Today »

Six reasons why you might already be keeping kosher

February 6, 2012 – 9:31 pm | One Comment

By Robert Efraim Bel
So you only buy kosher meat, stay away from crustaceans, never mix meat and milk, and always check the food labels. You try your best but all this is of course a …

Print Friendly
Read the full story »
Home » Archive by Category

Articles in Religion and Jewish Thought

Not Sent From My iPad

June 26, 2010 – 6:49 pm | 2 Comments

By Simon Holloway
I don’t care how popular the iPad becomes, or even the ubiquitous E Ink devices: nothing will ever replace the joy of holding a book. The tactile and olfactory feast that is an …

Print Friendly

Are Jewish Women Condemned to Hard Labour?

June 21, 2010 – 10:19 pm | 15 Comments
Pregnant Barbie

By Liz Paratz
Fast-forward a few thousand years and if we are condemned to ‘bring forth children in sorrow’, why do even the most religious of Jewish women use pain-relief in childbirth?

Print Friendly

More debate please – Pluralist panel offers too much agreement

June 19, 2010 – 7:08 pm | 5 Comments

By Yaakov Gorr
Parsha Korach is a great reminder that Judaism is known for its great debates and great debaters – not only debates between Moshe and Korach but debates between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael, …

Print Friendly

Bald Rebel Swallowed by the Earth

June 7, 2010 – 10:41 pm | 18 Comments

By David Werdiger
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of the Chabad/Lubavitch movement, had a favourite saying, “One should live with the times”. His intent was not that Judaism should be adapted to fit the times. …

Print Friendly

Rabbi Rabi reflects on the so-called soft matzah controversy

May 10, 2010 – 4:56 pm | 411 Comments

By Rabbi Meir Rabi
For background on soft matzah see this and this.
I wonder what constitutes a “controversy” or a “controversial pesak”?
Is it the tumult raised by parties who are not impartial?
By those who may have …

Print Friendly

Spirituality within Judaism – Learnings from Amma

May 6, 2010 – 1:49 pm | 7 Comments

By Keren Tuch
The air was holy.  People walked the aisles as if levitating in a state of awe.  As the holy Amma appeared on stage and performed her ritualistic puja, the audience – a mix …

Print Friendly

Pesach and ‘genocide’

April 4, 2010 – 5:19 pm | 21 Comments

By Keren Tuch
I look forward to Pesach every year (I might swallow my words when the day eventually comes for me to host a seder). Aside from kneidlach, charoset and walnut pate (liver …

Print Friendly

Soft Matzah: Rabbi Rabi Responds to Rabbinical Council Criticism

March 26, 2010 – 10:16 am | 244 Comments

Yesterday Galus published an article by David Werdiger on the new soft, pita-like matzah that is available this year in Australia. As raised by commenters on that article, the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) issued …

Print Friendly

It’s matzah, but not as you know it

March 25, 2010 – 7:12 pm | 88 Comments

By David Werdiger

“This is what Hillel did in the times of the temple: he would wrap the Pascal offering, matzah and maror and eat them all together” (text of the Hagaddah, quoted from Talmud …

Print Friendly

The Atheist Delusion

March 17, 2010 – 11:20 pm | 261 Comments

 
By Anthony Frosh
With the Global Atheist Convention currently taking place in Melbourne, I, like many people, have observed how it is rather unusual to have a conference defined by what you are not.  I don’t …

Print Friendly