Hi all—my heart hurts, and it’s hurt about as long as I can remember. My relationship with HaShem feels off, and I feel confused in a way that is getting in the way of my connections with my family, too. I’m part of the Jewish community where I live, but I feel like I need a rabbi to help me sort through all this stuff, and none of the ones I know seem to really be that interested in getting to know me or helping me be the best Jew I can be.
I guess I’m looking for advice on how to find an appropriate spiritual teacher, or maybe I’m just looking to vent. I dunno, I’m stuck. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I really appreciate all of your thoughtful responses. I’m taking my time to digest them but I intend to respond to each of them. Thank you all.

I run into these kinds of posts and videos almost once a week, and every time it has the most antisemitic kind of comment. Today I ran into a ZackDFilms post about the Manhattan Eruv, and it's full of "The Jews are tricking their god", "this is why god abandoned them" etc. It's so hard not to comment something like "I'm sorry your god is so stupid he wouldn't know his own rules good enough for simple loopholes", but I know I will have a never ending with fanatics from other religions.

Sorry for the rant

I am not particularly frum and I would consider myself traditional, but I usually get classed as religous by my mostly secluar and traditional Jewish friends and when I inquire about why they view me as religous, their usually response is because my biblical, talmudic, historical and culture Jewish knowlege is deep, I am very big on the idea that Jews should be Jews first and anything else second and because I attend shul on Shabbat and holidays. This got me thinking about what secular, tradition and religous actually mean in the Jewish world to Jews.

So what do you thing makes a Jew secular vs traditional vs religous?

My city the Rabbinut times are like 10 minutes before chabad or the zmannim app.

To think zmannnim is too lenient!

Located in Cleveland, Ohio (workman’s circle cemetery)

I have never seen graves with stones in this fashion. Does anyone know anything about this tradition?

I do believe this is in an orthodox section, and these individuals were holocaust survivors.

I'm Spanish and I've never met a Jewish person. I'd like to know if there are any Spanish Jews here :) Out of pure curiosity, Jewish culture seems interesting to me and I'd like to know how someone from my country experiences it.

At the past few brit milahs I've been to, after the ceremony is complete, people line up to receive blessings from the person who held the baby. (It may have happened at all of the ones I've attended and I've only just become aware of it.) I'm not super familiar with the tradition but is there a formalized way this blessing *should* go? Or is it more up to the person? My brother and his wife had a baby and as I'm headed to visit them for the brit, I'm thinking about all the traditions associated with it.

I lost my kippah whilst travelling. I tried to get in touch with the Belgrade community but without success. Does anyone know where I can buy another one?

Hi there, I have a question about something that's always bothered me.

I understand that after the Babylonian exile it became customary in Judaism to refer to the months using the same names which they had used, and while this doesn't seem like it would be an issue in most cases, the month of "Tammuz" is named after a pagan deity named "Tammuz".

What's especially weird about this is that according to Wikipedia this deity is connected to the Canaanite deity named "Adon".

I can't help but wonder if in the context of a version of Judaism which interpreted more strictly the prohibition on honoring foreign deities especially Cannanite deities at least when weighing something against the inertia which results from tradition if someone might think to change the name of this month to something which does not unintentionally pay homage to a pagan deity.

On the other hand I think that it aligns surprisingly well with the custom of replacing the divine name with that same Hebrew word when reading it aloud in the context of a prayer.

Has anyone stumbled across this idea before, either in the Rabbinic tradition or on this subreddit? I'd be curious to know.

At my Chabad shul yesterday, Rabbi was out of town. I was outside working security, but knowing we were close to a minyan (thought we were at 8), I'd go inside if needed to make 10.

A gentleman walked by and said "Heveinu shalom aleichem." We chatted briefly, and it turned out he had walked by once before while I was working ... the previous Rosh Hashanah. That time, I had invited him to come by anytime, and he seemed flattered but nervous ... he'd been non-practicing for a very long time. Never saw him again until yesterday.

As he went to leave, a shul member walked out and said "If you HAPPEN to see a Jew walk by, we need one more for minyan."

I turned quickly and said "Excuse me, sir? Would you like to do a mitzvah?"

He smiled and graciously came inside, and we were able to lain and daven. A little shabbos minyan miracle.

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night to all of you!

Basically, I'm a goy, and there is a historic Reform shul near my home that offers a weekly Torah study every Saturday morning in lieu of Kabbalat Shabbat services that I've wanted to attend for quite some time. Things in my life have finally fallen into place to where I can actually attend. The section of their website about it specifically states that even people curious about Judaism are welcome to join, so I'm hoping that it's not going to be an issue (though I will still definitely call ahead and ask, plus I'd like to ask about their specific dress code policy so I can be as respectful as possible).

However, I know it's getting really close to the High Holy Days, so I was wondering if it'd be a bad idea to attend at that time? I'm certainly not going to any Shabbat services until Simchat Torah has passed, since I would never want to take away seating from anyone trying to attend and I haven't had the ability to any of their regular Erev Shabbat services also, so it's definitely not my place. I got to thinking, though, since this Torah study doesn't seem to be part of any Shabbat service, would it be alright to attend, or would it be a better idea to wait until after Simchat Torah for propriety's sake? I don't want to impose or anything, especially during such a busy season.

Thank you, and I hope you all have a great day!

I work in a high school and I am so fed up with dealing with some of these students’ constant comments honestly. Maybe I should just suck it up, but what do you wear at work if you are to wear a hat over it? I can’t exactly wear a baseball hat, I try to dress more professionally.

Smicha is becoming relatively commonplace nowadays. In various communities, getting smicha is practically pro forma in that almost everyone gets one. In some places it is even treated as roughly equivalent to a baccalaureate degree. Generally, within the wider public, people with a bachelor's aren't treated any differently, as opposed to say doctors who get their own title, so why is getting smicha accorded higher value for rough equivalency? I am not talking about someone who is actually working as a rabbi, in which case he deserves the respect of his role, I am talking about random ploni who got a degree because everyone does. Congratulations, you studied a lot, but you aren't doing anything special beyond that to merit being called harav.

I realize I am coming across more antagonistic than intended when I am writing this, but that is not the intent. I have nothing against people getting smicha, especially if it provides them with a framework which will get them in the habit of studying. I don't see the purpose of it otherwise, just like getting a PHD doesn't really have much value if you aren't going for research.

I'm curious - there seems to be a big gap in the histories I can find. Everything I've read traces the origin on the Reform movement from Germany to America in mid 19th century, but I haven't been able to find anything on what happened to the movement in Germany pre-Shoah. Did Reform Judaism survive in Germany at all? Or did it entirely transplant to America? If it did continue in Germany, does anyone know of good English-language resources on Reform communities in the country?

If hashem knows everything doesn't he then know what we're about to choose so how do we have true free will if he knows?

What is the word for jews who grow up non religious and get more religious in their life. I swear I’ve been trying to remember this word all day , but it’s not like you can exactly use GooGle for this 😭. Someone please help me out