Out of a Shell

From: Shelly Dear Rabbi, I personally find your column to be very well-written, sensitive and insightful. It is quite uplifting for me, even though I am not the questioner. I imagine that those who you’re advising appreciate your responses even more. My question is, of course you’re helping a lot of people, but do you[…]

Sabra Spirituality

From: Marc Dear Rabbi, My family and I have just returned from a visit to Israel in honor of my son’s bar mitzva and I wanted to share with you an interesting aspect of our trip, and to hear your take on it. It seems that wherever we went, average, non-religious Israelis knew a lot[…]

Tefillin Filling

From: Zach Dear Rabbi, Would you please clarify something for me about tefillin? Are there different pairs of tefillin? The reason I’m asking is that I see people take off tefillin in the middle of shacharit and then put on another pair. Or sometimes they put on another pair after shacharit. Sometimes I actually see[…]

Name for Life

From: Anonymous Dear Rabbi, I have a sensitive question that I’m embarrassed to ask rabbis I know, so I thought to ask through this medium. I hope that’s OK. The question is like this: Thank G‑d I am expecting, and it looks like it will be a boy. Now my grandfather, unfortunately, is very ill[…]

Heed the Call

From: Hernando Dear Rabbi, I have come to love the Torah so much and want to keep all the mitzvot that I can, but I feel that I need to go to a yeshiva with rabbis and people like myself in order to be totally immersed in the Torah and the religious life. The problem[…]

G‑d’s Ways

From: Fahim (Moshe) in Iran Dear Rabbi, Why do the people who are bad and do only a few mitzvot live well and without problems, but those who are good and do many mitzvot live bad and with difficulties and problems in their lives? Dear Fahim (Moshe), You are in good company when you ask[…]

Name Withheld

From: Anonymous Dear Rabbi, I have been religious for some time now. In fact, I have been shidduch dating for what feels like too long. I’m wondering if my Hebrew name has anything to do with the delay. You see, growing up, in Sunday school, I used a particular Hebrew name, and that was the[…]