Non Kosher

By mistake, I purchased something that is not kosher that contains both dairy and meat in the ingredients. If I return it for a refund, I will receive money, which is a benefit for me. Is that considered deriving forbidden benefit from dairy and meat?

There is a petting zoo near us that allows visitors to pet its pigs. Is that permitted in Jewish law?

I recently read that if a young child eats non-kosher food, even unknowingly, it can affect their spiritual development. We have a son who is 12 years old now. And he is already ‘off the derech.’ He has no interest in Judaism, no matter how hard we try to persuade him. He was expelled from two Jewish day schools that considered him a troublemaker. We now send him to a secular private school where he excels in secular subjects, but gets even more non-Jewish influence. We are not happy, but it is the only option we have because legally he has to go somewhere. We also tried homeschooling him and hiring a private rebbe, but that didn’t work. He has no desire to have a bar mitzvah. We hired a tutor, but he misbehaved so much, the tutor didn’t want to work with him. We are really frustrated and we get little sympathy in our community. Many people seem to think it is our moral failure as parents. He does not observe Shabbat. He spends time on Saturday using his electronic devices and getting rides from parents of non-Jewish friends. It is impossible to control him. We are very busy trying to raise all our other children with Torah values and can’t restrain him from this. When he was in preschool, we had him spend time with a relative who told us they were observant and kept strictly kosher. After that, we found out they were far from observant and they deceived us and gave him treif. We were so infuriated that we cut most of our ties to that relative. Our son does not remember the time he spent there. He was very young then. Do you think that could be the cause of his disinterest in Judaism?

I met a nice Jewish guy on a Jewish dating site and he and I very much want to get married. We love each other and both agree we are a perfect match. My parents think highly of him and his family and are hopeful we will get married. I am modern orthodox and he is not orthodox at all and has no desire to become orthodox, but he has a strong Jewish identity and some orthodox relatives he is close to. I am fine with that. I can accept him regardless of his level of observance. He is willing to move to the eruv area and let our home be kosher if we were to marry and send any kids we have to orthodox schools. The issue I am wondering about is he owns a well known non-kosher restaurant and his clientele is largely non-observant Jews. He also caters weddings and bar mitzvahs of non-orthodox Jews, some of them being intermarriages. If I were to marry him, I would benefit from the income he makes from his non-kosher business that is his livelihood. Is there a problem with me marrying him then? I don’t make enough money to sustain a household myself, and most of our income would come from his restaurant.

I became a DoorDash driver because I have to make money somehow. I don’t really have any other options. This job has flexible hours and allows me to take off for Shabbos and Yom Tov without a hassle. I didn’t think it would be a problem if I did it in areas of town without Jewish populations. But it’s happened to me a few times already that I’ve picked up food from a non-kosher restaurant, then delivered it to the home of someone with a name that doesn’t sound Jewish, only to find a mezuzah on their door. This is more common than I ever imagined. And I know I’m not supposed to help Jewish people eat treif.

Hi Rabbi, is it wrong for me to want to eat a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich? Thanks

What kind of fishes are prohibited according to the jewish dietary law?