The two main subjects dealt with in this week’s Torah portion of Shemini seem to be totally removed from each other. First we read of the tragic death of Aaron’s two sons, Nadav and Avihu, and then we ...

Canceling the kashrut reform, one of the main legislations advanced by former religious services minister Matan Kahana, was included in the incoming government’s coalition deals, though it is not yet ...

A few months ago, signs were plastered across haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem—including one directly in front of my apartment building—declaring that “Anyone who enlists (in the IDF), will eat treif ...

The first part of the kashrut reform initiated by the Minister of Religious Affairs, Matan Kahana, will take effect Sunday morning. Israel Hayom reported that as part of the first stage of the reform, ...

Last November, at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial in Houston, a group of rabbis and lay leaders gathered for a workshop to discuss how Reform Jews should relate to the theory and laws of ...

At the heart of the initiatives being led by Minister of Religious Services Matan Kahana are the planned reforms to kashrut and to conversion. According to the Kashrut reform, the Chief Rabbinate will ...

Religious Jewish women, the primary cooks in Orthodox families, have long ruled kosher kitchens and served as crucial, informal kosher watchdogs for their families and guests. But those women are ...

A private kashrut authority announced Tuesday it is ending its supervision and handing over to a new kosher supervision program announced Monday. In a Facebook post, Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, founder of ...

Judaism has long had an uncomfortable relationship with rationality. On the one hand, our talmudic sages, classically influenced philosophers, and secular scientists and doctors have all taken ...

The Chief Rabbinate is considering measures to significantly reform the provision of kashrut, against a background of numerous scandals and allegations of corruption in the sector. In March, Chief ...

But so far, modern Orthodox, or even slightly less observant Jews—both in Israel and beyond—have been leery of taking cannabis, even as medicine. And when it comes to these kinds of decisions, it is ...

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