“I’m afraid,†I told my doctor, “that I’ll get to remission from the cancer but still be suffering from chronic pain. How do I cope with that?”
The period between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur presents an opportunity to reflect on how the last year went and what we could do better in the year to come. In that spirit, I need to come clean: I’ve got an addiction problem … to social media. Sure, we all are hooked on Facebook and […]
I’m a Haggadah hoarder. Over the years, our family has collected dozens of different Haggadot for the Passover holiday. They range from the highly traditional to the decidedly modern. We have classic Haggadot with commentaries from the Me’am Lo’ez (originally written in Ladino by Rabbi Yaakov Culi in 1730), Rabbi Marcus Lehman of Mainz (late […]
The growing phenomenon of Orthodox Jewish teenagers keeping what’s been called “Half Shabbos†burst into the Jewish media several years ago. “Half Shabbos†describes someone who observes all of the Sabbath regulations except one: using his or her smart phone to send text messages. Religious leaders reacted predictably to the revelation of what had been […]
Three days before our daughter’s wedding, my wife Jody broke her toe. She dropped a large plata (a hot plate we use to warm food on Shabbat) on her foot. The toe turned purple and I rushed Jody to the nearest Terem emergency center for an X-ray and some advice on proper bandaging. After the […]