What’s Your JQ? (Page 4)

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, With the fall holidays now over, we’ve begun to read the Torah from the beginning. Determined to have a new beginning myself, I attended services on that first Shabbat of the new Torah cycle. Following along the reading I came across aContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, A non-Jewish person I work with came in this week with a very harsh criticism of a Jewish practice that I found myself ill-equipped to handle or explain. She went on to describe something I had never heard of — the swingingContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I don’t know when I started noticing this or maybe once I did notice it, I just started to notice it more. What I’m talking about is the habit some people have, when talking, to throw in a “God willing” about anyContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I know this time of year is a mourning period for the Temple and that there is a tradition to not marry, have celebrations or eat meat. I find this very hard to relate to and a real stretch emotionally. What doesContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I have been asked to participate in the wedding ceremony of a close friend. They have graciously given me the honor of reciting the sixth of the seven blessings under the chuppah. I want to understand the blessing and its context, butContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I just read a news article about a number of Israeli leaders coming out with a new stance toward trips such as March of the Living, which offers Jewish teenagers an opportunity to visit the concentration camps in Poland. The detractors areContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I am looking for a concise authentic source that communicates the core values of Judaism. I often hear people quote beautiful passages and I always wonder where they get them from. Jewishly speaking, I am not the most learned person, but neitherContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Though Pesach is still a few weeks away, plans are already underway in our home for seder night. Here’s our family’s question. Different segments of our relatives have different practices when it comes to the afikomen. I say that the adults hideContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I visited my grown children over winter break and saw to my horror that at bedtime they turn on a CD player and allow it to “sing” the children to sleep. I was horrified. Bedtime is for snuggling! Lullabies were meant toContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, What’s a Jew to do? One positive aspect about the developments in the Mideast is that it has pushed the Bernie Madoff story deeper into the nightly news programs. Now, there might be a remote possibility that the last human to findContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Every year we do the same thing for Hanukkah — light the candles, make a few latkes. I know there are probably a lot of books that have information and, I am sure, some Web sites, too, but I do not haveContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy , All I hear these days is of our foreboding economic circumstances — and for good reason. People are losing their homes, retirement savings are plummeting, and some people’s sources of income are severely threatened if not evaporating by the minute. WeContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I have heard a number of people talking about Mussar of late. It sort of seems like it is this year’s Kabbalah, so to speak. From what I understand, it is a Jewish self-improvement program from the past. Can you enlighten me?Continue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy: Thinking about the rapidly approaching High Holiday season, it dawned on me that Rosh Hashanah is very different than all the other holidays. The other holidays are very Jewish days, in that they commemorate singularly Jewish events, moments in Jewish history. ButContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Growing up, our home was, for lack of better words, very pessimistic. The approach to everything was always negative and foreboding. I have tried very hard to get beyond this way of thinking and to rise above it. Something inside me hasContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, I am so deeply disturbed by the faces of the people in Lebanon cheering the return of the terrorist Samir Kuntar. I cannot fathom celebrating a person who murdered innocent children. I wonder if this decision of the Israeli government was theContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, After I purchased a new suit, a friend asked me if I had had it checked for “shatnez.” I have never heard of such a thing. He proceeded to tell me something about a prohibition involving the combining of wool and linen.Continue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy, Though there always seems to be some controversy du jour in the Jewish community, of late there is much ink being spilled over conversion issues. My concern is not the current dispute over whose conversions are acceptable, but more the intrinsic mattersContinue Reading

By Rivy Poupko Kletenik, JTNews Columnist Dear Rivy: I love Pesach — once I’m sitting at the seder, that is. Until that point, the rush and the panic are so difficult to handle. Is it just me? Why does our tradition have such stressful ritual as part of its modusContinue Reading