Welcome!

This is the 3x weekly politics and news thread. You may post links to and discuss any recent stories with a relationship to Jews/Judaism in the comments here.

If you want to consider talking about a news item right now, feel free to post it in the news-politics channel of our discord. Please note that this is still r/Judaism, and links with no relationship to Jews/Judaism will be removed.

Rule 1 still applies and rude behavior will get you banned.

Hope everyone had a lovely Shabbat.

My girlfriend and I have been together for awhile, I want to pop the question next year. Her family adores me, all is well.

Her grandfather was born in Morocco (mothers father) and she very much wants a henna on the day of our wedding.

I'm not Moroccan or any other North African Jewish background. Halachly and culturally, is it okay for us (and me) to have one? Try to put yourselves in the mind of her grandfather, lol.

So it come to my understanding that regarding the Kabbalah reading the Zohar has a lot of the information regarding it, but is that the only scripture that covers Kabbalah? Or are there other scriptures, if so what’s the proper order to read it

They do seem to overlap.

My husband and I are planning to tour Europe for 6 months and we’re trying to find places where anti semitism isn’t rampant, and places that are safe for Jews. We would also like places that have Chabad houses so we can do Passover abroad, we’re traditional Jews not super observant so we don’t need a huge Jewish community there , but we don’t want to be in countries that arent safe for Jews either !

From reading online resources and seeing pictures on social media, it appears that the majority of Jewish brides in recent times choose to wear white on their wedding day. This seems to be equally true for Orthodox and Liberal people and they only differ in modesty. I have seen photos as far back as the 1920s and only found brides in white dresses cut to the fashion of their era.

White is relatively modern, having been popularised by Queen Victoria. Before that the 'best' colour for those who could afford it tended to be blue, although many people just wore their best clothes in whatever colour they had.

The reasoning I know of behind blue is a Christian one, as it is a colour strongly associated with the Virgin Mary. So it would not hold for Jewish brides, but I'm not sure if there is a traditional colour and what that might be. I also wonder if Jewish women adopted the white dress at the same time as it came into general fashion or if they held back in favour of something more culturally specific.

I would love to know more, as I have not been able to find images of distinctly 'Jewish' bridal attire. Thanks ☺️

Non-Jew here. Writing a screenplay featuring some Orthodox Russian Jews in the 1810's, and have done some light research on the faith (will deepen it as the script develops).

Was curious about a certain verbal tic. I often say "God knows" about unpredictable things. "God knows when he'll show up," "God knows how I'll pull that off," etc. I understand that Jews don't tend to speak the name God out loud, and prefer Hashem or Adonai.

Is there an equivalent to this phrase in Judaism, e.g. "Hashem knows" or "Adonai knows", or is there no common equivalent to this, and I should find another way to phrase this particular line?

Thanks!

The word holocaust comes from the Greek ὅλος, "whole" + καυστός, "burnt", literally "wholly burnt". Before it took on the meaning of "mass-scale slaughter" during WW2, it was used to refer to an offering or sacrifice to a deity that is completely burned to ashes. Some Torah translations use the word to refer to burnt offerings:

And you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord for a most sweet odour, one calf of the herd, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, without blemish: [...] (Numbers 29:8)

Wouldn't it be best to relinquish the word Holocaust to refer to the Shoah to avoid any misapprehensions?

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Hi chaverim, we've all noticed a surge in the number of repetitive questions that can be charitably described as naive and come in various degrees of good or bad faith. I've also noticed the surge in responses that can themselves be charitably described as curt, but often veer into rudeness.

May I suggest that if you feel the (very relatable) urge to tell someone off, that you spare yourself the anger and just direct them to the FAQ?

This is such a stressful time for us and my heart goes out to everyone in their grief, suffering, and fear. Rudeness serves nobody - neither ourselves, nor the askers, and unless we decide to make this a closed sub, it is a very accessible and very public face of Jews for people from around the world. For better or for worse, we are representing world Jewry here and we should be mindful of this.

Thanks everybody for your constant enlightened, thoughtful, and enthusiastic engagement in this community.

Please help me understand. My question comes from a genuine place and I truly do not wish to offend. My intention is to post this and not respond, but rather to watch and learn.

Please forgive me in advance should I offend, it is not intended.

(For a frame of reference I was born and raised Baptist. My understanding of Judaism and its significance comes from that context. I am no longer Baptist, but hoping to covert to Ortbodox Christianity. I have a profound respect for the Jewish people and I really want to know your perspective.)

1. Per my understand of the Torah, it is admitted that the Promised Land was already occupied, and the children of Israel conquered it. From an academic standpoint, can you explain why a claim of “we were here first and Israel took it from us” is false? The Scripture (based on its plain reading to my uneducated eye) seems to explicitly say that the land was occupied and (under Gods command) they took it from those who occupied it.

2. Does the presence of a “nation” necessitate the presence of a country complete with a government and borders? Would Israel be any less a nation if Israel the country no longer existed?

I am truly trying to understand how the identity of Israel the people, is so intertwined with the identity of Israel the sovereign state to the point that to denounce Zionism is somehow automatically denouncing Judaism itself.

I can only pray you’ll read my question with the peaceful tone and true curiosity it is intended to have.

When did Jews stop using Israelite Jewish names and started switching to European names like stein and burg? And why did they switch from Israelite names to European names. And why are the names Stein and Burg in particular so common among European Jewish diaspora?

This is the thread to talk about your Shabbos, or just any good news at all.

What is the Jewish belief of the afterlife? I don't know much about Judaism but lately I've been very curious about it. Thanks!

Shavua tov!

There’s another story from me. Last grade I traveled to Dublin with the Vocational School I studied at. It is a public institution and the local government subsidized a trip for some students with a decent level of English to spend a week in Dublin. We went to an academy to learn some English (we learned more Irish history than English and played Kahoot, but it’s logical, in one week not much English can be taught). Then we visited the city, and made tours and whatnot.

The matter is that I looked up if there is a synagogue in Dublin and where it was located. Indeed there is a synagogue, so the day I managed to get free time alone I took the bus, with the help of the miracle that is Google Maps and went there to visit it from outside. The perk is that I had to take the same bus that went to Ballycullen, the neighborhood I was staying in for the week.

So, I jumped out of the bus next to a church in Templeogue Road and walked a bit until I found a big Lidl store and then went to visit the shul that is close to it. It was protected/closed from the outside with a fence. I looked I few times to see if there was someone in the security cabin but it was getting dark and I couldn’t see anything. Then I took a photo next to it (I won’t post it for identity protection). I never saw windows with the shape of the Magen David before lol. It was cool.

It was Friday and the sun had set and on top of it I was carrying a backpack, so you can imagine the comical situation.

hello! i recently picked my hebrew name for the first time: Elliana Devorah

one of my rabbis kindly wrote it in hebrew for me and im just so pleased with the way it looks and sounds.

‎אֱלִיעָנָה דְבוֹרָה

i picked elliana because i feel as though g’d has always been there for me in some form or other and always answers as well as my love for the sun. i actually have a sun tattoo! i chose devorah for the prophetess. i have always believed i have some spiritual gifts so i felt drawn to her and wish to honor her power, wisdom, and courage.

i’m writing my name one more time for the sheer pleasure of it: ‎אֱלִיעָנָה דְבוֹרָה

shabbat shalom!

Muslim here. What do you think about Muslims and Christians saying that they worship the same God as you. Do you believe that to be true? Do you consider yourself closer to Christianity than Islam or vice versa? Is there a concept of the afterlife and how to attain it? Just want to learn more about your religion.

Hello everyone!

I recently launched a YouTube channel combining my theology studies and my love of culture: Théoculture. I've just posted a video about the meme and how it might be a religious belief inspired by judaism: how today's absurdist humor owes a debt to Andy Kaufman, how his Jewish origins and the religious implications arising from them have been essential to his humor, how we confront our generalized neurosis about the absurdity of our times (prophetised involuntarily by Franz Kafka) thanks to meme culture.

Here's the link: https://youtu.be/IGk2hj3Lwk8

Video is in French, but you can activate English subtitles. Enjoy!

I'm confused by the melody options in trope trainer. They are named after people. I was hoping for a western ashkenazic/commonwealth style.

This week’s sedra, shemini, mentions Aaron’s sons being killed because they offered ‘strange fire’ at the temple altar. What could that have been??

Also, given that shemini usually straddles pesach, is it more than a coincidence that the sedra talks about sacrificial burnt offerings of animals at the time we are eating the carbon pesach?? 🧐

Has anyone seen data on this? I’d be really curious to see a breakdown of what job type people have by percent. For any country but especially Jews in the US, like a graph showing 2% of American Jews work in healthcare, 3% in tech, etc. I can’t find anything from googling.

Was it just a disguise or did he create his own human body to do it?

Edit:I understand now that it was an angel, but how did the Angel take human form to wrestle Jacob the question remains.

Things like where must they be born or from and what must they do.

Also, who do you think has come the closest to these Requirements?