JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Dear Rebbetzin, I want this night to be different from all other nights. I’ve been going back “home” to my family’s Passover Seder (parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins) for the past two decades, since becoming an adult. But there’s something stifling about being in that environment for this ritual — something that feels rote and…
Dear Rebbetzin, I am starting a new job soon and usually I relish the feeling of beginning over. When I was a teacher, September was the time when all the lesson plans were new and full of potential. I could plan on changing my personal style. I would never eat at my desk. I would…
Q: Dear Rebbetzin, My brother adopted Orthodoxy as an adult and he and his wife and kids lead an active Jewish life. We were raised within the Conservative movement, so I guess he went one direction and I went another: I identify, now, mostly with the Jewish Renewal movement and also consider myself to have…
Q: Dear Rebbetzin, In the coming year I will marry a man whom I love, and who treats me with the utmost respect and love as well. I couldn’t ask for a better partner for me. The problem that my family points out (and that I was raised to understand) is that he is not…
Dear Rebbetzin, What is a Rebbetzin? Sincerely, Genuinely Curious Dear Curious, There are two answers to your question: The simple one is that Rebbetzin is a term for Rabbi’s wife. But the second answer feels, to me, as complicated as if you had asked “What is a wife?” I hadn’t heard the term Rebbetzin until…
Dear Rebbetzin, I have been an enabler in my past intimate relationships. I know this about myself and it makes me scared to enter a new relationship, though I am clear that I want and am ready for love. Sincerely, How to make a change? Dear How to, Knowing might be half the battle, but…
Q: Dear Rebbetzin, How do you deal with forgiveness and family? I’m not talking about differences of opinion around the dinner table or annoying idiosyncrasies. To be clear, I’m also not talking about physical or serious verbal abuse. But I am describing people – members of my family of origin and ones acquired by marriage…
