Like most folks who grew up in a frum environment I had very little exposure to other non-”orthodox” streams of Judaism. The entire extended family on my fathers side is frum all the way back, so I never had any conservative or reform bar mitzvah’s that we had to deal with – I say deal with because whenever someone frum …

I was at work a few weeks ago and I noticed one of my friends eating so I went to say hi, he had with him a possible employee for the community kollel here and I guess he was showing him around. I’m not sure exactly what would sell a really frum person on living in the Bay Area, I’m …

Vos Iz Neias is the first website I look at when I open my computer, right away I know all the scandals, chillul hashem’s, arrests and other drama happening in the frum community and when I just needed a laugh I would read the comments and watch the insanity unfold before my very eyes.The comments themselves were a great disgrace …

Over Yom Tov I read some great books and articles. I hope to share some of them with you over the next couple of weeks.Perhaps the most compelling book I read was hot off the presses: Strictly Kosher Reading by Yoel Finkelman. Briefly, the purpose of the book is to present an academic study of the fiction and non-fiction reading that …

It’s hard to find an orthodox convert who only converted once, usually they had to do it once or twice before they even discovered orthodoxy. Almost every convert I have ever met has at least 2 conversions under their belt, if not many more than that and it’s bound to get worse with the latest news.Apparently, the interior ministry in …

Forgive me because I forgot who sent it to me, but someone sent me the cover of Rabbi David Baum’s book the Non-Orthodox Jews’ Guide to Orthodoxy and I was struck by how frum the couple who was supposed to be non-religious on the cover looked, they were looking at a charedi couple – but in all honesty they appeared …

I cannot honestly remember the last time I actually made it this far in the omer counting, like most post yeshiva types who don’t attend shul too often – I’m usually on top of the counting until Pesach ends at which point I stop being reminded by the Rabbi to count and usually remember on some random Friday night that …

I don’t recall ever hearing that Memorial Day wasn’t a kosher holiday. It was never considered one of the goyishe holidays and I think I recall that the Rabbis in yeshiva had nice things to say about it. No, they didn’t like the fact that random alcohol checkpoints were flung about the city and everyone decided to play half naked …

For a really long time, now, I’ve had a special fondness for Mishpatim. That’s why, in 8th grade, when Assistant Principal Rabbi Binyomin Yablok asked that each male student pick a parsha to lein (for, without motivation, it was really just the same Lubavitch guy who leined every week), I picked Mishpatim. Little did anyone realize at the time that …