Lieba Rudolph
ARTICLES BY: Lieba Rudolph
Noah, Technology and the Coming of the Messiah
I was talking with a rabbi recently, and told him that the world had hit a new low. He quickly reminded me that Cain slew...
Jewish Burial: The Best Kept Religious Secret
Last year, a friend told me about Chevra Kadisha -- the Jewish burial society. I had known that such an organization existed, but I thought, "Who actually wants to join this club?"...
We Must Embrace the Idea of the Messiah
As a mother, I learned that just because you don't get paid doesn't mean you don't work hard. I also learned that even without pay, you...
Making the Messiah a Reality
"The whipped cream will be a few minutes. Is that okay?" "Sure," I smiled. Being patient can be challenging for me, but I didn't mind this...
Being Religious About Shabbat Means Connecting With God
Many people today sneer at keeping Shabbat. To them, Shabbat observance smacks of everything that's wrong with religion. As someone who started keeping the sabbath so my...
What’s With the Wig?
A friend once asked me whether a certain activity was permitted on Shabbat. She’d heard that it wasn't -- because she enjoyed it. How did...
Why People Hate God, and Why They’re Wrong
My late father insisted that religion was bad for the world, because it caused so many wars. I tried for years to convince him otherwise (unsuccessfully, of course),...
Rebuilding the Third Temple
If you're looking for the mothership of Jewish guilt, it can be found in our responsibility to rebuild the Third Temple -- Beit Hamikdash. Our sages say...
Becoming Orthodox and Kicking the Clothes-Shopping Habit
When I tell my daughter-in-law, Devorah, who has only known me for five years, that I used to love shopping, she finds it hard to...
Sorting Through My Parents’ Memories and Mementos
I'm learning a lot in the process of reassigning my deceased parents' material legacy -- in other words, figuring out what do with over 50 years...
Leaving the Fold and Returning to It: Two Tales of Adjustment
I did something recently that I said I wasn't going to do anymore: I read an online essay by a woman who left the "ultra-Orthodox"...
Remembering a Stunning, Brave Girl — and a Light of Hope
“Is it me, or is it always either really hot or really cold here?” my husband asked as we walked through Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. There...
The Truth About the Mikvah
If there is one mitzvah in Jewish life around which misconceptions swirl, it is ritual immersion in a bath as the mikvah. The canard is that mikvahs are...
A Commencement Message and a Call to Judaism
Your birth was your defining moment -- yet you didn't ask to be born at all, much less to the family you were born into. You didn't...
