The debates between religious and secular, between “believers” in some god and “non-believers” – are as old as human imagination. In the ancient world where scientific knowledge was much inferior to nowadays, most of these debates tended to favor the religious side. Yet, even then there were quite a few people who opposed the simple […]

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 […]

Religious thinking must have a solution for any problem, especially one that puts the religious thinking itself in risk. Hence, when many millions of Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including some million innocent children – there must have been a good religious reason for this. Thus the great minds of religious thinking came up […]

There is a new government in Israel. For the first time ever, the prime minister of Israel is a formally religious man, wearing a traditional “kippah” (the Jewish religious head cover). He wouldn’t work during the Sabbath, unless some emergency life-saving issues. He prays several times a day as required. He eats only kosher food. […]

There is a big thing in Israel against Reform Judaism (a.k.a. Progressive Judaism). The opposition comes mainly from Orthodox Jews, but they have managed to indoctrinate many others into considering Reform Jews as some sort of evil. In fact, you can find many statements emphasizing that Reform Jews are “even” worse than “Goyim” – the […]

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 […]

There is a new sport in town: Making claims by supposedly asking a question. It started as a known advertisement technique. Are you looking for a quiet and inexpensive washing machine? Why do people buy XXX beverage? The late English comedian Benny Hill once had a quite amusing video clip about this. It naturally slipped […]