The kiruv world prides itself in its open-mindedness. "Ask us anything! We will change our views in a heartbeat if you convince us! Sure you can ask about sex, and no, we don't use a hole in the sheet, we're super progressive!" But ask yourself, have any of the really difficult...
“There are no atheists in a foxhole,” Noah Weinberg used to love to say, swiftly eradicating all actual atheists who undoubtedly have existed in foxholes. That statement further disregards all the individuals who became atheists in foxholes, like the blaspheming Rabbi in Elie Wiesel’s Night. From the moment I...
Spot the meme. Also, double negatives are so not not cool.
Judaism teaches that our interpersonal relationships are just a key to relating to God, especially our romantic ones. So, capitalizing on the bestselling book that opened people’s eyes to the fact that not all people are exactly the same, here’s our appropriation of this pop psychology masterpiece. The first...
This one’s a doozy. Bear with me. Also, if you have a bit of context, you’ll know this ones strike quite close to home. TL;DR at the end. Here’s how the spiel goes: Judaism is amazing. It’s enlightened. It’s changed the world for the better. Judeo Christian values are da...
Some questions I had about Judaism, I got answers that worked, to a point. There were explanations that fit within a larger framework. And as long as that framework was intact, the answers worked. "Why does the Torah tell us to do this or that?""Because God said so." Fair enough. I can struggle...
From the back cover: Are you worried that someone from the secular world will ask you a question about Judaism that you don’t have an answer for? Are you heading out to a campus to inspire others about Judaism with only a tenuous amount of knowledge of it yourself? Are you concerned...
“No other religion claims to have experienced public revelation. Therefore, it’s a claim that is so outlandish, that it must have actually occurred because otherwise no one else would have been stupid enough to believe in it, or brazen enough to ‘introduce’ it into the cultural narrative.” Thus goes the...
If you believe in God from a philosophical point of view, you shouldn’t need any emotional scaffolding to keep things up. The absurdity of one-off inspirational stories of any kind should be obvious to even the most casual of contemplators, and yet it forms a huge part of religious culture. I...
“Judaism is about relationships,” sayeth the narrative. “It’s about aligning yourself with truth. It’s about becoming more like God, so that you can connect with God (how that doesn’t work is the subject of a separate article).” Furthermore, “Only dim witted people, like women and children (a pretty direct paraphrase...

Current Weather in Hell

Hell
snow
31.9 ° F
31.9 °
29.8 °
86 %
1.6mph
100 %
Sun
32 °
Mon
32 °
Tue
45 °
Wed
37 °
Thu
37 °

Even More Freidom

Lost, Not Found

The 80s get a bad rap. For synth music and terrible fashion. Generalized away in three syllables,...

Kiruv vs. Orthodoxy: Blue and White Edition

I had more fun making this than I did in a long time. Something about drawing attention...

Remembering Rabbi Noach Weinberg, Founder of Aish Hatorah

who was rabbi noach weinberg noah aish hatorah
One of my earliest memories of Rabbi Noach Weinberg, also known by the more anglicized name of...

FresFest

In Judaism, we're taught, everything has the right context. Some days, you shouldn't eat anything.Other days, you should...

Chapter #15: Detox

I always transition quickly. Within a week, there was no indication that I was ever religious. I would...