יום ראשון, כ״ו אב תשפ״וSunday, August 9, 2026
Follow Us
By Vera Kessler
Rabbanit Shayna Goldberg answers all these questions and many more.
By Vera Kessler
Rebbetzin Tamar Taback is the founder of the Nexus School for Transformational Torah.
Though a woman helps her partner and remains his equal, she nurtures and thereby becomes a man's superior. Paradoxically, therefore, woman may be just a bit closer to the image of God than man.
By JNi.Media
The High Court continues to take notice of Shaked, and has been noticeably mindful of the need to avoid unnecessary friction with a Justice Minister who is probably the most popular minister in Israel.
By JNi.Media
Friedman recalled, "On the way home, another sailor kissed me, just one on the cheek and went on his way. The sailors were especially happy."
Most of all, she is a role model for her descendants who endeavor to follow her example. And a woman with a Jewish heart.
By JNi.Media
I am asking you, in this neighborhood, (and beyond if you want to share), paint something positive on your trashcan!
The halacha is that even if a person has already fulfilled a mitzvah he can still be motzi another who has not yet fulfilled it.
This is the same area where Asher Palmer and his son were murdered by Arab rock throwers.
The police kept the case under wraps for weeks for fear of stoking tensions between Jews and Arabs.
By JNi.Media
It is a very serious matter that police do not permit Jews to protest the police own racist actions."
“He was very quiet while running between marchers and stabbing them, not hollering like you would imagine.”
Images of ‘the other’ are heavily biased by what the media report about them.
I happen to know Gedolei Torah and Roshei Yeshiva who use I-phones and the internet. Are they all doomed?
By Soeren Kern
The imam had threatened to burn down the woman's house because, according to him, she is an "infidel" as she works outside of the home, drives an automobile and has non-Muslim friends.
By Paula Stern
When a doctor told her there was no hope... she decided not to listen.
By Paula Stern
Hirsi Ali was handed the microphone and, 16 months later, her words remain imprinted on my brain: "Even if you give them Jerusalem, there will be no peace."
I don’t know that the majority of the Haredi world actually considers memorials to IDF fallen soldiers to be idolatry.
I do not see this as a feminist issue at all. This is a human issue.
By JTA
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives elevated Rep. Nita Lowey of New York's 18th congressional district (Westchester and Rockland counties), to their ranking member on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Lowey, a leading pro-Israel lawmaker who is Jewish, had been the top Democrat on the committee's foreign operations subcommittee. She announced her bid for the […]
By JTA
A man and a woman in the Toulouse area were arrested on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah "commit crimes" that may have included the murder of four Jews.
When Jacob is fooled into marrying Leah, he accepts her as a partner and eventually the mother of his children. But his yearning is for Rachel.
The Rambam writes in the 10th perek of Hilchos Ishus (halacha 13-14) that if a man marries a woman, he is obligated to have sheva berachos for seven days. If one marries several women at once, he must have separate sheva berachos for each one for seven days – consecutively. The reason for this is because we cannot mix one simcha with another simcha.
By Steve
A Border Policeman was stabbed by a female Arab assailant in eastern Jerusalem near the Shalem police station. He is lightly injured. Other police nearby subdued the woman and arrested her.
8:40 AM In the past 20 minutes, 30-40 rockets fired from Gaza. There was a direct hit on a house in Kiryat Melachi. Reports of critically wounded woman. 2 injured. People trapped. MDA and police responding. Sirens in Be'er Sheva 8:01 AM Muslim Bros call for global "Day of Rage" against IDF "aggression" 8:00 […]
IDF Radio reports that 70 rockets were fire at Israel from Gaza today. 25 were successfully intercepted. One woman was injured y shrapnel in Be'er Sheva.
It is morning and my car glides down the mountains of the Shomron into the smog of greater Tel Aviv. Another crazy day of running in the primaries is about to begin. My cell phone rings. A young, determined voice is on the other end.
Petraeus seems to have resigned over marital infidelity. And if so, did he have to leave his position? Why, because he displayed personal weakness? But this was a public, as opposed to a private, position. And years of counseling unfaithful husbands and wives has taught me that private failings do not necessarily indicate public faithlessness.
As the expression goes, “Hashem fir zich der velt” – Hashem orchestrates all the events that occur in the world. Most of what Hashem does is hidden from us. However, on occasion something happens in such an open way, one would have to be totally oblivious to the world around him to not see the powerful display of Yad of Hashem.
As I began reading an article in the Forward by Aurora Mendelsohn about whether a Jewish woman can have it all (meaning a career and an observant family) I received a call from my daughter about an article in the Chicago Tribune about one woman who does have it all.
By Tzvi Fishman
Dear Rabbi: With elections approaching in Israel, I am searching for a religious political party for which to vote. When I think about voting for Shas, I remember their support for Oslo, the surrender of parts of Eretz Yisrael, giving rifles to our enemies, and the terrible sea of Jewish blood that was spilled after the Oslo Accords were signed. That is not the Torah I am searching to find.
I do not question Rabbi Zev Farber’s sincerity. I even applaud his resolve to right what he sees to be wrong in the way we practice Judaism today. But I do not agree with him at all on the way to do it. In a recent article on Morethodoxy, Rabbi Farber suggests that we change the paradigm with respect to a woman’s role in Judaism. His contention is that women are (at best) inadvertently ignored and mistreated vis-à-vis their public religious personae. Their current place in the synagogue is where this is mostly felt.
An American woman died on El Al's Tel Aviv-New York flight on Tuesday. Medical personnel that happened to be on the flight tried to save her, but weren't able to. She died 6 hours into the flight. The woman's family in New York were informed by El Al, and were waiting at the airport.
Nine organs donated by the family of a 16 year old Israeli athlete have saved the lives of 6 people, providing some comfort to a family heartbroken by the loss of their son.
In this week's Torah portion, within the majesty and mystery of creation, the woman emerges in three successive stages.
Adom HaRishon was given one mitzvah: not to eat from the Eitz HaDas. When he transgressed it, Hashem gave him the opportunity to do teshuvah. Not only did Adom not repent, he played the blame game – “It was that woman that You gave to me. You gave her to me as a helpmate and she turned out to be my ruination.”
By Dr. Judith S. Bendheim Guedalia
I sit here mulling over the results of my latest PET Scan (Positron Emission Tomography), a nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a three-dimensional image or picture (in color) of my innards and of the latest actions of the “bad buggars” that have invaded me (as I live through quite a serious case of cancer).
On Erev Yom Kippur, the Gaon Rav Atshal of Frankfurt (Tifereth Avraham) would usually permit the eating of every doubtful fowl, which was brought before him to decide. He would make all the doubtful cases kosher.
Miriam Scheinsohn was born on April 26, 1918, in Vitebsk (Belorussia), the youngest of eight children (she had three sisters and four brothers). Soon after Miriam’s birth the family moved to Kovno (Kaunas) in Lithuania, where her parents owned a textile factory.
The way of Meah Shearim is the way of the Mafia. Not civilization.
Reported: Iran Cleric Pummeled by ‘Badly Covered’ Woman After Warning ... An Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnan after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported. Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the woman in the street while on his way […]
An Iranian cleric who warned a woman to conform to standards of modesty and cover her eyes was subsequently beaten so badly by the offending female that he spent three days in the hospital.
By dvora
“She didn’t have to elaborate,” says Malka. “Not that she had ever gone into any detail, but I’d read and heard enough to know that she was reliving the horrors that she and innumerable others were forced to endure when they were mercilessly stuffed into the cattle cars… and I also understood that she was overcome with a sense of pride in her heritage that has miraculously survived despite the evil intent of a monstrous dictator that sought to annihilate us.”
By JTA
A group of some 20 African migrants is trapped between Israel's border fence with Egypt and Israeli soldiers who have been ordered not to let them in.
The pasuk from which most of the halachos of gittin (divorce) are derived is in this week’s parshah. The pasuk says: “Ki yikach ish isha… vechasav lah sefer kerisus v’nasan b’yadah veshilchah mi’beiso – If a man marries a woman … and he wrote her a bill of divorce and placed it in her hand and sent her from his house” (Devarim 24:1).
By Tibbi Singer
Here’s the new method for combating modesty problems: on posters that were displayed publicly on Wednesday in Beitar Illit, Israel, signed by the Committee for the Purity of our Camp, a woman’s picture appeared including her full name and the ‘fact’ that she had gotten married not in accordance with halacha (Jewish law).
The name of the Gaon, Rav Yitzchok Elchonon Spektor, was known to Jewry throughout the world. He was also well know to Russian royalty, having visited the Czar many times to plead for his fellow religionists.
By JTA
Two Torah scrolls, one complete and one incomplete, were found in Poland's Sokolow Podlaski district. The Torah scrolls found Aug. 20 are believed to have belonged to a synagogue in nearby Wegrow. A local policeman brought the scrolls to the municipal offices in Sokolow and gave them to Marcin Pasik, Sokolow Commune Head. "The policeman […]
Watch how this woman's face radiates the joy that comes from recounting how the death toll grew steadily in the hour or so that she spent fleeing the scene via public transport, unhindered by the police.
The Tel Aviv District Attorney's offices today submitted to the magistrate court an indictment and an arrest order against Shay Cohen and Simon Soriano, on charges of attempting to blackmail a Rabbi in a New York Jewish congregation. The name of the Rabbi has not been released for publication. The two are charged with conspiracy […]
By Henia
I was going crazy. I couldn’t stand it another minute. Yes, I was feeling sorry for myself. I had been blessed, b’li ayin hara, with children very close in age. Surely having one child after the other was a blessing to be grateful for. I knew there were many people who would give a million dollars to have such a “problem.” But still, it was very stressful. But that wasn’t the hardest part, and it wasn’t the main reason for my feelings of despair.
How does one reconcile greatness with evil? Is it possible that one can be a great contributor to society and have a dark side? And how are we to look at such a person? Does abusing someone sexually - even only one or two times to one person - negate all the good he has done?
On August 1, the biggest Jewish American event ever took place – the completion of the daily learning of the entire Gemara, which happens once every 7 and a half years, known as Siyum HaShas – filling of 90,000 seats at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium. However, a significantly smaller, but just as intriguing group celebrated the event in skirts, scarves and a spirit of sisterhood in Jerusalem.
Dear Readers: The following short story is fictional. However, many of you will surely nod your heads in agreement as you recognize people you know - perhaps yourself - in the characters I have described. I hope in future articles, to touch on what I believe are the various psychological factors that contribute to the shidduch crisis.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Malkah give a touching memorial for a friend and talk about the difference between religious and secular Jews in the IDF.
Dear Dr. Yael: I am very happy and successful in my line of work. However, I am having trouble with a coworker and hope you can help me. A few months ago, a new woman began working at my office. We share a workspace and often have to work together on projects. This woman seemed nice, but there have been several awkward situations between us that are really bothering me.
Bright young minds will have questions. The most logical place to see answers is from your parents or teachers. But when questions are explicitly or implicitly forbidden, these very same young people will seek answers elsewhere. The easiest place to find them is the internet. Ban, no matter how strong they are, no matter how enforced they are will not prevent a young person from somehow finding access. And that’s when the slippery slope begins.
We Jews say that all prayers are answered - every single one. Just sometimes, the answer is "no."
Examining a choice selection of drawings done by Itshak Holtz over 30 years ago is a rare pleasure that allows for the appreciation of his unique sensitivity and insights. I was afforded that pleasure at the inaugural exhibition of the Betzalel Gallery in Crown Heights this past May. Although this modest selection of 25 drawings and watercolors of this paradigmatic frum artist ranges from 1963 to 1999, the majority of the works is from the 1970s and reveals a special aspect of his inner artistic soul. The selection of images could easily narrate the fabric of ordinary Jewish life.
By dvora
We recently layned Parshas Naso which contains the Biblical source for the obligation of a married woman to cover her hair. An eesha sotah is a woman whose husband suspects her of having acted immorally. The Torah commands the Kohein to take various steps to demonstrate that the sotah has deviated from the modest and loyal path of most married Jewish women (Rashi 5:15-27). Among the procedures, the pasuk clearly states: “ufora es rosh haisha…” and he shall uncover the hair of the head of the woman (5:18).
By dvora
Music played loudly while the men danced. On the women’s side of the mechitzah, we tried to speak over the sounds. I leaned over the table to hear what my co-worker’s wife was saying.
There is, in Israel, a built-in respect for the elderly. But Anthony Cordesman, who gave Professor Yehezkel Dror a prolonged scolding for interrupting him, is apparently unfamiliar with Israeli society. Yes, interrupting someone is bad manners, even rude - and while it isn't loved in Israel, it's just something that happens and we take it in stride. You cut back in, you talk, you communicate. What you never do is embarrass the other person, especially if he's older than you.
By Raheel Raza
Resistance to the establishment of women's rights may be blamed on self-appointed male caretakers of Muslim tradition, who feel threatened by the appearance of a significant number of women in a public space, considered reserved for men only, and who say they see emancipated Muslim women as negative exemplars of Westernization.
By dvora
My husband and I are living in our house for over 30 years. We have wonderful neighbors on both sides. The one on the right, a non-frum Jewish couple, lived in their house longer than we’ve resided in ours. We always got along very well with them, as they are unusually kind, friendly and helpful people.
My friend’s mother died the other day. I went to the funeral, cried with the mourners, walked the traditional four cubits following the coffin to escort the dead to their resting place, as is customary at Jewish funerals, and then went over to my friend to offer my condolences. And then it was over. The guests went home, the family went to bury their loved one, and I went back to my life.
By dvora
Zohara was born in Morocco. With her husband, she raised a large family. A busy woman, she always seemed to find time to help others in need. Her daughter, Aliza, told me of the many sleepless nights her mother spent nursing babies. That is not unusual in itself, were it not for the fact that many of the babies she nursed were not her own.
The Lakewood, NJ, Bnos Yaakov elementary school is not happy over the fact that an internal letter to its students has been published online. It contains a story with a disturbing notion of purgatory for girls who don't obey the laws of tzniyut (modesty).
I’d like to share with you a story I believe is a wonderful gift we can present to Hashem now that the painful summer months of Tammuz and Av – months that saw the destruction of our holy Temple – are nearly upon us.
What can explain the "Shades of Grey" phenomenon? Why are so many married women reading about submission in an age of feminine liberation?
The lecturer, a soft-spoken woman radiating sincerity and warmth was especially impressive. And so was her topic: “Proper nutrition as a bridge to health and longevity.”
In this week’s parshah the Torah writes about the halachos of a sotah. A sotah is a woman whose husband warned her, in the presence of two witnesses, not to go into seclusion with a specific man – but two witnesses saw her in seclusion with that man. Even though the only testimony that we have is that she was secluded with this man, she is nevertheless forbidden to be with her husband as she is an adulteress. This is in effect until she drinks the sotah water.
By Rachel Weiss
This is in no way intended to dampen the enthusiasm of kallahs flush with excitement over their upcoming nuptials, but who hasn’t heard a “lost diamond ring” story or, for that matter, experienced firsthand the traumatic loss of a precious piece of jewelry?
By Nina Safar
Religious Jews have been getting more than their usual share of negative press lately. The papers have been full of allegations of sexual abuse in ultra-orthodox communities, and religious authorities concurrent attempts to silence the victims while protecting the accused. When earlier this week, the Rabbi’s chose to focus on the “dangers of the internet” […]
Belgium’s health minister Laurette Onkelinx said she was “profoundly troubled” by the behavior of her Israeli counterpart, Yaakov Litzman, after the Haredi official refused to shake her hand at a conference. The website Juif.org wrote: "There are indeed only two possibilities: either this lady is ignorant, or has malicious intent."
Despite a court decision, police announced that the site was under a closed military zone order and the resident youths must leave. Simultaneously, policemen began to attempt to grab some of the youths. According to people on the scene, during the arrests police pulled on the boys' earlocks and were otherwise extremely violent.
A group of Jewish children and their parents were targeted in a fierce rock attack Friday night outside the Maale HaZeitim neighborhood in Jerusalem, miraculously escaping serious injury. Jerusalem police who arrived to investigate were also pelted with stones – and left.
By Tibbi Singer
Not related to the image above which is just my treat to you, the same-sex story reminds me of the joke about a guy sitting in the park, starting a light chat with a young woman. After a while, the conversation kind of dies down and the two drift into silence. So the young woman […]
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
Hamas's Islamic Endowment Ministry has been known to deploy a special committee known as the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to enforce Muslim codes of behavior. Members preach at public places to warn of the dangers of immodest dress, card playing and dating.
Despite a few uncomfortable moments, I came away from the game with a very thankful 13-year-old, with great father-son memories, and happy, knowing that, given the opportunity, the Globetrotters are still fully capable of being America's ambassadors to the world.
By Tibbi Singer
One of the questions posed to PM Netanyahu and his new coalition bride Shaul Mofaz by one of those pesky Israeli TV reporters was: Only a short while ago, Mofaz called Bibi a liar. Now the two of you are headed into a long-term marriage (a year and a half is eternity in Israeli politics). […]
The AP reports that a trial is set to begin in the case of a Connecticut Jewish woman who sued her congregation because a black woman had been buried in the interfaith section of their cemetery. Maria Balaban's lawsuit will go to trial Tuesday in New London Superior Court. She is demanding that the remains […]
A mother in Beitar Illit (pronounced "ee-leet"), in the Judean Mountains west of Gush Etzion, 6 miles south of Jerusalem, lights Shabbat candles together with her daughter. Beitar Illit, named after the ancient Jewish city of Beitar, was established in 1984 and initially settled by a small group of young Religious Zionist families. The city […]
Islamist Members of Parliament in Egypt are trying to deprive Egyptian women of their basic rights by introducing several controversial draft laws that, if passed, will bring Egypt back to the Middle Ages.
A recent article in The Jewish Press (Purim And The Tyranny of Beauty, Family Issues, March 16, 2012) written by writer and author Yitta Halberstam Mandelbaum generated, and continues to generate, quite a buzz.
At the end of parshas Metzora the Torah discusses the halachos of when a woman becomes a niddah. The Torah says that a woman who becomes a niddah must count seven days from when she stops seeing blood, and then becomes tahor by immersing in a mikveh.
By dvora
It was early evening in Jerusalem. I was exhausted, and thankful that the light rail train had arrived. Along with all the other passengers, I jockeyed for a place to stand where I could place some of my bundles on the floor. At the next stop a seat became available, and I was grateful to be able to claim it.
Dear Dr. Respler: At the recent wedding of my best friend’s son, I arrived for the chuppah early so as to secure a seat close to the front and by the aisle. I didn’t want to miss anything.
Walla News reports that a 64-year-old woman was run over by a car Thursday morning, Yom HaShoah, on King Shaul Street in Be'er Sheva, as she was standing at attention during the memorial siren. She was trapped, unconscious, under the car that hit her and was rescued by MDA teams. The woman was rushed to […]
Yes, beauty plays a role in courtship. But when we allow it to rule, then we – not beauty – become our daughters’ tyrants. We are fearful our daughters will remain single for too long, and so we grasp at straws – thin, brittle, unstable straws. But “extreme makeovers” and intensifying their already ample body-image anxieties are not the answer.
This year International Agunah Day was observed on March 7th, the Jewish calendar date of Taanit Esther, the Fast of Esther. The date was determined by ICAR - The International Coalition for Agunah Rights. ICAR is a coalition of 27 organizations working together to abolish defiance in granting a “get” (Jewish divorce) and extortion in the divorce process within the framework of Jewish Law.
Is this what three thousand and three hundred years of Jewish tradition has come to, that a nation that has always dared to walk alone, with different ideals and values from the wider culture, should so fully capitulate to the most corrupt, misogynistic values, that we would advocate that our young women have plastic surgery in order to get married?
The heading of this article is the title of Angelita Valdes’ biography written by her husband, Dr. Robert Dublin. Dr. Dublin was the physician who treated and nursed the young Filipina dancer and TV starlet back to life when she became ill with tuberculosis meningitis - a life threatening disease. Angelita Valdes’ biography is an astonishing story of an amazing woman’s life.
By Alan Magill
What's more important - love or money? Let's hear what a 90-year-old woman sitting in front of two elevators in a nursing home had to say. I asked her, "If both elevator doors opened at the same time, and out of one came the richest man in the world, and out of the other came the nicest man in the world, who would you want to marry?" She thought about it for a good while and then answered, "Both of them."
By Tibbi Singer
A young woman in Bnei Brak, Israel, had a problem Wednesday: she was about to get married, but the streets outside the wedding hall, situated next to Kiryat Vishnitz, also in Bnei Brak, were packed with thousands of Vishnitz Hasidim who came to pay their last respects to the Vishnitzer Rebbe. She called the ZAKA (a humanitarian volunteer organization) hotline.
The old debate over who has it ‘harder,’ stay–a- home mothers or working mothers, has never been clearly resolved. Some studies claim that stay-at-home mothers are more satisfied while working mothers are plagued with guilt, while other studies suggest the opposite.
Al Ahram reports that a women's demonstration has been planned for Thursday to coincide with International Women’s Day, in downtown Cairo. Organizers are expected to provide parliamentary leaders with 100 suggested names of prominent female Egyptian figures for inclusion in a constituent assembly that will be mandated with drawing up a new constitution. Despite the […]
It is chilling to watch Ahlam Tamimi smile as she is told that she murdered not 3 children, but 8. But it is important to understand that this woman is not a psychopath. She is the true face of the Palestinian cause.
August 7, 2026 
