I haven't really prepared a "year in review" post, but here are some random notes and thoughts.
On the job front there have been ups and downs but the year ended on an ( Read more... )

Someone I respect a great deal once told me he wouldn't be surprised if someday I leave the Reform movement for Orthodoxy. I don't think so; my beliefs (i.e. the dox part) align more with Reform, even though my practice does not. I'm used to being one of the ( Read more... )

One of the 39 categories of labor forbidden on Shabbat is carrying, that ( Read more... )

Just as the previous traactate, B'rachot, jumped into the discussion by ( Read more... )

Shefa Gold, a prominent rabbi in the Renewal movement, was in Pittsburgh this weekend. I went to the Shabbat morning service that she led. It was...different.
I went to the Renewal movement's national kallah a few years ago, and ( Read more... )

I had not previously heard that Samoa is moving across the international date line this week, meaning that they will go from 11:59PM Thursday to 12:00AM Saturday, skipping Friday. This raises an interesting question for any Jews living there -- when is Shabbat ( Read more... )

Wandering Stars is the classic compilation of SF around Jewish themes, including halachic issues that just don't arise in day-to-day life like whether space aliens can convert (and, IIRC, managing the calendar on other planets). Some of my readers might be interested in the following speculative questions that have been asked on Judaism. ( Read more... )

Friday night I went to a fellow congregant's home for a monthly shabbat gathering ( about which I've written before). I've been to most of these gatherings though ( Read more... )

The g'mara on today's daf discusses the prohibition of cooking on Shabbat ( Read more... )

One of my ongoing frustrations with many Reform services (and prayer books) is what I think of as dumbing down the service to be accessible to all, in the process alienating some of the dedicated people who were already there. (There's a vicious cycle in there that leads to needingto do so because everyone else has fled.) I wondered a little ( Read more... )