Religion

How do we know what is true?

This was the question a friend put to me not long ago, after a lengthy discussion on the relative merits of homeopathy versus antibiotics and of germ-theory versus the sin-theory of disease.…

What is really so terrible about the Chasidic lifestyle?
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It was a typical “night seder” in Yeshiva, the last period of a long day. I stood with one foot on the floor and the other on the footrest of my shtender, rocking back and forth as my elbows pressed…

One who sees his evil inclination getting the better of him should dress in black and go to a place where he isn’t known.

That’s the famous passage in the Talmud that played in my head over and over like…

Like a stadium wave, in a domino effect, the congregation rises. A messy instrumental cacophony fills the chapel. The melodious leading notes strangely protrude nonetheless to make their sombre call. “Like as the hart, desireth the waterbrooks,” a few adult choristers…

It’s scary, he says. Only two hundred thirty nine years left until the end of time. That’s not a lot of time, he says. And still he hasn’t come. It’s very scary.

My father waits for Moshiach. Year after year…

“What do the scientists know?” Ari greeted me in the morning with a triumphant smile. “All the technology in the world, all the atheists with all their machines, and nothing. They can’t even predict the weather.”

I looked out the…

I had a dream that I spoke to God.

“God,” I said, “I need you to answer me.”

Now talking to God isn’t new for me. I’ve been doing it since I was a young child. When you’re…

Chaya nervously navigates the traffic to the Brooklyn Bridge on the rush back to Monsey from our few hours in Borough Park and Crown Heights. Her periodic glances at the GPS should be unnecessary since she’s probably driven…

Last week He had pinched her butt as He said it.  It was supposed to be sort of playful.  The mood was light and she said it too.  She still wondered if she meant it, but it didn’t…