Mendel Bluming | Blogger

Question to Rabbi Menachem M Bluming: We haven't officially named our firstborn daughter yet. We have a problem. I always wanted to name her after my grandmother. But my wife doesn't like that name. She wants some other name which is nice, but I think it lacks any real meaning for the family. Doesn't it say somewhere that the father has the right to choose the firstborn's name?  Here’s a thought:  I'm not sure you want to know the answer to that.  There is indeed a custom in some communities of alternating the right to name a child between the parents. According to one Ashkenazi custom, the mother names the firstborn child, the father the second and so on. But some Sefardi communities have the father choosing the name for the first son, and then the mother the second son, while all daughters are named by the mother.  In your case, following either system, your wife gets to name this child.  But there is a different approach. These systems were o

Menachem Mendel Bluming received this question this week: I have to admit, I am angry. I was brought up Jewish, attended a Jewish school, and have only known Judaism as my religion. Now I am told I have to convert, because my mother never formally became Jewish. Isn't it a little unfair that all my life I was more Jewish than my friends, was subjected to anti-Semitism, and then I am told I need to convert?  Here’s a thought: I completely understand your frustration. It can't be easy to hear that you need to convert to your own religion. But please don't take it personally. This is not a reflection on you. The entire Jewish nation went through exactly what you are going through now.  After leaving Egypt, where they suffered as slaves and were tormented for being Jewish, the Israelites reached Mount Sinai. There they were told they had to formally accept the Torah, and convert to Judaism by immersing in a mikvah.  They could've had the same complaint

Question posed to Rabbi Menachem Bluming this week: Many times in the Torah it says that we should not say or do something that is forbidden since that will make G-d very angry. What am I supposed to make of that? How can I respect a G-d who is on the edge of blowing up if we don't follow what He says? Here’s a thought: Imagine being married to a man who never gets angry. Ever. About anything. You insult him and he shrugs. You are rude to him and he is nice back to you. You give attention to others and he isn't the least bit jealous. Would that be a wonderful marriage? Well, on one level, yes, it would be fantastic. No tension, no issues, no arguments or fights or silent treatment. But in truth, it wouldn't be good at all. It wouldn't be a relationship. If he never gets upset at you, it means that you don't really matter to him. If nothing you do moves him, it means he doesn't care enough to be impacted by you.  Being in a relationship means affe

The Constitution provides for its own amendment by a supermajority of the Legislature and States, whereas the Torah is eternal and immutable. Many Jews in the U.S. conflate these two documents. They have developed a 'veneration' of the transcendence of the humanly conceived Constitution and concomitantly advanced the idea that the Torah is adaptable, whereas the reverse is true.  Irrespective of the debate about whether the Constitution is a 'living document' or to be understood from the perspective of 'original intent', the fact is that the Constitution is a utilitarian document which also itself legitimates change by amendment. The Torah on the other hand was given to us by an omniscient G-d – as familiar with the future as we are of the past or present - who stipulated numerous times that the Torah is applicable for all future time. Logic too supports this notion. Governmental systems and structures must necessarily adapt to societal change.