Mentch
I was very touched by a picture posted on AOL this week, showing a hooded African American man who had fallen asleep on the shoulder of a yarmulke-clad Jewish man on a New York subway. The picture went viral as many saw it as a restoration of real humanity in a place we all least expect to see it, and it was one of the rare instances when something nice actually makes it to the news! Was this religious Jew’s action (or inaction, by not moving and letting the man sleep on his shoulder) based on a teaching of Judaism, and if so which sources?
Mezuzah in an Apartment
You may have seen the story about the new statute in Texas allowing tenants to put mezuzot on their exterior doorways. Apparently, this was in reaction to a situation where a resident was prohibited from putting up a mezuzah by the rules of his apartment community. I was curious what Jewish law would have said about this situation. If a Jew finds himself living in an apartment complex that prohibits hanging anything in doorways, what is he supposed to do? Defy the ban and hang a mezuzah anyway? Move and incur substantial inconvenience, costs, and possibly lease violation penalties? Or do the property rights of the apartment complex owner simply override the biblical commandment?
Kosher: Meat and Milk
I would like to better understand the reason for the Jewish practice of waiting six hours after eating meat before eating milk products. Where is this in the Torah? Is eating them close together considered like cooking them together, which is very hard for me to digest (pardon the pun)?
Matrilineal Descent
Why do the orthodox base a Jew’s status on the mother and not the father? Shouldn’t the father be at least as important as the mother? Does the father have any effect at all on the status of the child?
Terrorism and the Loss of Jews
Since the discovery of those precious, unfortunate souls I have felt so weak and empty; this whole thing just is so senseless to have three young boys murdered for nothing. Although it might not be so fair to say this (I can only express what I feel), I sort of feel like we were robbed by G-d to let us keep on praying for weeks when those poor boys were already dead and buried; what’s the point of praying for something that is already gone?! Why would G-d keep us all in suspense and mental torture just to keep praying for nothing?
