The religious argument is that the prophecies that appear in the Bible (Old and/or New Testament, depending on one’s religion) were fulfilled precisely. In fact, the fulfillment of the prophecies is, in the opinion of many believers, “proof” that God controls history. So here’s a little about biblical prophecy: The study of the biblical text […]

Religious people often classify other people by their “religion”. It’s like each and every person must “have” one single religion, which is determined not necessarily by him/her, but rather by the religious rules. Specifically for Judaism, the common definition used by Orthodox Jews for a “Jew” is: “A person who was born to a Jewish […]

Nowadays we witness an endless debate between carnivores and vegetarians, when one of the arguments is about the well-being of the animals. In the meantime, countries of the “new world”, especially in Europe, formulate new rules about how animals should be killed in order to be eaten. The main idea is electrocution, namely death by […]

“Sukkah” is the Hebrew word for a hut (as in “Pizza Hut”) – a small house, typically temporary and wooden, in someone’s territory. “Sukkot” is the plural of “Sukkah”, i.e. “huts”. One of the most interesting Jewish holidays is Sukkot. We often refer to it as the “Gathering Festival”, following the Biblical phrase: “Also in […]

The recent couple of weeks have been chaotic in Israel. Even though the struggle against Covid-19 seemed to succeed – new challenges have popped, in particular the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its implications inside Israel on the relationships between Jews and Arabs. This is not the proper place to describe the […]

Rumor has it that during the “Black Plague” in the Middle Ages there were those who blamed the Jews for its spread, because of the lower mortality among them, which was associated with the religious customs of washing hands. Much water has flown since then, even in Jordan River. And nowadays? Miraculously, various elements related […]

One of the common religious claims about “creation” is that the world was created some 6,000 years ago with all the known scientific evidence already built into it. Sort of “God is trying us”. This claim of retroactive creation makes little sense, and is already discussed here. An interesting method of tackling this issue is […]

Tens of thousands of Breslev Hasidic Jews intend to fly to Ukraine, to the town of Uman, in order to attend the yearly ceremony near the grave of their rabbi. This is generally an extremely crowded event, and the people in charge of public health in Israel want to prevent this madness from taking place, […]

Today is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Supposedly the day in which the “Torah” was “given” to the people of Israel. According to the tradition, it was since passed between generations without changes, and its verdicts and commandments always kept… well, mostly. So, ancient holidays like “Pesach” (Passover) and “Sukkot” have always been celebrated since, […]

The recent Coronavirus poses new challenges to religion. Aside from wondering why God is supposedly mad at us (everything is for a reason, you know) – there are some several intriguing issues that relate specifically to Orthodox Judaism. The Orthodox Jewish religion dictates many specific and rigorous rituals, which are of little interest to the […]