I saw a very large purple banner on Delancey Street, which is what brings me to you. I understood the banner to mean ask ANYTHING or does it mean just religion-related questions. Actually, I am having a sort of identity crisis whereby I need Judaism (but I was raised by a musician and we were not at all religious). In my quest, what comes to mind at the moment are the people I work with.. Long story short, I want to get out of there, but am over (much over) 40 and know the job market isn't even good for 20-year olds. Maybe some spiritual guidance is what I need. Sincerely, Helene (Hensaw) Laist

I am doing a leeson on the book of Esther ,and I have been told that Hathach is the prophet Daniel. Do you have anything that can comfirm this.

Dear Rabbi, I heard the name HASHEM anywhere and I thnik it is related with Jews or Muslims. Who is he or she please clear it to me. Thank you Samir

are we as gentiles required to tithe , what is the tenth in new testament times is it money or mint, cumnin, etc, or was that for the jews only why do we use malachi the third chapter for our key for tithing, the scripture says this whole nation of israel have robbed god. thank you for your response

Born to a Jewish mother, deriving from a distinguished Sefardic family, and a non-Jewish father, I was raised as a Jew in a way that could be described as "reformed" while these denominations do not officially exist in Germany where I live until today. At the age of 20 (I'm 30 now) I became deeply interested in Judaism, took an active part in the community, started to study Torah and learn to pray, attended services, travelled to Israel each year and attended Aish in Yerushalayim for a while etc. etc. As my Jewishness evolved so to say and put me in close contact with many conservative and orthodox Jews around the world, many of which became good friends, I always felt that carrying a non-Jewish family name made me different because everyone around me had a Jewish name. "Is this a Jewish name?", is a question that I have answered many times in my life during these past ten years. Also, when I started to do some research into the history of my maternal family I felt great pride and of course the desire to show that I am Jewish also through my name, the name of my Jewish ancestors. All these reasons and others influenced me when I decided to use the family name of my mother as a pseudonym when I became a writer and published books and articles etc. under this name. Now, another stage in my life is about to begin, which adds even more significance to the question of my family name as I was accepted into a rabbinical seminary here just some weeks ago where I will start to study soon: this is why I feel that the right moment has come to make a legal name change i.e. adopt the name my mother was born with. My wife shares this opinion and as my father passed away about three years ago the name change will not hurt him although I am quite sure that he would have understood my motivations anyway. Do you think that changing the name is the right step? Are there any halachic or historical considerations that you would like to share? Should a rabbi (or a future rabbi) not carry a Jewish family name to be accepted by community members anyway? Of course I know that many names are carried by both Jews and gentiles, however my name is so typically German that it would not be considered Jewish. Thank you very much indeed for your help.