The Evolving Jew

My hashkafa is closer to Conservative Judaism than Orthodox Judaism, yet I affiliate with Orthodoxy for the most part. I've often articulated it this way - aside from some small pockets  (think JTS or Hadar, etc)  in big cities (in which I do not live), nowhere can you find the living vibrancy that you can in Orthodoxy, nowhere else is there such a high level of Jewish literacy among many, not just a few, and nowhere else is there the mass observance of Shabbat & Kashrut. So I generally spend my religious time in Orthodox synagogues, though I reside at the very leftwing edge of that spectrum, and sometimes go to the local Conservative shul. But I particularly like this line by Sarah Miriam Liben, in her article on the gender divide in Conservative Judaism (men are becoming Orthodox) and her desire to stay true to her egalitarian Conservative Jewish ideals. Though she is talking about college campuses, I think this is applicable to the feelings of people like myself in the

It's very easy to attack or make fun of people's writing on the internet without thinking about them as real human beings, only caricatures. Rabbi Yair Hoffman wrote a piece on women's tzniyus the other day. He did put it out there, and he opened himself up to criticism. And cricize him many of us did. The piece certainly deserves strong criticism. I wrote a post myself, titled "Tziyus Fetish" This morning, Rabbi Hoffman himself commented on the post: "Actually I wikipedia-ed the information and never saw the issue of non-tzniyus drop-ffs myself. The information was brought to me by a number of women, a few of them. I wrote the correct halacha and do not appreciate the attacks on my character for simply writing halacha. I have been called a sexual pervert, a fetishist, and worse for this article - for simply writing halacha. I am not sure why people think that it is okay to do this. I am very disappointed." I obviously hurt the feelings of Rabbi

In response to the recent New York Post article by Gital Dodelson, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, who I think is Avrohom Meir Weiss' uncle, wrote a letter disingenuously titled "Set Gital Free", when his point is to provide excuses for Weiss' disgusting withholding of the get, and to blame the situation on Dodelson herself. But the point of this post is just to comment on one aspect of his letter that is only tangentially related to the main topic. He writes: "Right now, there are 3 lives that are being ruined, or are at least on hold. Just look at Gital, the poor Agunah, whose personal life is in limbo at the prime time of her life, wasting away years. The same for Avrom Meir, as I watch his younger siblings, with their families growing past his." (the third life he references is their child, addressed in the letter's next paragraph) This reveals so much about the perspective of the Yeshivish community when it comes to life goals. His life is being rui

Someone named Yossi left a comment on my Gital Dodelson post from the other day with this link , containing a defense of her ex, saying that Weiss had agreed to binding arbitration in May and that she was the one who abandoned that arbitration. The telling sentence is this: "If Gital really wants a Get - it is clearly available - but only through good faith negotiations." How is that not withholding a get, and using it as leverage? How is that not holding her hostage to get what he wants in the arbitration? In what world is it acceptable to withhold a get pending the resolution of arbitration? In what way does this make his actions any less appalling? The fact that halacha has left a loophole which gives men power over women in divorce is horrible. In the 21st century, any man who utilizes that mysoginistic power, no matter the circumstances, no matter who behaved badly in the divorce, deserves all the public shaming that can be mustered against him. Let him give th

Apparently, Rabbi Yair Hoffman has too much time on his hands. In an article in the 5 Towns Jewish Times , he calls attention to a serious problem, that of women dressed inappropriately when dropping off their sons at Yeshiva, because they are heading for the gym and are dressed for exercising. Among other things, he writes: "What further complicates the issue is that many women are entirely unaware of the problem. They do not know that it is the nature of a pencil skirt worn with leggings to rise above the knee." The problem, actually, is that Rabbi Yair Hoffman spends enough time thinking about this so that he knows what a pencil skirt is (I don't) and is familiar with the details of leggings "a nylon-lycra blend" and that pencil skirts are apparently made of spandex. He also apparently thinks deeply about the necessity of "a skirt that entirely conceals the shape and form of the thigh" When do we start telling the truth, that rab

She would desperately like to be something else. But the "agunah" label is what has unfortunately defined her for the last 3 1/2 years while her ex has denied her a get. She finally went public in the secular press. The result is this article  in the New York Post. Even well over a year before this article came out, Gital had publicized her case against her ex husband, Avrohom Meir Weiss, resulting in protests outside his home and condemnation of him and his prominent rabbinic family (he is a grandson of Rabbi Reuven Feinstein and a great grandson of Rav Moshe Feinstein), which has strongly supported him. So they put out this packet of information to defend themselves. I looked through the information there and here's the thing. Maybe she's the guilty party here in the custody battle. Maybe he's right that he was condemned unjustly for going to the secular courts, when she put him in a situation where he had no choice. Maybe neither of them are blameless in