel and the U.S.

November 21, 2021

Should Jews and Israelis be considered “white supremacists?” Are Jews from Arab countries “white?” If so, then who are the people of color?

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God and dinosaurs

June 5, 2021

Does Judaism believe that God planted fake dinosaur fossils in the earth to explain how dinosaurs could exist when the world is only 6,000 years old?

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Does God still demand “costly signaling?”

March 26, 2021

Pre-Passover reading: Does God still demand “costly signaling?” How halacha evolves and why that can help us lighten up this Pesach.

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Why I can no longer daven in an Orthodox synagogue

November 9, 2019

Here’s why I no longer daven in mechitzah minyans: It’s a symbol signaling that separate roles for men and women are immutable and eternal. I say no!

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Datlashim: can there be a second generation?

August 4, 2019

Last year, I wrote a column that asked the question: “how do datlashim – the Hebrew acronym for formerly religious Jews – want to raise their children?” The main response I received during the course of my research: “to be just like them”– that is, to also be datlashim. This poses a dilemma, as to […]

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What I learned from Facebook about God

June 10, 2019

How a Facebook conspiracy theory helped me understand why some people, when confronted with cosmic questions like the Big Bang, say “God made it.”

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Judaism’s honesty problem

January 6, 2019

Does Judaism actually encourage dishonesty? Two stories from Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz during a talk at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

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My problem with Maoz Tzur

December 9, 2018

Do those who live their lives according to a strict reading of the biblical narrative have a greater propensity to seek revenge?

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