יום חמישי, ג׳ תמוז תשפ״וThursday, June 18, 2026
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Keshet Starr, Esq., is the CEO of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA). She has written for many publications and is a Wexner Field Fellow. A graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Keshet lives in New Jersey with her husband and four children.
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By Keshet Starr
Beyond the lack of post-meal dietary limitations, what is the deeper meaning behind dairy, especially on Shavuot? After all, this holiday is not only about the deliciousness of the cheesecake and that Insta-worthy cheese-pull on your lasagna.
By Keshet Starr
Words can allow us to connect with others, to compliment them when they need a boost, and to help them feel less alone when they are struggling. Words can be a bridge, or a buoy to those lost in suffering.
By Keshet Starr
We want what’s good – for ourselves, for our families, for our communities. But what actually is good?
By Keshet Starr
When I think about Chol HaMoed trips, part of what comes to mind is pressure. Pressure to have the best, most exciting trips ever – while also cleaning up from Yom Tov, preparing for the next Yom Tov, and, oh right, working!
By Keshet Starr
When the world feels like it’s falling around us, we can still choose what we do next – because when stimulus comes our way, we can create a space to choose our response.
By Keshet Starr
Beyond instinctual guessing and structural estimating, there are also moments where we just need to take a leap, moving into the unknown without a clear, evidence-based pathway forward.
By Keshet Starr
In many ways, the twelve tribes are a beautiful symbol of Jewish unity; twelve different groups within a larger nation, each contributing in their own way.
By Keshet Starr
On one hand, there’s a value in a hiddur mitzvah, adding elegance and beauty to our observance. But on the other hand, what happens when the focus on beauty and presentation obscures the mitzvah itself?
By Keshet Starr
As a kid who grew up in a place without seasons, watching the leaves fall in autumn is still magical. And yet, the beauty of the changing colors masks the harder elements of the cold winter to come.
By Keshet Starr
A person is always complicated, layered, and ultimately unknowable – we never know exactly what someone has been through, and what has led them to the choices they have made.
By Keshet Starr
Moadim offer a parallel approach. We live our lives on the dance floor, and that’s okay – we are here to learn, to do, to give. But the opportunity moadim provide to go up to the balcony helps us recalibrate when needed, and notice the things that have crept up on us.
By Keshet Starr
Throughout the Torah, water too, contains contradictions – it symbolizes Torah itself, but it can also connote chaos, as in the times of Noach when flood waters overwhelmed the earth and destroyed all but vestiges of humanity.
By Keshet Starr
In almost all cases of such disputes, the halacha is that we hold by Beis Hillel. But why is this the case? Why does the more lenient opinion win the day?
By Keshet Starr
The figures in Genesis don’t just passively go about their lives; they yearn, they rage, they see the with jealousy, they love, they cry, they mourn.
By Keshet Starr
As we commemorate the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, we are reminded of G-d’s promise to the Jewish people: Nachamu, nachamu ami – comfort, comfort my people.
By Keshet Starr
Highlighting these ten commandments on tablets is not only a choice of style and semantics. It centers our faith and practice around core concepts and values.
By Keshet Starr
Halachic Prenuptial Agreements are yet another critical vehicle for social change. Signing a prenup not only protects the individual couple involved but also helps cement a larger cultural message – that get refusal is not welcome here, in this home, in this shul,
By Keshet Starr
Many psychological studies demonstrate the pleasure we get from anticipation. Waiting for a vacation, for example, is statistically even more fun than the vacation itself.
By Keshet Starr
While recognizing the good seems like an easy task (And there are no thank-you notes involved!) recognition is actually more complicated than it seems.
By Keshet Starr
Interestingly, Shmuel’s name doesn’t say what we’d expect it to say: That G-d has answered. After all, Chana finally becomes pregnant with Shmuel after many years of waiting. So why only credit G-d for hearing? Why not more dramatic language?
By Keshet Starr
Starting from Hashem’s injunction to speak to “bais Yaakov,” to Schenirer’s efforts to strengthen Judaism through girls’ education, it is ultimately Jewish women who will lead the charge to our next stage in growing as a community.
By Keshet Starr
According to Webster’s dictionary, gevalt is an expression of alarm, while oy indicates exasperation or dismay.
By Keshet Starr
As frum Jews, we’re called to be different, to surpass the physical elements of life with deeper spiritual pursuits. This is, indeed, a responsibility – we feel its burden for a reason.
By Keshet Starr
I have been blessed to experience, four times over, the moment when the theoretical child that has been growing in your belly looks up at you, blinking, and leans against your heart.
