This is a revival of the ask-jumblr blog (@ask-jumblr) under different management. Check out the guidelines for asks under the cut.
Please remember pirkei avos 1:6: עשה לך רב. People on tumblr are not your rav. A lot of them aren't even Jewish (yet). Beware of halachic advice from strangers.
Newly-added FAQ under the cut. Read it to see if your question has already been answered. If it's there, your ask might not be posted.
For fundamental questions about Judaism check websites such as myjewishlearning.com and jewfaq.org. There's also the /r/Judaism wiki with treasure troves of information.
For "Am I Jewish" questions, please follow this flowchart. Only if that doesn't answer your question, may you ask here.
The intended purpose of this blog is to take questions that benefit from the participation of lots of jumblrs. Just about anything goes, from/about all forms of Judaism (but not messianic Judaism). The posted asks will be limited to questions only, and statement posts or boost posts will probably not be posted.
If you want to send an ask without it being posted, please state that in the ask.
Anons about The Conflict™ will probably not be posted. Jumblr is Jewish Tumblr first and foremost. This includes zionism vs antizionism questions, as it invariably leads to criticising a group of Jews. Adding on that anons mentioning political affiliations will also no longer be posted for the same reasons.
Feel free to submit your questions, anonymously or not.
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Frequently Asked Questions
"Can I call myself Jewish before converting/convert without a community/practice Judaism without converting" - one, two, three, four (in short, no.) You can also check out the #who is a jew tag.
"Can I do ____ before I finish my conversion?" and similar questions that can only be answered by the rabbi you should be working with during your conversion to Judaism, will probably no longer be posted.
FOR stands for Frame Of Reference. It's to help you put a person's comment into context.
Miscellaneous writing advice in the #writing Jewish characters tag.
Yes, I know the lamed (ל) in the profile picture is backwards. I can only assume it's a stylistic choice of the creator.
Anons interested in conversion will need to show at least a modicum of research before they will be posted. Asks about queerness and conversion will be limited from this point on, as these are being asked over and over.
Strange questions that can only be answered by a rav will not be posted.
Please be advised that we are not your therapist. If you are struggling with self worth or worrying that Hashem hates you, please see an appropriate therapist for help and do not submit your question here.
If your ask reads as inflammatory to me, I won't post it. If you've asked something and it wasn't posted, you can try rephrasing.
More to be added if needed. If you have any suggestions for the FAQ, feel free to send them in.
I come from a frum community in Israel, where it's not common to speak with someone of the opposite gender if not related. It's not not allowed, but it'll cause rumours to spread very quickly.
Now I (19f) am quite fond of my neighbour's son (20m). How would you recommend going on with this? Should I talk to him directly? Ask his sister(21)? Ask a friend of mine to find out? Or wait a few years before trying anything?
Non-Hebrew speaker here. I saw a T-shirt on a pride store saying "the only thing ישר about me is my בוח." I know ישר means straight, but what does בוח mean and what's the joke?
I was trying to arrange Shabbat dinner with a friend, I'm ashkenazi and she's sephardic, and she asked me if I can have pasta because her mom said she has an ashkenazi friend who isn't allowed to have pasta. I've never heard of this, so I'm wondering, does anyone know of any ashkenazi minhag not to eat pasta? The only thing I can think of is pesach, but sephardim also don't eat pasta during pesach
Spent a lot of time wrestling with whether I should even ask this but I've never gotten a satisfactory answer so maybe one of the people in my phone can do better.
Question for the people that don't believe the written and oral Torah are divinely binding (whether because you don't believe in a god, or that god cares, or that he gave a written/oral Torah, or that it is still binding, or any other reasoning):
What is it that makes Jews Jewish and that preserved Jewish identity until now? More importantly, what do you think will continue to preserve it in the future? If you don't take divine intervention for granted and imagine the Jews being expelled from Eretz Israel once again, what prevents assimilation or Judaism becoming a cute historical reference?
tldr; please explain to me how you think Judaism can sustain itself long-term without God and his Torah.
this is kind of niche, but my partner has recently been listening to Jewish/Israeli/Hebrew music, among other songs there's a specific one by Zusha (From the Narrow Place) that we're not sure what the lyrics are and they're not posted anywhere that we can find. it's really catchy and would love to know if anyone here knows it / could provide lyrics (preferably in the original Hebrew if possible). I believe my partner said it's a specific part or related to a specific part from the Torah but I can't remember which part, apologies
Did you mean min hameitzar (https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/min-ha-meitzar-calling-to-god-from-the-depths/)? Tehillim chapter 118, part of hallel.
Does anyone know of any books of zemiros with sheet music for the melodies? All of the benchers and other books with zemiros that I’ve seen have the words but no sheet music or other indication of the melodies, which makes it difficult to figure out how to sing ones I haven’t heard before.
This is more a curiosity question than anything!! I was raised Ashkenazi. I learned from my ima that I may have some Sephardic ancestry? My great-great grandmother's maiden name was Maimon, and a good part of her side of the family (who all passed in the shoah) lived in Paris/France. She said that there's a good chance that part of the family came to France from Spain (so, Sephardic), especially given the surname.
From how my ima described it, it seemed like my great-grandparents learned of the maiden surname and potential Sephardic ancestry/roots while looking for any survivors in France.
I'm wondering less for my own identity and more to see if that's a fair assumption for that part of my family's history or not?
I have no idea what kind of Jew I am. I don't think I'm Orthodox, but idk what I'm supposed to actually be. Both my parents are Jewish, pray every shabbat, celebrate all the holidays, but not perfectly kosher (I don't always check for a kosher symbol, just ingredients) and am also gay. What kind of label do I even say I am? Do I even need one? I know my family is Mizrahi, but that's not the kind of label I'm talking about.
I started writing something about names/naming conventions, and I wanted to ask about Hebrew names. The last time I was studying Judaism in a classroom setting was uh over a decade ago, so I might be misremembering. I know through friends that Jewish people have a Hebrew name, and from what I vaguely remember, it can be either patronymic or matronymic depending on the gender of the person. For example, a man might have the Hebrew name "David ben Daniel" or "David son of Daniel", while a woman might have the name "Chana bat Rachel," or "Chana daughter of Rachel." Is that accurate?
I just got really into researching matronymic naming conventions, because in my culture it's exclusively patronymic (aka your family name is from your father, your father's father, etc etc). Thanks in advance for the answers, and also thanks to the person who runs this blog bc I've asked a dozen questions over the years and every time it's been so helpful. Hope everyone has a great day.
Not a messianic and not looking to start anything but at what point does a group cease to be considered Jewish? Is it when they adopt a figure like Jizzes? Is it when the majority of the group cease to be ethnically Jewish? Like what about Kohenet which is ethnically Jewish paganism? What if any is the core belief, practice, or genetic makeup required for a group to be called Jewish? Are there even any spiritual beliefs in common across all the major denominations or is it all a matter of history?
Not technically an ask but I think this requires some discussion given some of the recent conversation here.
The issue with some of this talk about messianic Judaism and the rightful criticism of xtians masquerading as a legitimate branch of Judaism is that it obscures the centrality of belief in the Messiah to Judaism. I don't mean simply a messianic era. I mean a person. A man from the house of Dovid who will rise up as king of the Jews, gather us all in our land, defeat our enemies, and rebuild the Third Temple where we will once again bring sacrifices to G-d according to his laws and with the resurrection of the dead. This is not fringe. Mainstream (halachic) orthodoxy will literally consider you a kofer (apostate) if you reject this. This is part of the 13 principles of our faith. Standard Jewish liturgy across all the variants are filled with multiple daily requests for his speedy arrival. May it be very soon.
Sorry if this has been asked before but why do Yehudim in English say Jews and Judaism and generally spell names as most goyim do for example Mosheh as Moses or Yehuda as Judah, is it so goyim have an easier time interacting and understanding?
How long does it usually take for a question to get posted assuming it meets your guidelines? Or in other words, after how much time should I assume I wrote something wrong and try again?
Hi anon, usually within 2 days but there are occasionally times that I forget this blog exists (like the last few days) and then it's closer to 4 days.
