A letter sent to “Daat Emet“ The original letter (in Hebrew) I was born in Jerusalem, Israel. And guess where? in the ultra-Orthodox religious ‘Mea Shearim’ neighborhood. As a child, I used to throw stones at passing cars on the Sabbath. I have lived in the US for over 25 years. I was the best […]

“We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel…” — From Israel’s Declaration of Independence, 1948 A ‘state’ is (as we all know) an entity which by itself has no genetic flavor or religious belief. What then is a “Jewish state”? Without any intention of presenting one political opinion or […]

The following story and research were received from Jacob (pseudonym). A little about myself: My name is Jacob, I’m 21 years old, gay in the closet, originally from a Jewish ultra-Orthodox (“Haredi”) family. I’m a “science believer” (in my opinion, a “science believer” is someone who believes in science and nothing else, a total atheist). […]

Anyone with lots of El Al’s experience – especially on the Tel Aviv – New York line – knows this well. The flight is full of ultra-Orthodox religious Jewish (“Haredi”) families, which also means many children and a lot of prayer rituals. All of these are known facts, and nothing said (so far) constitutes any […]

According to Orthodox Judaism, the presence of a red cow announces the coming of the Messiah. Not just any red cow – it is supposed to meet several detailed criteria, according to the orthodox Jewish law. Entire chapters have been dedicated in the Jewish sources to describing these criteria, which include specific details regarding the […]

Well… not the famous Christian thing you may have thought of. This time we will discuss another Holy Trinity. In one corner of this triangle, we find the Muslims. They believe that Muhammad traveled overnight from Mecca to Jerusalem, to the Temple Mount, and later also rode a horse from there to heaven to meet […]

“Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?” — 1 Samual 21:14-15 “The whole religious […]

“And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should […]

Hair is a major issue in Orthodox Judaism. If you’re a man, you’re supposed not to shave it from your face (i.e., grow a beard and a mustache). You’re also supposed to grow your “Payot”, which is the Hebrew term for sidelocks or sideburns. In fact, the 252nd of the 613 “Mitzvot” (613 commandments) of […]

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 […]