JOFA’s Torch

“Stories My Mother Never Told” is a three-part blog series dedicated to re-envisioning what it can mean for parents and ...

A Daniel come to judgement! yea, a Daniel! The Merchant of Venice, IV.i.218Shylock’s triumphant interjection is an overt, if ironic, ...

In 2001, at the age of 52, I went from being Single and Orthodox to Married and (still) Orthodox. That ...

“I don’t want your Paradise, I don’t want your World to Come, I want only You—You alone.” —Rabbi Schneur Zalman ...

My thoughts of late – perhaps provoked rather than inspired – have been about women. Specifically, women in the military. ...

On Shabbat, the 2nd of Av, about a week before Jews across the world fasted to mourn the destruction of ...

I spent the last two years learning in a beit midrash (Jewish hall of study) in Israel. My beit midrash ...

My middle kid, Shir, just turned four. This morning, I came into his room to find him naked and tantrumming ...

In loving memory of my mother, Judith Kaufman Hurwich a”hלֹא עָלֶיךָ הַמְּלָאכָה לִגְמוֹר, וְלֹא אַתָּה בֶן חוֹרִין לִבָּטֵל מִמֶּנָּה. פרקי אבות ...

I recently heard Rabbi Joseph Telushkin speak about the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe believed that words mattered so much that ...

In her JOFA post, “I Wasn’t Asking for Your Opinion,” Rabbanit Sharona Halickman rightfully criticizes the Orthodox Union for “only now ...

The great challenge is learning how to honor the past while being able to create a future based on fresh ...