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Channel: Leah Bieler, at The Blogs
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How Fear of Regret Is Sabotaging Our Communities

Over the years, I’ve done lots of home renovations. Its hard living through the noise, the dirt, the inevitable overages, the subcontractors who skip town with a job half finished, always having to be...

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Sins of omission

In the fall of my sophomore year of college I took a course that was known colloquially as ,”Physics for Poets.” I am no poet, but felt certain that I had a better chance passing that class than...

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In shul, God is beside the point

In light of the new Pew study on Jewish affiliation, there will be a lot of hand-wringing about what the Jewish community can do to get people more engaged. My revolutionary suggestion? Get to...

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Stop gloating and get to work

So, the gloaters are having a good week. You know who you are. You live in Israel. You read (or read about) the Pew survey. You are feeling comfortable and self-satisfied. Filled with confidence that...

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What’s a girl to wear?

“What the hell am I going to wear?!” If you’re a woman, you recognize this particular question. We are acutely aware that our appearance says something about who we are. We brush, polish, blow-dry,...

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Nobody puts my baby in a corner

A recent blog post in Times of Israel calls women who want equal access at the Kotel plaza, like Women of the Wall, “radicals.” I want to introduce you to one of those so-called radicals. My little...

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The best advice I never take

When I first started writing opinion pieces, I got one single piece of advice. Never read the comments. It’s a well meaning suggestion right up there with “don’t scratch that mosquito bite” and “don’t...

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What we lose when we embrace intermarriage

A couple of weeks ago, I was standing just outside the sanctuary at shul, when a friend of mine walked in, his four children in tow, straightening his big tallis and looking flustered. “Sorry we’re so...

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Tilting at windmills

Sometimes Modern Orthodox people make me giggle. I’ve been watching as what some might call the “progressive” side of Orthodoxy seems to discover for the first time that there are legitimate halakhic...

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A compliment to remember

It was nearly fourteen years ago, but for some reason, the memory sticks with me. My husband, a congregational rabbi, was starting work in a new pulpit. Only a few weeks before the events of September...

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Loathing Purim, but proud to be from Shushan

I dread Purim. There. I’ve said it. I’m aware this is an unpopular opinion. But hear me out. I have empirical evidence. The holiday always seems to sneak up on me, as I scramble to shop for mishloach...

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Thank you, Mr. President

I’m super excited about the decision of Israeli president Rivlin to reneg on his promise and barr Masorti/Conservative rabbis from participating in a bar mitzvah program conceived and executed by the...

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Chasing away the darkness

This summer, we moved north. Well, northeast to be exact. We still live in New England, though we are now Boston and not New York centered. I thought that this (nearly) life long New Yorker had...

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#HY”D

Over the years I’ve taught many kids in preparation for bar and bat mitzvah. One of the challenges is getting them to project and enunciate so that everyone will be able to hear them. Self-conscious...

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Minhag America

Last week, prominent American and Israeli Jewish leaders went to the Israeli government on an “emergency mission” to plead the case of those who want mixed prayer available at the Kotel, as had been...

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To Civility

“You should be ashamed of yourself!” Could a phrase, an admonition, feel any more out-of-date? Who in their right minds thinks they have the authority to tell me I should be embarrassed about my...

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A Rallying Cry

Years ago a friend of mine sent me a picture of a sign that made him giggle. It was from a march of some kind — I can’t recall the cause — and there was a small group holding up a banner emblazoned...

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The Real-Life Consequences of Fake Bombs

I was on vacation last week, in a largely vain attempt to escape the news. So I plugged my feet into the sand on the ocean’s edge, trying to warm up my New England core, but I found myself sinking...

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On hurricanes, memories, and a secret path to Jerusalem

I’m watching hurricane warnings on the news, and it all seems so far away as the crisp hint of fall air hangs over New England evenings. It has been uncharacteristically cool, this last month of...

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What Israel just doesn’t get about American Jews

Among large sections of American Jewry, there is a real question today about how much Israel is home to them” — Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency, speaking in Ha’aretz, 22 January...

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