Answer: Thank you for your question. I agree with you that we have a Mitzvah (commandment) to take care of our bodies, including healthy diet and exercise. However, the kosher rules have nothing to do with health.

The basic reason for kosher rules is for a person to cultivate the value that “you can’t eat everything.”

Think about it.

Moreover, nowadays, there are many, organic and other health foods that are certified kosher. Therefore, one no longer needs to choose between the two.

Finally, Judaism says a lot about HOW we eat in addition to what we eat. Holy eating means eating with awareness and appreciation, of the food, of the nutrition, of our taste buds, and of the gift every bite is. In other words, Judaism says your mother was right  – slow down and chew your food!

The whole concept of a blessing (Bracha) is a way to slow down and appreciate what we are doing.

If you would like to read more on this topic, try this article or this book

I hope that’s helpful!

Rabbi Seinfeld
http://rabbiseinfeld.blogspot.com

Answer: G’d created Israel to serve G’d and man as a people of priests, as a light to the nations – if you want those sources, you may find them yourself; they’re all over the place in the Bible – and, as such, Israel is supposed to set an example of decency and purity and holiness to others. So G’d commands Israel, basically, you shall not be a nation of pigkeepers, or scavengers, or carrion eaters; your mothers and fathers will not scare the Dickens out of your children by casually taking a cow or pig or rabbit, a pigeon or a chicken, a squirrel or a rat, or whatever, and killing it in the dirt of the backyard or farmyard, or eat the blood of that creature. . . there is so much more to this; the kosher food laws exist to ensure the good treatment of the animals we eat, and that the human beings who follow the laws will behave as human beings ought, as G’d’s stewards over this planet, as the elect of His Creation, and not just as fellow animals, competing like dogs for good eats. The only kosher land animals are the animals that can’t smell blood, or death, that don’t mind being herded, and that aren’t smart, like a pig or dog or rat or cat, or a parrot, or a dolphin or a porpoise, and so won’t see death coming. They are dispatched as painlessly and unexpectedly as possible, with a quick slice across the neck, that causes an instantaneous, and massive, loss of blood pressure, and with it, the loss of consciousness. This method also, not so incidentally, releases the maximum amount of blood: the heart keeps pumping out blood, instead of being stopped, as in other, non-kosher, methods of slaughter, and this, combined with other kosher procedures (such as thoroughly salting and repeatedly washing the meat, among other things,) means that kosher meat is as blood-free as human effort can make it.

Some people say that the laws of kosher food – kashrut or kashrus – are all for physical health. This is nonsense, since most of the benefit has nothing to do with the mere physical, but these laws also, definitely, do have health benefits. For instance, the absence of blood in the meat that one eats keeps the meat fresher and good to eat much longer – blood being a great medium for growing bacteria. And there may be some benefit, physical as well as spiritual – and, say, social, cultural, and psychological – in not eating masses of one’s fellow creatures’ blood in blood sausage, soup and black puddings, which are such a cherished part of the national cuisine of Germany, Austria and Poland, say.

As for not eating milk w/ meat – what this means, among other things, is that a people of priests should not combine milk, the very symbol of a mother’s love, with the slaughtered flesh of her own or other species’ children, together in a meal. But there are many ways of looking at this statute, and benefits that come from obeying it too.

Hope this helps. Incidentally, you can find our a lot more about all this in Rainbow Covenant -not just about the kosher food laws, but how those laws interact with the Universal Law’s prohibition, that applies to Noahides as well as Israel, against savage, cruel dining.

Shalom,
Michael Dallen

Author of The Rainbow Covenant; Torah and the Seven Universal Laws, exploring the Noahide Law, or the Universal moral law that is contained within the Way or Torah of Israel, which applies, at all times, to every person of every nation, race and creed.

Answer: Your question was already asked over 1500 years ago by the Talmud (Kesubos 52b). The issue being discussed was “Kesubos Bnin Dichrin, which was a stipulation in a marriage contract stating that the dowry a father would give his daughter to bring into her marriage would be inherited only by her biological children, but not by the children of her
husband from another wife. The Talmud there questions the correctness of giving a dowry at all. Since the Torah specifies that a father’s estate must pass down to his sons first, how can a father give away a significant portion of his estate to his daughter for her marriage?

The Talmud answers (based on a verse in Jeremiah): since a father is responsible to try to marry off his children, and giving his daughters a dowry will help facilitate their attracting husbands, the giving of a dowry is therefore also a Torah value. Since no prohibition is violated by a father giving a large gift to his daughter before his death (technically, this is not an inheritance), in the case of a dowry it is even proper to do so. (more…)

Answer: The Torah teaches us that we should give, if we can affort to, a 10th or a 20th of their income to Charity, but no more. Why shouldn’t a person who earns 7-8 figures give more money? The Talmud teaches that if one gives all of his money away, he may end up on the receiving end, not the giving end. If a person of means give his 10-20 percent, and chooses to use his remaining wealth to live comfortably, that’s perfectly fine. Obviously, living ostentatiously and/or flaunting one’s wealth is morally wrong, but short of that, we are put here to enjoy this world. If G-d has blessed you with the means to live well, live well! That is not selfish at all.

All the Best,
Rabbi Azriel Schreiber

Answer: Our Creator has no name. The Hebrew terms we use for Him are expressions of various aspects of His traits, to help us better understand Him and what He is telling us.

Question: So what terms in Hebrew do you use?

Answer: There are specific terms I use when I pray in Hebrew. At most other times it is forbidden for me to say the Names, which as I said, are not actually Names, but descriptive of traits.

Question: So what are the traits of our creator?

Answer: That is an excellent question. Looking at the first line of Genesis: “In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the Earth.” The term used for G-d in that Verse means His attribute of “strict justice.” This term for G-d is used many times until we reach Chapter 2, Verse 4. Here a new term is introduced, a term that alludes to His attribute of “mercy.”

Up until this point no mercy was required. There was no possibility of rebellion against G-d’s word, strict justice prevailed and there was no need for mercy. Three Verses later however, in Verse 2:7, G-d would complete His creation of Man. Man would be the one creation to be given the power to think for himself and choose not to strictly obey.

Under a system of strict justice, Man could therefore not survive. He would disobey and be destroyed. G-d now mixes strict justice with mercy, and the result of this is that Man now has what no other creation has: Free Will. Man can choose to obey or rebel or somewhere in between. Man will make his own choices, and G-d will judge Man with strict justice tempered with mercy.

Regards, Eliahu Levenson

Answer: This, obviously, is a tricky situation with no easy answer. You are correct that your children are required to show you respect and, technically speaking, if you do not like them calling their father’s new wife “Ima” then they should not do it. On the other hand, they are also obligated to show respect to a step mother and they should not call her by name.

I believe that many people will use a distinct title for a step mother – perhaps calling her “Mommy” and reserving “Ima” for their real mother. I wonder if such a compromise might not work out. I wish you success navigating this difficult period.

With regards,
Rabbi Boruch Clinton
Ottawa, Canada

Answer: The Talmud explains that a Nazirite vow was taken by someone who felt his evil inclination pulling him in an un-G-dly direction. So he vowed not to drink wine or cut his hair as a means of shielding himself from his lustful urges. While wine and looking nice are normally not bad things, for a person who is feeling spiritually vulnerable, this was a proper course of action. This is not extremism, unless one is doing this for no purpose.
All the Best,
Rabbi Meir Goldberg,
Rutgers Jewish Xperience 

Answer: What a fascinating question. I had never thought of considering schizophrenia as a punishment. I had always assumed that schizophrenia was and is the challenge that is meant to mold a person to become the special and unique person that he or she is meant to be. In what way would such a challenge, which is designed to shape the person, be a punishment? If we were to view schizophrenia as a punishment then we would have to view every challenge that way, and surely we could then ask what would be accomplished by all those punishments?

The loving G-d has made you as He wishes and loves you exactly as his only child. Work with the material that he has given you to develop into the person who can be close to Father forever.

With brochos,
Rabbi Becker

Answer: The term, Jew, is derived from Judah, son of Jacob. When the Kingdom of Israel was split after the rule of King Solomon, the southern area was known as the Kingdom of Judah and its inhabitants were called Judeans which eventually became Jews.

The Book of Esther refers to Mordecai as the Judean and the Jews of Persia at the time are referred to as Judeans. The term also occurs in a few other places in the Bible.

All the Best,
Rabbi Azriel Schreiber

Answer: The Talmud asks your question, in a way. First, note that the Torah gives commandments to Gentiles as well, so evidently it is the Torah view that all humans need these. In fact, Adam, the 1st man, was commanded.

Second, you have to define Mitzvah. What is a Mitzvah? You say it’s a “commandment.” I say that’s a fine 2nd-grade answer. An adult definition is “an opportunity to create a spiritual connection to God.”

So you ask, why do I need specific Mitzvot rather than just to create my own? Answers the Talmud: it gives you a greater connection when you are told what to do than if you create your own. This is due to human nature. It is human nature to resist instructions. If I have to overcome that resistance, the spiritual connection is greater.

I don’t have an answer to your other question “why the Bris” but will conjecture that it became necessary as a result of history. Human purpose, and the purpose of all of Creation, is expressed in its most precise way in Torah. At some point in history most of humanity was completely derailed from our mission. When Abraham stepped up to the plate, G-d asked him if he wanted to create a role-model people to light the way for humanity to reach their spiritual potential and purpose. Abraham agreed. The Bris basically means that if we do our part, G-d will respond to us in a way that shows the world that the Torah is true.

I hope that’s a helpful start.

Rabbi Seinfeld
http://rabbiseinfeld.blogspot.com
http://jsli.org

Answer: Great question. The short answer is that God is hiding from us. He is hiding from us because He wants us to look for him. Those who look for him, sincerely, eventually see Him.

Hope that’s helpful!

Rabbi Seinfeld
http://rabbiseinfeld.blogspot.com
My Iphone app, Android version

Answer: To perpetuate their memory. If a man dies without children, his widow should (in Biblical times) marry the deceased’s brother so that the child born to them would continue the name of the deceased. Our naming our children after dead relatives is similar. It does follow that only one descendant needs to be named after the dead. That many members of the family name offspring for the same deceased relative is a sign of respect for that relative and in order to maintain a connection in each unit of the family.

Best Regards,
Rabbi Azriel Schreiber