To Kiss a Mezuzah's Top 10 Posts of 2011

By Susan Esther Barnes

For those of you who are new to this blog, and want to know what you have been missing, below is a list of the 10 most popular posts on To Kiss a Mezuzah in 2011, based on number of views:

1. My most popular post last year was the debut edition of Your Questions Answered, in which I answer questions which directed readers to the blog. One of the questions answered here, "Can a person eat pork and then kiss a Jewish person?" is one that keeps coming up.

2. Number two on the list is Suspended in Mid Air, about what it was like for me shortly after my father died, may his memory be a blessing.

3. In third place is The 613 Commandments - Do We Follow Them?. The short answer is that all Jews follow at least some of them, but don't let any Jew, no matter how "religious," fool you into thinking they follow all of them.

4. Discovering Meaning in Ritual took fourth place. If you don't think rituals have any meaning for you, I suggest you read this one, and then see what you think.

5. Clearly, when you have questions, you want answers. Taking the 5th spot is Your Questions Answered #2. There are a lot of great questions in this one, including more on kissing!

6. In 6th place is a post which I wish more people would read, especially those who are using this term: Why the Current Use of the Term "Torah Jew" is a Chilul Hashem.

7. Showing up for a third time in the top 10 (yes, I get the hint, and I will keep writing these), is Your Questions Answered #4. This one has a kissing question in it too, but it has some things about mourning and a couple of common Hebrew phrases.

8. Speaking of common phrases, in 8th place is Glossary for People New to Orthodox Blogs.

9. Another personal experience, Leading My First Shiva Minyan, made it to 9th place. I still remember how hot it was that day, and how much I wish I had taken off my blazer!

10. In 10th place is Rabbi Kanefsky and "...Shelo Asani Isha," about the traditional prayer in which men thank God for not making them a woman.

Honorable mention goes to a post I wrote in 2010, which is still so popular it actually came in as number 11 on the 2011 list, just one view short of the 10th place post. It is A Reform Jew Discussed on an Orthodox Blog Reflects. It seems to me a lot of people are interested in how Orthodox and Reform Jews get along - or dont - while, in my reality, it seems we don't often think about or interact with each other.