ruth’s megillah

[updated with men's info and edited for clarity]

YU’s Center for Jewish Future Sunday morning programs for men and women has a very interesting looking shiur lineup for this sunday.

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopez Cardozo
Jews by Choice – A Look in the Beit HaMidrash of
Avraham Avinu and the Future of Judaism

He is giving the shiur first to the men (at 9:30 am) and then to the women (at 10:30).

I wish it were possible for me to attend. I wonder if a recording of the program will be placed at yu torah.org after.

dov bear has a very nice post on Perushim (those where were meticulous) and Amei Ha’aretz (those not so meticulous). He speaks about modern equivalents.

I have felt the pain of being stigmatized. Years after my conversion, with a fully kosher home… I will not go into some other things that have happened, they are far too personal. In the past, when I was “new” to all of this, I fell victim to stringencies in an attempt to “be accepted” (it didn’t work) and slightly excluded others as not being “proper enough”. I regret this every day and ask for forgiveness each and every night (does anyone know where to find the text of ribono shel olam part of kriat sh’ma al hamita online?) and year. This is something I’m currently struggling with and may or may not post about them.

I just ask you to read and take to heart DovBear’s request.

And weren’t they wise? Don’t we see this happening in our own day? All of our modern subsects are, to an extent, the product of stringencies.

Wouldn’t Judaism -universal Judaism- be so much stronger if we followed the approach of the Sages and stopped using stringencies as an excuse for excluding and belittling other Jews?

* a chabad flavoured definition of ahavat yisrael

The White Rose: Eating Disorders in (Orthodox) Judaism is a beautiful post by Chana.

Please remember that boys are also affected. I have no idea if it’s prevalent at all in the Orthodox community, but would be surprised if they are not. (I’m not talking about obesity. I know it is, I see that every day; I’m talking ana or bulima). In high school (I attended public school), a very good friend of mine was a wrestler. I worried about him throughout the wrestling season (winter) as he worked hard to remain in a slightly lower weight class. I am happy that today he is well. He has a rounded outlook on life and I wasn’t too worried about him but the many others who spun out of control. It’s very easy to spin out.

I’ve been invited to a wedding during the last week of April. This suprised me as I assumed there would be no weddings until at least 16 May (lag b’omer) as I understood minhag. And then I found this shiur by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed.

I know little about this yeshiva, and even less about this rabbi. I’m a bit hesitant to post this as I need to check the sources (Mishnah Berurah 529:16; Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chaim 546:1) and ask some questions and learn a good deal.

Hmm.. lots to think about and learn. I should get back to reviewing the haggadah.

And I find it very sad that it needed to be written. Common Sense (or lack thereof) was found by orthomom.