I have been doing a lot of research on Joseph Smith and discovered he was well read in the ancient Jewish scripture called Cabala..In readings some of the diaries of his wives and close associates I was also shocked to see that he taught plural probation , a terminology used to indicate a soul evolves numerous times until it reaches a state of perfection. Further research revealed that this doctrine was also taught by the Essenes and Ebionites.Since Jesus was an Essene, I would think that he would have taught the same concept. I started reading the Kabbalah and try to discover the essence of their teachings.Please enlighten me.

I am a Jewish woman married, for the second time, to a non-Jewish man. We have been married for 20 years. He is a good, kind man whom I love very much. Most importantly, he is very good to my beloved son from my first marriage who, although he is now 32, still lives with us. My son has Asperger's, a mild form of autism. My wonderful father died suddenly one winter morning when I was twelve. He was a religious man. My mother is not. She always said she was "Jewish by appetite". I would like to be a good Jewish woman and follow the commandments. Can I do this and still be married to a non-Jew? He is very interested in everything Jewish and reads Jewish history. Sometimes I read him stories from a beautiful Bible that my father bought just before he died. I am trying to learn as much as I can on my own. Can I be a good Jewish woman and still be married to someone who is not Jewish? Thank you for answering my question. Please, do not print my name.

I just read the book, "Who wrote the Bible" by Richard Friedman. His thesis is that the first 5 books of the bible was not written by Moses. Indead, the old testament was not written by the claimed writers. He presents some compelling evidence and I tend to believe him. As a Christian for my 49 years when reading the Bible I always had it in the back of my mine that it just didn't seem right. It just didn't fit. For instance, when Moses was on the mountain receiving the commandants and the Isralites made the golden calf and worshiped it, why was Aaron not punished along with the others. Thanks for your time.

I have a question regarding intermarriage. I would like her perspective in this area. I read some of the questions that have been asked previously on this topic, but was still left unclear on the issue of intermarriage. My question is this: if intermarriage goes against what the Torah says, which I do not dispute, then why does halakah define any child born to a Jewish mother as being Jewish even if the father isn’t? As this website clearly mentions someone who is born Jewish cannot have this taken away from them, so how is it that intermarriage in the case (between a gentile man and Jewish woman) "guarantee," that their kids will not be Jews. Since guarantee means 100 percent of the time surely, there are times when there is a committed couple and it does work out for the parents and the kids. I also understand that divorce rates are high for intermarried couples, but they are also high for the population as a whole. Is this not more a reflection of t

Hello Rabbi until last night, the idea that life origenated by it self without any of Hashem's guidence seemed very unlikly, considering that only to rendomly assemble the proteins (enzymes) in a functioning bacterium, from already existing set of amino acids is a 1 in 10^40,000 chance (this is taken from "Origens: A Skeptics guide" by Robert Shapiro). However, my very good and skeptical friends, who would never pass a chance to argue, said that... he agrees with me that this is very unlikly however there is still, as small as it may be, a chance... and since the universe is endless (i agreed with him that the universe is endless), even the least likely things can occur. my question is- what do I tell a person who claimes this, and tries to disprove, like you have said: "that the existence of matter and its lawfulness is the result of God's design"? Thank you very much and Shabbat Shalom! ~Rani Shakh