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Jewish Journal

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jewish law

Right or Righteous?

Rabbi Debra Orenstein November 30, 2007

There is a modern-day term for the inability to admit wrongdoing: sociopathy. A conscience that cannot feel guilt is capable of untold evil. An ability to look critically at ourselves, to see where we are wrong, is the beginning of making things right. Being right — in the narrow sense of \”correct\” — amounts to very little, if a correct position isn\’t also righteous. Joseph is correct in interpreting his dreams of domination and superiority to his family, but he is also insensitive and inflammatory. He is right again, according to midrash, in what he tells his father about his brothers\’ bad behavior. But in Jewish law, unlike American, truth is not a defense against defamation. Accuracy is not piety.

Come, let us reason

Rob Eshman November 16, 2007

The Writers Strike is a Jewish issue. How do I know that? Because everyone is saying it\’s not. The writers who are demanding a larger share of DVD rights and residuals for their work and the producers who refuse to give it to them both say, repeatedly, that despite the fact that so many of them happen to be Jewish, the strike is not — as Jewish writers and producers told our senior reporter Brad Greenberg last week — a Jewish issue. To paraphrase a Clinton-era favorite, you can be sure that when everyone is saying it\’s not about being Jewish, it\’s about being Jewish.

Crocs rule as Yom Kippur shoe

Jewish Journal October 4, 2007

From secular beachgoers in Tel Aviv to right-wing Orthodox settlers in Hebron, Crocs — the bulbous-toed, open-back, rubber summer shoe — already were ubiquitous in Israel. Now, reports from several synagogues across America suggest, Crocs have surpassed Chuck Taylors, Keds, flip-flops and a host of other options to become the Yom Kippur shoe in the United States.

Being Our Own Gatekeepers

Rabbi Dan Shevitz August 17, 2007

\”Judges and officers shall you place at all your gates.\”

Thus begins our parsha, which is one of the richest in rulings, teachings and commandments, and which is therefore concerned about enforcement.

An inadvertent gift

Susan Freudenheim April 27, 2007

Maya Nahor learned she wasn\’t Jewish from an Israeli bureaucrat.

Conservative Jews Gather at Crossroads

Sue Fishkoff December 1, 2005

How should Conservative Judaism cope with dwindling membership, growing intermarriage rates and society\’s increasing religious and political polarity, while remaining true to its base in halachah (Jewish law)?

The Agunah: A Modern-Day Nightmare

Alexandra Leichter March 17, 2005

These two cases vividly illustrate the current problems of the modern day agunah (a woman chained to an unwanted marriage), because halacha (Jewish law) gives the husband the sole, unfettered power of divorce. While under Ashkenazic tradition a woman can withhold her \”consent\” to such a divorce, the remedies available to the victim of a recalcitrant husband or wife differ substantially.

Healing the Spirit, the Torah Way

Gaby Wenig February 5, 2004

Hinda Leah Scharfstein sees the Torah as more than just the original source of halachah, Jewish law, and the earliest telling of our nation\’s birth.

\”The Torah takes a holistic look at the individual, and it does tend to have a sort of healing effect on people,\” said Scharfstein, the executive director of Bais Chana Women\’s International, a New York-based nonprofit. \”I attended my first holistic Torah retreat 20 years ago, and I have been involved on a professional and personal level with it ever since, and since then I have definitely felt better. My thinking has become healthier, and I feel more whole.\”

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