Dear Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin, What questions submitted to Ask the Rabbi intrigued readers the most in 2025? Some of Your Happy Warriors, Dear Happy Warriors, We can’t conclusively tell you what questions intrigued readers the most, but we can analyze the data of what articles were opened the most. We are gratified that
Top Hits of the Year Read More »
Sunday night was the final night of Chanukah. Our menorah in the living room window, carrying its full complement of eight flames, became a blazing beacon of incandescence. (I am not going to deny that I scanned the dark street outside a little apprehensively knowing that we were starkly silhouetted targets.) The previous Sunday night,
Dear Rabbi and Susan, I am a Christian. My husband’s family members are conservative Jews. Recently my brother-in-law had a serious health crisis. I wanted to tell him “I am praying for you.” But I did not know how he would react to that. I am a Christian who prays, not from a prayer book,
Will I Be Offending My Jewish Brother-in-Law? Read More »
More than forty years. That was the lifespan of the sewing machine my parents gave me when I became engaged. My mother knew I enjoyed sewing and anyway, to women of her generation, a sewing machine was a practical gift as was a sock darning egg. I’m pretty sure that today, mending of that type
Rabbi, Rabbi, Rabbi, My wife and I are in tears. We are watching the breaking news of a terrible, terrible shooting at Bondi Beach, an iconic location in Australia. During observances and celebrations on the first night of Chanukah, shooters have opened fire and our hearts are broken. Broken for the families, broken for our
Murder in Australia Read More »
Like me, you probably remember sitting in an elementary or high school classroom watching the clock’s hands crawl at an excruciatingly slow pace. Since that time, clocks have adopted the opposite behavior. As I go through my day, after what seems like only a few minutes focused on a task, I frequently am shocked to
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Just a few years after Americans won their war of independence from the British, Mozart created his beloved comedic opera, The Marriage of Figaro. The original Italian name appears in the subject line; the Italian noun “nozze” means marriage. Could “nozze” be etymologically related to the word for marriage in the Lord’s language, Hebrew, “nossei”?
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Dear Rabbi and Susan, I listened to Podcast Episode 114 regarding renting or buying. I agree with you almost 100%. I do think owning is Biblical and better for people. This is where I think I might disagree. Perhaps you can clarify this for me. If I have no mortgage, meaning I have the title
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Carrie. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Halloween. The Exorcist. Dawn of the Dead. Rosemary’s Baby. These are only a few of the movies which I have never seen and have no desire to see. Suffice it to say, horror is not my genre of choice. Still, many people are drawn to horror movies, so when I
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My brother has gone crazy with the “flat earth” theory and is coming up with “Biblical” proof. What are your thoughts on this and do you have proof otherwise? Of course, I believe we are on a globe earth and not in a flat covered by a dome. Thank you, Ron S. Dear Ron, The
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