Awards
We just want to note that we have been nominated in a number of categories in the Jerusalem Post/Israelly Cool – Jewish and Israelly Blog Awards. Why not vote for us in Best New Blog, Best Jewish Religion Blog or Best Designed Blog.
Melave Malkas
We’re pleased to announce that the first Beyond Teshuva – Melave Malka is set for February 4th in Kew Gardens Hills with Rabbi Label Lam as the scheduled speaker. We have also started the wheels turning for Melave Malkas in Baltimore, Passaic and Monsey. If you want to be involved in the planning of this in these cities or any others, please contact us at beyondbt@gmail.com.
Letters
Rabbi Lazer Brody received this email from a women in the process of Tshuva, G-d willing, after seeing her daughter get mixed up in a cult, lo alenu.
Hi Rabbi Brody:
While looking for online commentaries on the Psalms that would make my reading of them more enjoyable and deep, I found the BT site (beyondbt.com – via a link from your site). I must say that I am very pleased. So much to read. I was pleased by the little blurb on keeping kosher in a nonkosher home and was surprised to find that rabbis are telling people to respect their parents and find a gentle way to be able to keep kashrut without insulting parents. This is so different from what my daughter is being told – she is being frightened into staying away from me.
Can you recommend something for me about the psalms? All I found is a site of HaRav Kook that gives brief explanations of some of the psalms.
Thanks,
S.O.
Good Attitudes
We want to thank all the commentors for participating here. Our goal is to have the posts stimulate thought and discussion. Once in a while somebody will get a little hostile in the comments, which is offensive to many people. Please respect the thoughtful, caring and helping environment we are trying to create here. Thanks.
It feels so good to see my post noted that way! I hope there is something being done to help the daughter. If there’s anything I can do, please email me. It would be my pleasure to communicate with either the mother or the daughter.
Underlining added after Rabbi Seif’s comments.
whoops. I just re-read the post. I didn’t realize that the mother was talking about someone who was part of a cult. Now it makes sense.
“This is so different from what my daughter is being told – she is being frightened into staying away from me.”
I just have a hunch that she isn’t being told such things. I’ve seen it way too often that new BTs assume they have to do things that their teachers would never think of them doing. Family relations are one such thing. Another is the speed by which some BTs accept upon themselves new mitzvos. Slow and steady makes more sense than everything all at once, but go tell that to an eager new BT. He/she wants to live and look just like all their role models overnight. The results are sometimes not very pretty!