argumentativeandjewish - Tumblr blog

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It’s amazing how many supposed feminists buy into the distinctly anti-woman idea that any woman who chooses to have a large number of children and/or to stay home with her children instead of focusing on a career must by default only be making that decision because she’s subjugated to men.

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Dressing modestly in summer/hot weather

I’ve been asked about it but i don’t have a computer (So sorry for the lack of pictures) now and our “mailbox” is messing up.

I don’t have a lot of specific advice. Most of them are ones you’ve heard all your life.

1. Prefer light and natural fabrics like linen and cotton for exemple.

2. Prefer light colours over black. However if you chose to wear white keep in mind that it might be transparent.

3. Maxi skirts and maxi dresses are your greatest friends. They’ll keep your legs cool.

4. Try to avoid transparent fabric if you know you won’t be able to wear an under shirt.

5. Spray bottles and fans are your best friends.

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are there any blogs on tumblr for people converting to judaism? i have questions and things i'd like to discuss but i don't want to overstep bounds by posting in the wrong tags. or even where to find people, really. thank you so much!

There’s actually a lot of blogs for Jewish converts! Some are personal blogs, some are informative blogs. I found some you could check out: jewishconvert, convertingtojudaism, bnai-sara-bnai-giyoret (specifically for female converts)… and there’s so many more!

You could definitely check out the tags for Jewish conversion, or Jewish convert / Jewish converts. Pretty much any variation of the words “Jewish” and “convert” will work lol.

You can find many bloggers by looking through those tags, and if any of my followers who are Jews by choice want to like this they can (so you can follow them or talk to them).

Good luck! :)

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If an Orthodox community exists that allows a marriage between women, it is very small and relies on A LOT of halachic leniencies and (imho) it’s practically a Conservative community anyway. IF it even exists.

Re: “silencing your voice”: pretty much anything left-of-center (center of the Orthodox spectrum, that is) doesn’t require you to “silence your voice,” whether because your voice is blending with other women or the men are singing louder or whatever. In my community (Chabad, definitely right-of-center) the frum women sing just softly enough that the men can’t hear them, and the non-frum women sing as loud as they darn well want.

As a frum woman I take issue with the phrasing “silencing your voice” because if you want to sing, there are lots of perfectly kosher avenues for you to do so, and no one is asking you to sit down and shut up, and in any case with kol isha the onus is on the man anyway.

But I digress. It sounds to me like the right place for you is DEFINITELY a Conservative community, not an Orthodox one.

So, I'm a teenage girl in the Conservative movement of Judaism and I'm considering becoming Orthodox. The only problem is that I want to marry a woman when I grow up. Do you know how accepting, in general, the Orthodox community is of LGBT people? Okay, so that wasn't the only problem. I also love to sing and take issue with the idea that I should silence my voice in services. Do you have a feel for generally whether or not there are orthodox communities that allow this?

I don’t feel qualified to answer this question so if any followers have advice for anon please reblog and add your own tidbits of knowledge 

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If something burns your soul with purpose and desire, it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it. Any other form of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of life.

 Charles Bukowski (via psych-facts)

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Do not make the Torah into a crown with which to glorify yourself, nor a spade with which to dig into others.

Rabbi Tzadok, Pirkei Avot 4:5 (via baruchobramowitz)

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The Nine Days

First of all, I’ve been remiss – the Nine Days started last Friday at sunset, and a lot of stuff ideally requires set-up. I should have written this before then.

Most of this comes from this Chabad page.

If I got anything wrong please let me know!

The Nine Days

Ethnicity

The Nine Days are a period of heightened mourning (even more heightened than the Three Weeks) for Ashkenazim, Jews of European descent (if one of your parents is Ashkenazi and the other is Sefardi, then this goes by the father) between Rosh Chodesh Av (the beginning of the month of Av) and Tisha b’Av (teisha means nine in Hebrew; Tisha b’Av just means “the ninth of Av”) , the fast itself. This year, Rosh Chodesh Av went out last Friday at sunset and Tisha b’Av falls on Shabbat, so it’s “nidche” (pushed off), since we don’t mourn on Shabbat, until Saturday evening -Sunday (25-26 July)

For Sefardim, Jews of Spanish or Portugese descent, the rules for the Nine Days only apply in the week that 9 Av falls in, “shavua shechal bo”, so the time between the end of the closest Shabbat and the beginning of the fast. There’s a machloket (a long-standing unsolved legal disagreement) over whether, when 9 Av is nidche, there’s a shavua shechal bo or not.  The Aish position is “One should be strict about this concerning laundering and haircuts.One may be lenient about matters concerning cutting nails and making clothes. As for meat and wine, Sefardim could eat without restriction; for Ashkenazim certain leniencies apply (for example, regarding who can eat meat at a Bris).”

I don’t have a reliable source of information on the customs of Mizrachim, Jews of Middle Eastern descent – ask your LOR (local Orthodox rabbi) or, if there’s a family member who remembers your customs, then see if you can ask them.

Customs of mourning during the Nine Days are refraining from:

Washing clothing — even if they will not be worn during the Nine Days —or wear freshly laundered outer clothing. The exceptions are clothes that are “frequently soiled” and/or only worn next to the skin and not as outer clothes: so, underwear and baby clothes, basically. Ideally, one should wear all their clean clothes for a short time on or before Rosh Chodesh Av to make them no longer fresh. If you haven’t done this, which is kind of my fault, it’s also possible to chuck them on the cloor and sort of … walk on them for a bit, until they aren’t fresh.

Consuming meat or wine (including grape juice). Exceptions to this are as part of a meal that celebrates a mitzvah (seudat mitzvah), such as a circumcision, bar mitzvah, or the completion of a tractate of the Talmud (siyyum), or on Shabbat. For Havdalah in the Nine Days, which this year we don’t have, one can use a non-wine beverage or give it to an under bar or bat mitzvah child to drink.

Swimming, bathing or showering for pleasure. Some people have the custom not to shower at all. Most take very short, very cold showers to make absolutely certain it’s only for cleanliness and not for pleasure at all. 

Buying new clothes (or making them)—even if to be worn only after the Nine Days. Exceptions to this rule: (a) If you will miss a major sale, or if the garment will be unavailable later. (b) For the purpose of a mitzvah, such as purchasing new clothing for a bride and groom.

Remodelling or expanding a home.

Planting trees to be used for shade or fragrance (as opposed to fruit trees).

Cutting nails only during shavua shechal bo (even for Ashkenazim).

Generally having parties is kind of inappropriate, though there’s no law.

Also, it’s considered a sort of “bad luck” time to do dangerous things, so some people don’t take plane journeys or similarly “risky” things (harking to a time when “travel” was much more dangerous). Again, no rule.

Follow-up post on Tisha b’Av is coming, bli neder (no promises), b’ezrat Hashem (with G-d’s help)

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If you hear something that outrages you, don’t allow it to chase you away from Torah. You don’t have to let go of those parts of Torah that attract you just because other parts of the picture offend you. And I guarantee you will hear statements that will drive you to despair: racist, sexist, politically backwards,environmentally unsound, unscientific, illogical, illegal, anti-spiritual, or downright immature ideas. Luckily, many of those statements will actually be personal opinion, hearsay, a minority approach, or a cultural norm, rather than an essential Torah perspective. So ask an expert scholar before you throw up your hands and flee. (By the way,a student three years ahead of you does not qualify as an expert scholar.)One option is to just let some of those problems sit for awhile. You will only exhaust yourself if you try to resolve all your quandaries and paradoxes before your next birthday. Meanwhile, Rabbi Yosef Albo (early 15th century) counted only three root principles you must believe to be a Jew: 1. G-d exists.2. The Torah is from G-d.3. G-d cares about how you act.

Friedman the Tutor  Excerpt from “HOW TO GET DEEPER INTO TORAH WITHOUT GOING OFF THE DEEP END-A Tutor’s Suggestions for Maintaining Your Sanity While Studying in a Baal Teshuva Yeshiva”   (via girloverhere)

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lilyevenspotter (had to screenshot because the OP has blocked me so I can’t reblog any iterations of the post)

Ethnicity isn’t really a halachic concept. Though the point you made in your tags about it being assur to remind a convert of their past is definitely important.

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Please reblog if you’re a Jewish woman.

I want to follow all of you.

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Proving that Jesus is the Messiah (mainly for Jews)

According to the Old Testament, the Messiah was supposed to come before the destruction of the second temple. (Daniel 9:24-26) The Messiah was supposed to be a direct descendant of King David. (2 Samuel 7:14) The Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem. (Micah 5:2) Unfortunately for Judaism this means that the Messiah already came, since the second temple has already been destroyed. Also, it’s impossible for Messiah to be from the tribe of Judah as Genesis 49:10 says, since nobody belongs to any specific tribe other than perhaps the Cohanim.

Also, there is no way to confirm whether or not the Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah or a descendent of King David today since all records of tribal affiliation and geneological lineage were destroyed by the Romans during the Roman-Jewish Wars. (66-70 CE) However there is good news…The Christian Greek Scriptures which many believe to be a sequel to the Old Testament, claim that Jesus came and fulfilled all these necessary requirements for being the Messiah and many more. We already established that the Messiah by necessity must fit certain requirements which undeniably must have already been fulfilled.

Therefore we must look in the past for who the Messiah was, rather than in the future since that is logically impossible due to the requirements I stated which must have already taken place. Jesus fulfilled prophecy after prophecy, for example he suffered and died at the hands of his own people which the prophet Isaiah makes clear would happen. (Isaiah 53)

This and numerous other fulfilled prophecies along with the necessity of the Messiah appearing before the destruction of the second temple, and the impossibility in the future of the Messiah fitting certain geneological requirements make it clear that he already came. And finally, considering Jesus clearly fulfills all of these requirements, I believe it is more than safe to conclude he is the Messiah.

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Why would there be a problem with hair brushing on shabbat?

Brushing or combing your hair the way you do during the week inevitably pulls out some hairs that were still attached to your head. This is a form of gozez, shearing (other examples of gozez related to your body include cutting or filing nails or pulling off dead skin).

Now, usually, if you do something with the intent of accomplishing X, and Y happens without you intending to do it, with X being something permitted on Shabbos and Y being something prohibited on Shabbos, it is not considered as though you did melacha. In most cases, you have to have specifically intended for Y to happen in order to be guilty of transgressing Shabbos. For instance, it’s prohibited to uproot grass on Shabbos. But if you are walking across grass with zero intent of uprooting it, and somehow you happen to kick a certain blade of grass in a certain way that it gets pulled up, you are not held accountable for that action.

However, that principle only applies where the situation is NOT one of “psik reisha.” A psik reisha situation is one in which even though your intent is to do something permissible, it is virtually inevitable that melacha will result from the same action used to do the permissible thing. The classic example in the Gemara is someone who wants to remove the head of a chicken to give it to his child to play with on Shabbos (ok apparently this was a thing, just pretend it’s not gross by our standards). Giving the child a chicken head to play with is not a problem on Shabbos. Killing a chicken on Shabbos is a problem. He has no intention of killing the chicken, but it’s impossible to remove the chicken’s head without killing it.

While brushing your hair your intention is not to pull out hairs, but rather to smooth and untangle the hair and make it look good. But it’s inevitable that you will pull hairs out in the process - it’s a psik reisha. So brushing your hair is forbidden. (You can brush your hair only if you use a soft bristled brush that is specifically designated for ONLY Shabbos use, brush very gently, and only brush the surface of the hair.)

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I LOVE AlephBeta.org for weekly parsha videos. Very engaging and fun to watch.

(((*smol jewish voice* does anyone have any recs for torah study apps/websites??)))

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May I ask what Orthodox Judaism's views are towards the existence of other deities beyond the primary G-d that Jews are required to worship per the first commandment? Is there any explicit denial of any other deities in Judaism and its teachings? I've heard that there isn't anything excluding other deities from existing but I am curious on what you have learned. Don't worry about answering if this bothers you at all. Sorry if so, and thanks for your time!

It doesn’t bother me at all. :)

Unlike what some misguided academic scholars would have you think, the attribution of independent power to any being other than G-d (including another “deity”) is unequivocally prohibited by Judaism. And not just prohibited - it’s entirely logically incompatible with the Jewish concept of G-d.

Here’s what it breaks down to: G-d is (a) one/unitary and (b) infinite. Part of what this means is that it’s impossible for all or part of G-d to have any physicality - because the moment something can be defined by physical limits - if the entirety of that entity is defined by physical limits, it is not infinite, and if only part of it is defined by physical limits, it is not unitary, because that part is by definition separate from the rest.

But what this also means is that it’s impossible for any deity other than G-d to exist. In order for G-d to be infinite, there literally cannot exist anything except G-d - otherwise, that “otherness” would be taking up space that G-d was not taking up, meaning G-d would have limits, and therefore not be infinite. Now, this is some very, very deep stuff, and the full implications of it for our existence are beyond the scope of this post. What’s relevant is that, at most, another “deity” would be a creation of G-d with no independent power of its own - thus entirely unworthy of the word “deity.” So it is literally impossible for other “deities” to exist in the Jewish worldview.

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“When the day comes that I must account for my life, I will not be asked: ‘Why weren’t you Moses?’ I was not equipped to be Moses. But I dread the question, ‘Why weren’t you Zusia?’

—Reb Zusia of Anipoli (via Riverton Mussar)

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We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Dalai Lama (via thecalminside)

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I was careless in my attribution. You're right. Sorry about that, soloontherocks! I'll be more careful next time.

Why doesn't G-d seem to care about me (gentile)?

I see two questions here: “Does G-d care about non-Jews?” and “If I can’t see G-d caring about me, a non-Jew, why is that?” I will answer the first and then the second.

Does G-d care about non-Jews?YES. Why would G-d bother to create a person she had no intention of caring about? The fact that you exist at all means that G-d cares very deeply about you, and has a plan for you in this world. There is a concept in Judaism that nothing in the Torah – not the smallest letter, not a single space – is misplaced or wasted. Everything, even the smallest drop of ink, contains its own world of meaning and purpose. How much more so with humans: every single human being is a whole world, with an individual mission in the world. Jews and non-Jews alike have these missions.

Just as G-d gave Jews a guide to our mission through the Torah, so did G-d give non-Jews a guide to theirs through the 7 Noachide Laws. These are laws that apply to everyone, whether Jewish or not, as a sign that we all have a responsibility to improve this world, regardless of our faith or heritage.***

I assume you want me to address the chosen-ness of the Jewish people. We are the chosen people, yes, but this does not mean that we are better than anyone else. It simply means that G-d has asked us to take on additional responsibilities. Have you ever had a teacher ask you to take attendance or run something down to the office? It does not mean that the teacher likes you more than anyone else, or that you are in any way more valuable than your classmates. It merely means that they deemed you the best person for the task. I think littledoomwitch said it best in response to an antisemitic anon: It’s not chosen to be superior. It’s chosen to have more responsibilities and burdens. Chosen not because we are better but because we must hold to a higher standard than gentiles do.

If I can’t see G-d caring about me, why is that?

I cannot answer that question for you, Anon. I encourage you to pray in whatever way works best for you, whether reciting Tehillim (Psalms) or writing letters to G-d. I encourage you to try new ways of praying, and I can provide some ideas on request. Sometimes the best way to feel cared for is to care about others, so with that in mind I encourage you to volunteer, to give to charity, or to call a friend who’s having a hard time.

Sometimes G-d is hidden from us for reasons we can’t understand. It can be hard and even painful to feel like G-d is hiding, or that G-d doesn’t care, but I can tell you with my whole heart that G-d really does want to connect to you. G-d really does want a relationship with you. Pray, reach out, go for a long walk by yourself – do whatever you need to do, and you know what that is better than I do. Sometimes we can’t feel G-d in our lives, and that’s hard. But the most important thing is that we know and trust that G-d IS there, even when we don’t feel it.

All the best, Anon.

***Note that the 7 Noachide Laws prohibit homosexuality. I personally disagree with the laws on this point, and I almost did not mention them because of this. This blog has nothing but love and support for the LGBT+ community, and though we do not always understand G-d’s commandments, this blog firmly maintains that G-d does NOT make mistakes and G-d is NOT a homophobe.