Kiruv & Orthodox Judaism

“You know what Olam Habah is?” Explains the Slonimer Rebbe. “Olam Habah is the entire earth covered in dump trucks full of gold. And then stack them on top of each other until you reach the sky.” That’s a fuckton of gold. Go get some. -- “Love me, daddy,” says Michael Friedberg, deftly...

If I had a dollar for every time someone told me this, I'd have enough money to start my own religion. Or at least my own congregation. Same difference, really. Everyone seems to have some magical elusive Judaism that I'm missing out on."Your Judaism is not like my Judaism.""You should...

“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...

I was back in Aish Hatorah. I guess like positivity childhood memories that resurfaced after I'd dealt with parental trauma, my subconscious felt I was ready to find some good beneath the wreckage. The building was even bigger and more magnificent - and more rambly. I wandered through towering mazes...

Mental health in the Orthodox world is a catastrophe. It's gotten marginally better in the Orthodox community in the United States, but in Israel the shitshow still reigns supreme. It starts with the absolute stigmatization of any mental health issue. Physical ailments aren't great either, but mental health ones...

When he was something like 10 years old, his school’s idea of an educational experience was bringing in a sheep to be ritually slaughtered and dissected.  Nothing could prepare him for the moment when the sheep went from alive, albeit bound, to an explosion of red blood that burst forward...

My partner and I recently attended a retreat organized by Footsteps, the organization that supports (mostly) Orthodox Jews leaving religion, especially in the New York area. The retreat was wonderful, and I am grateful to the organization for creating such an enjoyable experience, with a lot of generosity, abundance,...

You’re the daughter of a King! A king! How awesome is that? Not as awesome as being a son, apparently. I’ve heard, ad nausem, all the apologetic explanations about how women are not less, they’re just DIFFERENT. How the true home is built around the Jewish woman (Look! Jewishness passes...

As all this darkness and such was unfolding I found myself in a top rabbinical academy, studying to get Smicha and become a Kiruv rabbi myself. I had dreamt of this for years. This was the purpose of it all – to apply all those years of knowledge for the...

I’ve been working with a coach on experiencing pleasure. It’s not that I haven’t experienced it at all, but it was few and far between, and I did not enjoy my day-to-day existence. I can probably say I started experiencing joy for the first time about a year ago. My default...