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Dear Rabbi, I do not follow the Jewish dietary laws nor do I celebrate any holidays. But my parents are Jewish and I have tried to live a good and decent life. Am I still a Jew?

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Jews have been the most successful ethnic group from 20th century onward. Is it because of the merit of Torah study and mitzvot? Are Jews successful because Jews study Torah and keep mitzvot?

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Rabbi, a Christian asked me what is the Hebrew word for "worship" and if we use the word. I only found, “Lisgod”, לסגוד. I don’t remember using this in any service. I told her "Baruch." What do you think? Todah

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A commentary in Friday's Wall Street Journal notes "every synagogue requires two to fulfill its religious duties." I did some research and see references to the "written" and "oral" Torah, but not sure about the requirement for two scrolls. Can you tell me if this is true, and if so, what are the requirements?   Thanks very much   Aaron  

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Gut Voch Rabbis. I had some disagreements with my Rabbi. For the last 2 Shabbatot, my Rabbi Boruch Hashem has given me aliyos, but they have been the shortest aliyos in each Parashah, including the very short aliya in Parashah Naso, the longest Parashah and a Parashah which has several lengthy aliyos. Why would my Rabbi give me the 2 shortest aliyos in 2 consecutive Parashas over 2 consecutive Shabbatot?

Question
Hello! To preface this, I must say that I myself am not Jewish. Rather, I am emailing you on behalf of my younger cousin, who is. I apologize if this isn't the kind of questions that you usually handle. My cousin, Hannah, is 10. Her mother was Jewish, while Hannah's father (my uncle) is not (he's agnostic, most of our family is agnostic or some denomination of Christian). However, Hannah's mother unfortunately died when she was quite young, leaving my uncle to raise her alone. Hannah has expressed that she feels estranged from her Jewish heritage, and very much wants to connect. Our family is fully supportive of this, but also at a bit of a loss on how to help her in this. She has no immediate Jewish relatives, and dropping her off at the nearest synagogue once a week alone makes her father uncomfortable. Would it be appropriate for him to accompany her? Another concern is her bat mitzvah. It is our understanding that a proper bat mitzvah involves a lot of planning on the parent's part, and a lot of studying for Hannah to prepare. Could you offer some insight into how we can best support her and help her reconnect with her culture (and possibly religion)? For reference, we live in Colorado in the U.S..