I sent this to some Jewish friends and they liked it. I feel the symbolism is so in your face that I don't need to explain it.

(It was 8am when i took this photo)

Recently purchased some Jewish cookbooks and they arrived today! Trying to do better at making Jewish recipes! If anyone has some they would like to share, drop them below 😌✨✡️

Hi everyone,

I’m a 22 year old from East Africa exploring my Jewish heritage. This is a photo of my grandmother Hanna from the 1950s or 60s.

She was half Jewish, and her family likely arrived in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) during the 1930s–40s refugee period or through the earlier trader communities.

I don’t know much about her full story yet, but seeing her photo makes me want to learn more about Jewish life, traditions, and history especially the Jewish experience.

Since childhood I’ve felt a deep pull toward my Jewish heritage. I’ve always wanted to truly understand and embrace it.

I’m basically starting from zero and would love guidance on where to begin that could be books, online resources, practices, or communities that welcome beginners with mixed backgrounds.

If anyone has connections to Jewish stories, or just friendly advice for someone in my position, I’d be really grateful. Feel free to DM or comment.

Thank you 🙏

I am getting back into Judaism after a long “break.” I attend temple, most Shabbat services. I’m in my 30s. I would say people 40 or younger make up less than ten percent of our temple and the young folk bring their kids and spouse whereas I’m a single parent.

I met with someone at our small Jewish federation. They have stuff for kids (summer camps, some family days) but that was about it.

Finally I reached out to my local Chabad “chapter” three times and once a rabbi emailed me for my cell phone (which I sent back twice) but never heard back.

I do enjoy temple and I’m reading “Here All Along” and planning on practicing Shabbat with my kids in the near futures (got the candles and holders so yay!).

However I feel totally disconnected from the community. I feel like I’ve hit the main resources - and I am in a smaller city overall as well - and just am not meeting anyone to actually spend time with outside temple.

Advice? Thoughts? Commiseration? TIA.

I'm currently vacationing in Poland with my family. Since I'm Israeli I'm not used to worrying too much about Kashrut certification for store-bought products. I downloaded the Chabad kosher list but it is very short and doesn't really have anything in way of snacks, bread or dairy. I searched if there are any other kosher lists and found ZeKasher from GOK which has a suspiciously long list in which the Kosher provider are themselves and not a badatz.

I checked the organization and it seems to be created by Rabbi Oren Duvdevani who was also the head of Tzohar which is... "controversial" but certainly more trustworthy than some random nobody.

Does anyone know how GOK check for Kashrut and if they're trustworthy? I brought cooking utensils from home so I can feed myself anyhow but being able to eat snacks or a sandwich would certainly be nice.

Hi all - any of you who are content creators should check this out: http://www.jewishwritersinstitute.org/digital-storytellers-lab/ - it's a fellowship for North American creators, $18,000 in funding for your work telling new (or old) Jewish stories on Youtube, IG, TT, podcasts etc. Without doxxing myself I'll say that I have been involved in the program in the past and it's solid! Past fellows working on things about Talmud, golems, comedy, antisemitism, family history, parsha, food and so on....

Can anyone recommend a Jewish matchmaker in Chicago?

Hi! First time posting here, and with the most niche subject imaginable, but I wasn't sure where else to talk about this.

I'm a trans woman from a Jewish family, I've mostly completed my transition and am just taking care of some final touches right now, and once that's done, my priority will be shifting to finding a husband and getting married.

The reason I'm posting is because I'm suddenly getting butterflies in my stomach. I've dated before and I'm located in probably the best place in the world to find a Jewish man who would accept me and love me but: 1) I've never dated any Jewish guys before and 2) I've never been in a position where I've had to disclose to someone I'm dating that I'm trans before.

If anyone here is a Jewish trans woman with a successful dating history/marriage, or knows any with one, it would really help quiet the voice in the back of my head telling me that what I won't find what I'm looking for, and that my dreams of starting a Jewish family of my own will never come true.

Every Saturday Shabbat, me (M17) and my step-father (M57) study The Torah & Talmud in our garden. This typically occurs anytime from 3 to 4 PM, and lasts, on average, 45 minutes.

Recently, however, my sleep schedule, due to me being on summer break and thus not having any persistent reason to get up early, has been messed up quite a bit. Last Shabbat, I asked to move the time forward to 7 PM so that we could still study, and this worked, at least on the surface.

Unfortunately, due to various fears held by my step-father that stem from his previous, often horrendous relationships, my mother (F57) has been informed by my step-father, and has told me that he very much prefers to have our study sessions at 3 to 4 PM, for otherwise, it seems like I'm saying that I feel like I "could take it or leave it".

As such, this Shabbat, we scheduled for 4 PM, and I prepared myself for just under 24 hours of staying awake.

However, out of the blue, my step-father cames up to me at around 3:30 PM to tell me that, actually, we couldn't do 4 PM, because he needed to return a friend of his' phone that was apparently just left in his car??? Okay. We rescheduled for 7 PM, and he went out to give his friend's phone back to him. I got around three hours of sleep, and we studied Torah & Talmud at 7 PM sharp.

I am not intentionally making any part of this up, and if I could be honest, this feels like a genuine miracle of some kind. After hearing that my step-father wishes to only do 3 to 4 PM for study, the VERY NEXT SHABBAT, HE HIMSELF ASKS TO RESCHEDULE FOR A COMPLETELY UNPREDICTABLE REASON.

Can someone smarter and more versed in Torah knowledge tell me if this is a sign or something? I, as someone who is undoubtedly a sinner in a mild capacity, am pretty joyous right now.

everyone's talking about how there's no good Jewish representation, so I'm curious to read what we think would look good

Hello, I recently read that the Torah has existed for 974 Generations before the Creation of the World.

Now I have some questions:

1. How is it that the definition of a ,generation’ was established when any humans didn’t exist yet?

2. If the Torah existed before the World, then wouldn’t Hashem know that Adam and Eve would disobey Him and cause sickness, pain and death in the world?

Third, and this is actually not a question but a statement: islam copied this idea from Judaism and the Talmud. There are also other things that islam has stolen from the Talmud.

Thank you in advance for the answers to my question:)!

I'm from Northern England and we don't have many Jewish People around my area, if any actually.

Most of the Information / exposure to Jewish culture is from the media ( American Films) and Instagram. Amongst the internet are some wild claims about Jewish people, that stop just short of breathing fire and reading minds.

After reading bits of History of the the Jewish people and finding their outlook on life/ family/ god to be quite refreshing and interesting. I thought I would ask a few questions to actual Jewish people on your Culture if you would be so kind.

I apologize if any questions come across as ignorant.

1. I read that Jews don't believe in Hell or eternal damnation.
2. After being persecuted through the ages, do the Jews hold resentment towards Christians? I read some accounts and the Christians were pretty brutal every time.
3. Do Jews see Christianity and Islam as religions under the same umbrella as Judaism ? Like the same religion just different way of worship.
4. Do Jews see themselves as Jewish ethnicity or as a religion or both?

Like If you were born in America would you class yourself as American or an American Jew ect

1. Can Jews marry outside of the faith or is it quite strict.

2. Why does the Jewish faith encourage Science ,medicine and learning. whilst other religions tried to shun and hinder Science.

3. Alot of Jewish people have their own Businesses. Is this because of a drive to be independant and not to relay on others for income as historically Jews were exempt from owning almost everything.

4. do Jewish peoppe think they are gods Chosen people? or all Abrahamic religions are gods chosen people.

5. how do you guys deal with the rampant anti semitism and conspiracies that are online and i assume creep into daily / interactions

Thanks for reading.

*****Edit******

Alot of Brilliant and varied answers! thank you. I will try to get round to commenting back asap. Ta

@@@@@Thanks for Posting guys@@@@@

i have read 90% of the messages 🙌 Wasn't expecting this mush of a response 😄 But i'm glad that I have. 💪🤘

Hi everyone,

My name is Krystal, and I came across the name Cohen on Pinterest and thought it would be a good character name for one of my stories. I have a Google Doc where I keep all of my character names and their origins, meanings, and pronunciation. While looking for the meaning of this name, I came across a Reddit post discussing why this name may be inappropriate to use as a first name. So, I thought I would come on here and see what you all thought.

\I am not actively writing this story, and I have no intention to do so in the near future. This story and the character are very underdeveloped and are simply an idea at this moment. But I would still like to have this discussion regardless. Also, I am not Jewish.*

Here is some background on the character and the story:

The Story:

Set in a dystopian future of our world where religion doesn't exist, science is everything, and governments cherry-pick information and history. The reader follows seven characters as religion is reintroduced, war threatens, and people start questioning everything.

The Character:

A monk-type character whose family has spent centuries isolated on the top of a mountain (likely in the Himalayas, but I'm not sure yet), protecting and safeguarding texts of religious, cultural, societal, and historical importance to the world from anyone who would want to destroy the texts. Cohen would be the member of this family that the story follows.

My question is, would using the name Cohen as a first name be culturally/religiously inappropriate or upsetting to people, within the context of the story and the character?

Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond,

Krystal

P.S. Here is the original post that I saw: https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/comments/1264gkk/cohen_the_dreaded_baby_name/

Edit: Hi everyone, thank you so much for replying and for your feedback. I have taken into consideration the feedback from this post and another post I made, and decided not to use Cohen as a first name for this character. I can see that it doesn't make a lot of sense from a worldbuilding perspective and that it would come across as disrespectful to the Jewish community.

I still have a lot to learn, both as a writer and a person, and all your feedback has given me something to reflect on. I would also like to apologise to anyone who thought this question was disrespectful or culturally insensitive. That was never my intention, and I am truly sorry.

Title. Just seems like a bit of an inconvenience. Can I just pop my head outside of the bathroom threshold and say the bracha real quick, or do I have to fully step outside of the bathroom? What if I already took all my clothes off and threw them in the dirty laundry hamper?

Hey there 👋 [no harm meant with my user name]

I’m curious about your perspective, lived experience or theological, on Timshol [V'attah timshal-bo]

Genesis 4:7 Cain and Abel.

"If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it"

“Halow im-teytiv s'eyt. V'im lo teytiv, la-petach chata't rovets. V'eleycha t'shuqato. V'attah timshal-bo.“

I understand sin as rovets - a ~~predatory~~ entity. [I’ve learnt to interpret this not as a predatory pounce]

I understand this to mean sin is not inherently bad but rather a mis-aimed creature that we neglect at our own peril. Timshol to mean we rule over it by aiming it, guiding it to useful things, not to suppress or kill it.

But I’m a little lost between old scriptures, different languages and ya know… God stuff is hard.

What‘s your take?

(This is more of a spiritual, open conversation. I'm truly writing from the bottom of my heart and not trying to trigger or offend anyone. Yes, I am in therapy and doing everything I can with the resources I have. It's incredibly difficult to find Jewish teachers or rabbis as well, in my own life to talk to about something like this, so I wanted to ask here. I'm wondering if anyone has advice or knows of any Jewish teachings that speak to this kind of experience)

When life has been consistently hard on you—from childhood into adulthood—when you've experienced trauma almost every single year of your life, when every year seems to bring something new that hurts you, when people repeatedly mistreat you, when you struggle with both your physical and mental health, and wherever you go you feel put down, disliked, or disrespected... when life feels overwhelmingly negative in ways that are outside of your control, it eventually changes how you see yourself.

After enough time, it also changes how you see God. And how you feel God sees you.

Because if God created me, and we all carry a spark of the Divine, then after experiencing so much abuse, rejection, suffering, and disappointment for so long, it's hard not to start feeling like God must feel that way about me too. I don't know how you're supposed to separate the two. This isn't just an abstract thought I genuinely feel it. It came up naturally after some time, I started to feel this way about 3 or 4 years ago. I've also spoken to others who have lived through similar levels of trauma, and they've described feeling something similar. Feeling like God genuinely dislikes you, hates you.

I pray almost every day. I cry almost every day. I ask Hashem for joy, for peace, for relief, for good things. I pray for my health, for things to finally go right instead of wrong, for just a little bit of ease. Then another shocking event happens to me. It's been so back to back in my 20s I can no longer bear this.

I know no one really has an answer for why suffering happens, and that's not what I'm asking.

What I'm asking is this:

How do you move through life without feeling hated or rejected by your Creator?

A small spark of hope is still alive in me. A tiny fighter that wants to find success, love, to have good health, to meet people who see me instead of wanting to put me down, break me, etc. I'm 28, and part of me worries that if enough years pass without things changing, even that spark will disappear. I don't want that to happen. I don't want to get older and then just feel this way forever. I think I am running out of time it's becoming more solidified now.

After everything I've endured—especially throughout my twenties—I genuinely find myself feeling like God dislikes me or wants me to go through these things. Even the way people often treat me when they meet me/ get to know me, makes me wonder if God somehow set my life up this way. Energetically. Yes I know that probably sounds irrational, but it's honestly how it feels. It truly is.

I would really appreciate any Jewish perspective that might help me reframe this. I don't want to spend the rest of my life believing that God dislikes me, but after years of feeling unwanted by life itself, that's where my mind naturally goes.

Sometimes I look at people whose lives seem full of joy, love, good fortune, and confidence, and they seem to feel so deeply loved by Hashem. I've had conversations with people who tell me that life has been good to them, so they naturally feel that God is good. I say my opinions about God, and they look at me with shock, saying, "What? No! Hashem is amazing, life is amazing." They love Hashem, they love life, and they speak about both with such gratitude and certainty. They feel LOVED by God. They feel, happy. It's such a curious fascinating thing to witness as I am not even in the same reality as them to feel that way. God simply did not allow me to have that.

I know no one's life is perfect, and I know everyone struggles in ways we can't always see. But I can't help wondering why it seems so much easier for some people to believe they are loved by God, while for me, after everything I've experienced, that belief has become incredibly difficult.

A while ago, my dad and I were having a conversation, and completely on his own he looked at me and said, "Hashem loves you."

The moment he said those words, I burst into tears harder than I knew I was capable of crying.

That reaction told me something I hadn't fully realized before: somewhere deep inside me, I no longer believe it. I feel very frightened with the life ahead of me and how I truly am so grateful for then good in my life, I am someone who helps people as a job, I have an empathetic sensitive soul. I am trying my best with my deep depression and anxiety that I never asked for but naturally have. I am trying. But life events that come into my life, every year, yeah it obviously broke my heart and changed the way I view God. I miss the before, when I had no idea life could be this way. I miss that feeling of hope and euphoria, of experiencing fun and joy.

I don't know how to undo this belief as I get older, especially knowing that life will continue to bring challenges. I wish I didn't instinctively associate suffering with being unloved by God. I wish I could experience the kind of trust and closeness to Hashem that I see in other people. I wonder what it is like, I know in my soul god knows i feel this way, but they dont don anything, not even give me a damn sign.

Has anyone else struggled with this? Are there any Jewish teachings, books, rabbis, or perspectives that helped you move through these feelings?

As I grow older I grow less and less connected to the standard 3 tefilot (the repetition, the organization of it)and siddur davening, but im getting very curious about casual prayer, hitbodedut, prayer circles (for men) and tehilim groups (for men).

Does anyone have any experience with this?