Accepting Who You Are

By Elisheva Rabinowitz Eight years ago, *Sara, a 30 year old woman, became a Baal Teshuvah (BT). She came into my office because she was still struggling with issues of feeling “less than” her neighbors. Her neighbor, Rivki, always looked put-together, with the latest shaitel and clothes from NY. Even though she had 12 children, [...]

7 Rules Of Mindful Eating

Copyright: HealthyJewishCooking.Com By Chaya Rivka Zwolinski Choose, Sit, Commit, Acknowledge, Pace, Chew, Complete A Taste of Authentic Jewish Eating: Eating mindfully doesn’t just involve your brain-based intellect. It involves your heart-based intellect, both of which, in different ways, correspond to the soul. In the Jewish tradition, mindful eating means making informed choices not only about [...]

What I Would Tell Every New BT

1. Listen to the wise advice of Pirkei Avos. Make yourself a rabbi and acquire yourself a friend. It’s essential to have a reachable rabbi who has a good brain, a good heart, a sense of humor and lots of practical good sense. It’s also important to have an understanding and patient friend whom you [...]

Question of the Week: Spiritual Travel Advice

Yaakov asks: I have a non-religious friend that is visiting Israel for the first time. He has asked me for some travel advice. What advice would you give him that might pique his spiritual curiosity?

Getting Deeper Into Torah Without Going Off the Deep End – Part 1

This classic BT guide was written by Friedman the Tutor and was originally targeted at BTs learning in Yeshiva’s but the advice is appropriate for any BT, so we’ll be excerpting it from time to time here. Go Slow If you take on too much, too quickly, you can cause an inner backlash. You could [...]

Should We Give Up the Dog or the Apartment?

By Ellen Peleg and I have a dilemma, and we’re asking the Beyond BT community for their input. Last September I was approaching my car after work, and I noticed a dog romping around, unattached (to a leash) and without a collar and name tag. An old childhood fantasy suddenly reared its head, and I [...]

How Do We Handle This?

In the past, we’ve had some discussions here about former-BT bloggers and we’ve often discussed how to deal with “skeptics”. Now, the issue has taken an unexpected turn, we are being addressed by a stand-alone-blog, Unmasking Beyond Teshuva, aimed directly at us. We have considered writing a polite email to the bloggers. Or maybe we [...]

Doing the Right Thing in a Tough Situation

Rabbi Lazer Brody originally posted this good advice here: Josh from New England sent me the following question via my dear friend A Simple Jew: I wanted to get your 2 cents on something. It’s my rabbi and my trouble seeing him as “my rabbi”. I am used to warm and caring rabbis, however he [...]

Dealing With Children and Non-Observant Parents

By “Nancy” I have been lurking around on beyond bt for a little while, and am amazed by the amount of information and support that is provided. I am having an issue right now, and would like some advice from someone who has been doing this longer than I. My parents and sister came to [...]

Pesach Advice From Experienced Jewish Homemakers.

Rivka Slatin has a nice site called Jewish-Life-Organized.com, which lots of tips and techniques to organize the Jewish home. She was kind enough to let us post anything from her site that would be useful for the Beyond BT community. Pesach advice as told to me by experienced Jewish homemakers. Pesach advice collected. Being the [...]

Work Situations – A Colleague’s Son’s Bar Mitzvah

A colleague’s son is having a Bar Mitzvah in a non-Orthodox setting. The son went to Hebrew school, and the father has shown some interest in Yiddishkeit. You’re invited and can’t make it to the party, but would like to purchase a gift. Do you give: 1) A non-religious gift 2) A religious article such [...]

A Tough Question

A Tough Question Being the only observant Jew in my immediate family, I get asked many questions about Orthodox Judaism. Some are very straightforward questions about keeping shabbat and kosher and other questions are more difficult to answer. The last time I visited my parents, my mom asked me why there are some observant Jews [...]

While You Walk on the Way – Why Not Get an MP3 Player

Technology today, particularly mp3 players give us a wonderful opportunity to learn when we are on our way, wherever we are. I’ve been listening to Torah Tapes via walkman for a long time but the mp3 player is quite superior due to it’s small size, higher capacity and better fidelity. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of Cross-Currents [...]

The Missionaries are Coming! The Missionaries are Coming!

Having seen a family member sucked in by messianic jews (and thankfully return to yiddishkeit), I am keenly aware of the danger and slick maneuvers of Jews for J and the like. Gil Student at Hirhurim has an important post about the summer plans of Jews for J and how we should react when we [...]

Advice For a BT Returning From Israel

OK, here’s the situation. How would you advise? A young man 24-25 just returned to the US from two years study in a BT yeshiva. He’s flying spiritually. But it’s time to get serious about the next stage in life. He wants to get married –- his yetzer hara won’t leave him alone — and [...]

Rabbi Dilbert

Perhaps it’s because Shema Yisroel is imprecisely translated as “Hear, O Israel” rather than “Listen, O Israel,” but we Jews have a lot of trouble listening. We didn’t listen to Moshe in the desert. We didn¹t listen to Shmuel when he warned us about the responsibilities of accepting a king. We didn’t listen to Yirmyahu [...]

How Would You Handle this Situation -Should I Encourage Upgrading A Non Orthodox Conversion?

Charnie sent in the following question looking for insight from our readers. What a great idea it is to pick everyone’s collective brain here! So here’s an issue weighing on my mind. I have some cousins who live in upstate NY with whom I’m very close. The husband is very involved in his Reform synagogue [...]

Looking for Suggestions to Breakdown Communication Barriers

Below is an email exchange with my sister. She is two years older than me and has called me “Ugs” since I was 5 years old and she thought I was cute. Lashon sagi nahor, I guess. I have always been very close with her but we don’t see each other often since she still [...]

Popular Posts

• Dealing With Children and Non-Observant Parents
• Should We Give Up the Dog or the Apartment?
• How Do We Handle This?
• Looking for Suggestions to Breakdown Communication Barriers
• Advice For a BT Returning From Israel
• What I Would Tell Every New BT
• A Tough Question
• How Would You Handle this Situation -Should I Encourage Upgrading A Non Orthodox Conversion?