Renew Your Spirit

This past Sunday my wife and I attended a conference called “Renew Your Spirit” hosted by “Torah in Motion”. The conference had 6 sessions, at each session you could choose between two or three different speakers.

I attended the following sessions:

• Learning to Enjoy our Lives: The Jewish Pleasure Principle - Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka


• How We Should Study the Bible and Why it Matters - Rabbi Menachem Leibtag


• Breaking Down the Wall of Stigma and Silence: Mental Health in the Orthodox Community - Leah Malamet & Rabbi Nati Helfgot


• Making Our Relationships Work: Judaism on Love and Marriage - Dr. Rivkah Blau


• Astrology, Science and the Supernatural in Jewish Thought and Law - Dr. David Schatz


• Am I My Brother's Keeper?: Relationships between Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Jews and Movements - Rabbi Nati Helfgot

They were all excellent sessions. Over the next few days/weeks, I’ll try to talk about some of the more interesting ideas.

We also went house hunting this weekend – which involved more Jewish thought than I would have expected. The big issue is living in a Jewish area vs. being within walking distance of our current Shul.

You might not expect there to be an issue here, since the Shul area should be Jewish. However, since the Conservative movement permits driving to Shul on Shabbos, the area around our Shul has become less and less Jewish over the past years. We both really like the Shul and would like to remain members, but we also want to raise out children (when, G-d willing, we have them)in a Jewish area. I’ll kepp you posted on this issue also.