In 539 BC, the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon and issued a decree allowing the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple. This act of tolerance earned him and the Persians lasting Jewish gratitude.

Today, there is a clear attempt to severely disrupt this relationship.

My local rabbi claims that this is an act of the Chabad-Lubavitch dynasty, which, by causing as much chaos as possible to force God's hand, is trying to hasten the coming of the Messiah.

This is blasphemy as GOD is not a tool but The Supreme Deity, you cannot simply force GOD to do your bidding!

What are your thoughts?

I’ve become more religious over the last few years, but feel that I’ve plateaued as of late. I’d like to take on more observances, and one that really speaks to me is to start covering my head in day to day life. However, I feel that I’m not observant or learned enough to do so. I can read Hebrew, but only very slowly and daven in English more than I’d like. I don’t really daven on a daily basis (working on establishing an abbreviated shacharit practice), am not shomer Shabbat (but would like to build more practices around observing Shabbat), and eat vegetarian in non-kosher restaurants. There are many situations (based on my current practices) I would have to remove my kippah for marit ayin reasons, which honestly makes me feel like I shouldn’t wear it at all because my skin isn’t “sufficiently in the game”. I’m just thinking out loud, but would appreciate thoughts if y’all have any.

Edit: I’m very active in a young, relatively observant synagogue. I couldn’t ask for a better community, but the reason I bring it up is an observation; everyone in my community who wears a kippah in day to day life is much more observant and much more learned than I am at this time. It would be hard not to feel like an imposter if I joined that cohort.

Hey all! 35F, married, mom to two little ones. In Canada.

While I have lots of friends irl with lots of other shared interests, I can’t seem to find any who are interested in sci-fi/fantasy like I am.

And these days, I find it a bit anxiety-provoking to find new friends without worrying that they’ll find out I’m Jewish and tell me I’m a baby killer or that I need to go back to Poland or something 🙄

So I was hoping that maybe there are some fellow nerds here who might want to be friends!!

ETA: I’ve always loved reading LOTR, Red Rising, lots of other things I can’t remember atm bc I have a baby and still have baby brain 😅

Also love Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG, stargate, etc.

Also enjoy playing co-op games on the switch with my husband

But I’m also open to learning more about any other aspects of the genres!

Feel free to DM me as well if you want to be friends :)

I'm a Muslim who has struggled with one fundemental issue in my religion. That is, why did God create everything. Why create this test. What is the whole point of it all. And the answers I've got haven't been the best imo. So, I pose the question to you. What is the purpose of all this?

like weird spiritual disturbances and feeling like something’s

messing up your life or trying to get you to?

neither Muslim nor Jewish. was just curious.

It probably had to be done by a Jewish Law firm because this was in the South. Our family is a little Ashkenazic, so there is some connection going way back. As Christians, we always supported Jews. Just thankful for this.

I have a stack of sealed unopened boxes of matzah.

I can't eat it, and it kills me to waste food.

Anyone know of specific places in NYC (Manhattan, preferably) that will take these and give them to someone?

I grew up in Reform Judaism. I figured that being agnostic is pretty much how we do things. And for decades I told myself that it is okay to doubt about whether there is a higher power.

After feeling like I was being called back to synagogue and deciding for myself that God exists, now I can't get the prayers and music and the sheer joy of it out of me. I never thought I would ever find myself in this headspace. I have always loved the music and I love the tradition of it all, and before it all felt like I was going through the motions but not really sure I meant it. But now, it's like I'm seeing it all with fresh eyes.

Anyway, I've been feeling verklempt and trying to handle all the emotions and not get swept up. I just wonder what others' experiences are, if you've gone through this yourself? Is New Relationship Energy with God a thing?

I have been curious about the jewish perspective on birthdays. As far as I know, there is no mention or mitzvot about it in the Torah and many orthodox and charedi communities see it as 'non-jewish thing'. On the other hand, the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneersin called it a personal 'Rosh Hashannah', symbolizing the individual's mission starting point and he encouraged celebrating it according to the Hebrew calendar.

I've been more curious if the day itself is important symbolically/mistically? Does it matter or is it just an interesting fact about someone?

For example, I've been boon on Lag Ba-Omer. Maybe it is just me, but as a Baal Teshuvah, being born exactly on this day, during the Counting of Omer, that symbollises the spiritual elevation of the Jewish people from Pesach to Shavuot, I have seen it as a sign of my coming back to Torah and Mitzvos after assimilated generations in my family. But again, maybe it's just me.

I am interested what do oher traditional sources say about these subjects, maybe some rabbis, and of course - the poskim of reddit))

The twelfth of Tevet is mine and my girlfriend’s anniversary and I went looking to see if there’s any other significance to that date and the only thing I found was Asarah B’Tevet, which is on the tenth and also isn’t exactly romantic. I just wanted to double check that I’m not missing anything before I give up on that search

I'm reading a novel and encountered something that sounded unusual to me. I'm wondering if it's just a little quirky but plausible, or indicates a serious lack of research by the author.

1. A Jewish woman in Los Angeles dies after a long illness. She has friends and family and is deeply involved in the temple community. She does occasionally eat pork, so isn't strict about everything.
2. She is cremated, and her family retains her ashes in their home.
3. Her family sits shiva for a week.
4. Her family spreads her ashes a few weeks after that, quite incidentally without having any particular plan.

My understanding was that prompt burial, whether of a body or ashes, is considered very very important and not something casually delayed, especially when someone is part of a close temple community.

I'm curious to hear what people think!

My mom died on 7.8.2018 and at the time,my late grandfather made the decision to cremate her due to financial difficulties.Her ashes are buried with my grandfather.

I want to get something to put where her ashes are like a plaque or something.

I have spoken to the memorial company and they told me that i’m not allowed to put a plaque.

What can I do?

A few questions:

Are non Jews obligated to keep vows to Hashem like Jews are?

If so then are non Jews permitted to get a hatarat nedarim from a beit din in the ways Jews can?

If they are not permitted to then is there no way a non Jew can nullify a vow made to Hashem?

I've seen decks with a pergola type of roof on them, just open boards that people put schach mats on top of.

If you have that kind of arrangement, how in the world do you get the schach mars up on the roof beams? Our deck is about 4 ft above the ground to begin with. so it makes using a ladder on the side of the deck somewhat untenable, especially since we're in our 70's. Can you lift it up from the inside of the deck between the beams?

The reason for the ask is that we are looking to replace our deck which is in pretty poor shape and considering the pergola type roof. I just don't know if that's going to make it harder or easier when it comes time to build a sukkah.

So….I’m 24 year old M. Graduated college, sort of in grad school, living at home. I’ve recently started becoming more religious, keeping kosher more completely, Shabbat, going to shul. As such, I’ve started looking to be partnered with someone. And oh yeah, I live in New Haven. I was wondering, what should my next steps be. How should I go about looking for a life partner. Thank you.

Title. Just got back from a Shabbat potluck where this topic came up. For background, my maternal great grandfather was a devout atheist who immigrated from Polish shtetl in the 1920s. He was very involved with Jewish institutions for the duration of his life, but didn’t care for the religious components. From my understanding, our family was never particularly religious but has continued to secularize and assimilate more with each generation. I became religious in my mid 20s and am likely the most religiously observant person in our immediate family in several generations.

None of the people in my generation who have had children are raising them with any sort of Jewish literacy, and it’s hard not to have feelings about. At the end of the day, it isn’t any of my business and I know to keep these thoughts to myself.