JVO Blog

Seeking God – and Losing Him

Posted on 09/05/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD ״ובקשתם משם את ה אלוקיך ומצאת כי תדרשנו בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך״ – דברים ד כט “From there you will seek God, your God, and you will find Him - if you seek Him with all your heart and with all...

“To Preserve, Perform and Fulfill” – Writing Your Living Torah

Posted on 08/18/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

BS”D “To Preserve, Perform and Fulfill” – Writing Your Living Torah Not all of us consider ourselves writers, but at countless times in our lives, all of us write. Sometimes we write...

Kvetching for a Cause: The Art of Selfishly Praying for Others

Posted on 05/27/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD “Heal me Hashem, and I will he healed; save me Hashem, and I will be saved, for You are my prayer.” - Jeremiah 17:14 ״רפאני ה׳ וארפא, הושיעני ואושעה, כי תהלתי אתה״ – ירמיהו יז:יד...

Counting Our Blessings as We Mourn

Posted on 05/02/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD Since the shooting last Shabbat, there has been much mourning among the Jewish people - mourning for the loss of the beloved Lori Kaye, may the memory of this Tzadeket (righteous woman) be for a...

The Seder’s Almost Here – Lets Be Prepared!

Posted on 04/17/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Holidays

B”SD The Sages teach us that the month of Nissan is a month where every day is Rosh Chodesh. It is a month of new beginnings – a month that not only marks the beginning of spring’s awakening...

Finding Simchat Adar in Sefer Vayikra

Posted on 04/05/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

In this happiest month of the Jewish calendar, the month of Adar (well, second Adar, to be specific), we begin the third book of the Torah - Vayikra, or Leviticus. The Sages tell us that “when we enter...

Dressing Like a Jew

Posted on 02/28/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD The Invisible Jew In a mix and match society like America, who must the invisible Jew imitate? The feudal system of Poland made it simple - we would like to blend in with the business class, the...

A Jew at the Rave?

Posted on 02/10/2019 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SD It’s a dark and stormy night. I get out of a car somewhere off a highway exit at the mouth of a national park. I’m accompanied by a man that would be considered, by most perfectly normal...

Confronting the Black Hebrew Israelites - Anti-Semitic Hate Group Disguising Itself as a Jewish Sect

Posted on 12/19/2018 by Jacob Schwartz in News & Updates

I remember that night about as clearly as the day I was kicked out of my first Yeshiva. I’ve always been fascinated by my terminally forgetful mind’s tendency to randomly commit to memory the most...

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Both, or Neither

Posted on 12/02/2018 by Jacob Schwartz in Beliefs and Practices

B”SDAnti-Zionism is not inherently anti-Semitic. If you don’t agree with that sentiment, you may want to open another tab right now. This article will address what I understand to be the nuanced...

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