I read a lot of Off-the-Derech blogs. A lot. 
Most have at least one thing in common. Someone frum acted like a jerk. More than once and more than twice. This led the blogger to thinking that maybe frum people were full of crap in general. And once they started thinking, they saw that the data could easily be interpreted against orthodoxy, against ( Read more... )

 
The Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) people came out with another class, Ethics of the Talmud.

It is an excellent example of what bothers people most about kiruv & shlichus classes.  Over six weeks, the not-yet-frum Jew, who has never studied gemara in depth, will be exposed some of the ethical dillemmas the Talmud discusses. Abortion, euthanasia, ( Read more... )

Mrs. Shaffer: Hello, Janet, how can I help you? :) 
Janet: Could you tell me please why there are so many laws about modesty for Jewish women?
Mrs. Shaffer: I'd be happy to ...:)
Mrs. Shaffer: First of all, realize that 'modesty' is not really what the laws are about
Mrs. Shaffer: They're the laws of 'tzniut'...unfortunately there's no really good ( Read more... )

This post is dedicated to the readers who think that my problems with chabad (insert any other branch of Orthodox Judaism) is mainly due to the laymen and fools who twist and misinterpret the meaning of what the Rebbe (insert any other gadol here) said and that I should just look to the real leaders for inspiration instead of focusing on which ( Read more... )