The am-yisrael-jewish-nation tag has no wiki summary.
4
votes
1answer
225 views
Does God discriminate between Jewish and non-Jewish people?
I often wonder if God has a different attitude towards people who are not Jews. Why Jews are consisdered to be most favored nation? Does that mean that all other people are inferior to Jews? Wouldn't ...
3
votes
3answers
182 views
Word for “bageling” someone as an Orthodox Jew?
I've heard the slang "he bageled me" meaning "he identified me as a fellow Jew (even though it wasn't obviously apparent)."
There are the times I pass someone in the street who's wearing a baseball ...
6
votes
2answers
172 views
Why only beginning with the fourth plague is the exemption of the Jews mentioned?
In Moshe's warning to Pharaoh (in Hashem's name) of the fourth plague, arov, he adds (Ex. 8:18-19):
וְהִפְלֵיתִי בַיּוֹם הַהוּא אֶת-אֶרֶץ גֹּשֶׁן אֲשֶׁר עַמִּי עֹמֵד עָלֶיהָ לְבִלְתִּי הֱיוֹת-שָׁם ...
8
votes
1answer
193 views
“Don't say 'lehavdil' between one Jew and another.”
In today's Parashat Hashavu'a Chat, I used the qualification "lehavdil" (*) to apply to a pun that jokingly and innocuously related the actions of Datan and Aviram to those of a community member here.
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3
votes
1answer
123 views
Is one obligated to believe a fellow jew?
I seem to recall that every jew has a chezkat kashrut unless you know something would would remove it, and therefore you are obligated to believe them if they told you something (i.e. they are poor ...
6
votes
2answers
249 views
What is the difference between dati, chasidish, and charedi?
How would one explain the distinctions between datim, chasidim, and charedim, especially to an American Jew who didn't know much about the Israeli religious spectrum? In particular, are all chasidim ...
0
votes
1answer
149 views
What was the 'evolution' of determining who is part of the Jewish people?
Starting with Abraham and continuing till modern halacha. how has the halacha regarding who is part of the Jewish people changed? What were the causes of the change, and the reasoning, and the change ...
6
votes
1answer
49 views
Could B'nei M'nashe have been placed with R'uven and Gad as a remedy to their separatism?
Does the following idea have any validity? Is it brought down anywhere?
When members of the tribes of R'uven and Gad approached Moshe to unwaveringly request settlement on the east bank of the ...
4
votes
4answers
411 views
Matrilineal Descent
I have heard that matrilineal descent (i.e. having Judaism passed down through the mother) comes from the Roman period when women were raped by Roman soldiers and the babies were then said to be ...
18
votes
4answers
660 views
Can a Jew lose their Jewish Status?
Can a Jew lose their status as being a Jew by performing any action (example: performing idolatry, disavowing core beliefs, converting to another religion, etc)? Or once a person is a Jew then they ...
6
votes
1answer
154 views
Purchasing from a Jew
רמבם, הלכות מתנות עניים י:ז
שמנה מעלות יש בצדקה זו למעלה מזו, מעלה גדולה שאין למעלה ממנה זה המחזיק ביד ישראל שמך ונותן לו מתנה או הלואה או עושה עמו שותפות או ממציא לו מלאכה כדי לחזק את ידו עד שלא ...
